What's new in OMEGAMON AI for CICS

The following enhancements are available in IBM Z OMEGAMON AI for CICS 6.1.0.

FixPack 2, October 20, 2025

Allocating Large Task History Files across multiple volumes: You can now allocate large task history files across multiple volumes using an extended VSAM data set. Specify the file size in MB, GB, or cylinders via the PARM value in the KC2HISFM JCL job. The system formats and extends the file until it meets the requested size or reaches its limit.; Use the sample JCL in the TKANSAM library (KC2HISFM) to format a multi-volume task history file. For more information, see Allocating a large Task History file across multiple volumes.
Improved Context Query Search: In large monitoring environments with numerous CICS regions, the Context Selection panel now loads faster due to enhanced performance.
Quickly navigate in E3270UI by overtyping CICSPlex and Region name: You can now overtype the CICSPlex and Region fields in the Task History (KCPTASH) workspace to quickly navigate to history data for other CICS regions.
Viewing maximum, available, and active values for ISC connections in E3270 UI: The Enhanced 3270UI now displays Max, Available, and Active session counts from CEMT I MODE directly in the ISC Connections Detail workspace. The Local Max Sess Defined, Number of Sess Negotiated, and Number of Active Sessions fields are added to ISC Connections Statistics panel for providing the information about maximum, available, and active values. For more information, see CICSplex Connection Analysis attribute group.
Detailed Resource Limiting Messages: You can now view detailed Resource Limiting messages that provide an overview of the resource for which the limit was exceeded, along with the Transaction ID, Task number, User ID, the exceeded limit, and the current value.; Use the RESOURCE_LIMITING=AUTO,DETAIL option in the Startup Controls in the Global Data Area to view detailed messages when resource limits are exceeded. For more information, see Startup Controls.
Detailed Information on Resource Limiting for Transaction IDs: You can now view the current Resource Limits in effect for a task or a transaction ID. To access this information, press Enter on the Resource Limits field for a task, or use the L action from the transaction summary panel.
VSAM file detail option is disabled by default: To optimize resource usage, the VSAM file detail option is now disabled by default. You can enable it from the Global Data Area when needed.

Related APAR: OA68052 (October 2025)

FixPack 1, March 7, 2025

Current Average Response Time for CICS Regions and CICSplexes

Average Response Time was available in the CICSplex Performance Summary at the CICSplex level but provided data only for the completed intervals. Any changes in activity were not immediately available. With the new feature enhancement, Average Response Time column in the CICS Region Summary and All Active CICSplexes workspace shows the average response time calculated for the transactions which have been recently completed allowing more rapid detection of changes.

The details of the average response time can be viewed in the CICS transactions today workspace by zooming at a value in the Average Response Time column in the CICS Regions. You can view the Transaction Count, Transaction Rate, Response Time metric and bar graph for the last 24 hours. For more information, see Viewing average response time at the CICS region and CICSplex level.

Improved Context command allowing greater navigation

Context command selection is now available on the All Active CICSplexes screen using the C Context Selection option. A new workspace lists the context to select from the available CICSplex, LPAR, USERGRP, and CSYSGRP types. Once you specify the context, the list of online regions is displayed. You can further use the following available options to view:

H Context Task History
S Context Region Summary
T Task Summary

For more information, see Using CONTEXT to change the scope of the FIND command.

Viewing summary of Transaction Waits

In the Region Task Summary workspace, a new Transaction Waits tab is added to view the details of the wait types/reasons for transactions. Active tasks are grouped by the Transaction ID along with details such as Total, Average CPU Time, Average Elapsed Time and many other wait types. For more information, see CICSplex Waiting Task Analysis attribute group.

Viewing full value for long SIT parameters

You can view SIT parameters values for the available CICS Resources using the L CICS System Initialization option. In CICS System Initialization table view, you can view the SIT parameter names, description, and values. You can place the cursor on the zoomable values in the Value column to view the full details of the SIT parameters in the newly introduced KCPSITP panel. For more information, see Viewing SIT values in the System Initialization Table (SIT).

OMEGAMON CICS Global options information

In the CICS Control Functions panel, a new option G CICS Global Options is added to view the details of various global options such as Global Name with dataset, Resource Limiting, Application Trace, Online Data Viewing, and several other CICS Global options. You can place the cursor on the zoomable fields to navigate to those specific CICS control functions. For more information, see CICSplex Global Options attribute group.

Enabling OMEGAMON in a CP/SM CMAS region

OMEGAMON can now be initialized in a CP/SM CMAS region to monitor tasks, collect near-term history, and trace details. However, OMEGAMON monitoring agent cannot be used for Resource Limiting, Kill functions, and other Take Action commands except for the ONDV and trace controls.

Renewed Java certificate

Renewed Java certificate is now available in the IBM Z OMEGAMON AI for CICS V6.1.0 FixPack 1.

Related APAR: OA67569 (March 2025)

Version 6.1.0, November 22, 2024

Support for IBM Z OMEGAMON AI Insights 2.1: IBM Z OMEGAMON AI for CICS integrates with IBM Z OMEGAMON AI Insights, a diagnostic tool that helps deliver actionable data, analyses, and alerts, enabling real-time monitoring and helps you proactively manage performance on your site's CICS environments. OMEGAMON AI Insights is deployed as a Docker container. See Installing OMEGAMON AI Insights.; OMEGAMON AI Insights uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze the behavior of your z/OS applications and components. It provides comprehensive insights on aspects such as response time goal for a service class, the number of completed transactions for an interval, the average response time, and the percent-of-goal information for the service class during the interval. The tool monitors and alerts on performance issues, such as excess MSU consumption and drills down into the root causes contributing to anomalies. Historical data is used to build and update forecast models. See, OMEGAMON AI Insights Overview.; Once trained, OMEGAMON AI Insights becomes proficient at identifying typical patterns. These discerned patterns are then presented through dashboards on Elastic Kibana. You can easily detect abnormal behavior and promptly troubleshoot by drilling down for more detail. See, OMEGAMON AI for CICS space.
Task History support for Extended VSAM datasets (>4 GB): Task History now supports Extended Linear datasets, allowing the maximum size to exceed 4 GB. The maximum size now supported is 16 TB.; With this change, the amount of data that can be stored has increased significantly. This helps in providing a greater time range available for viewing the task history related information.; For more information, see Configuring task history data.
Bookmarking of selected workspaces: You can now bookmark some of the OMEGAMON workspaces. This allows you to navigate quickly to the frequently used workspaces. You can save the bookmarks for use on subsequent logons.; A panelid that is suffixed with (B) can be used for bookmarking. To create a bookmark, enter the BOOK command in the command area and follow the instructions.; To view your bookmarks, from the View dropdown select User Bookmarks or enter the V.U command in the command area.; For more information, see Bookmarking workspaces.
Reduced CPU footprint: OMEGAMON AI for CICS now has zIIP-enabled Task History collection and data retrieval processing, and SLA data collection. Also, there is significant code-path reduction when building the monitoring data. This helps to save charged CPU usage and an overall reduction in the CPU footprint.
RLIM command simultaneously across multiple regions: Dynamic changes are often made in large number of CICS regions to limit resources or exclude transactions and requires spending considerable amount of time. You can now administer multiple CICS regions through a single interaction using this new Resource Limiting capability.; The MULTI Region option is now available for you to process each request type by setting the value as Yes for a select group of CICS regions.; You can select the regions by specifying the CONTEXT type such as CICSPLEX, LPAR, USERGRP or CSYSGRP and then providing the SCOPE within the CONTEXT. For example, you can select the CONTEXT type as CICSPLEX and then specify the SCOPE as OMEGPLEX.; For more information, see Enabling and disabling Resource Limiting for multiple CICS regions.
Previous task and original task data: OMEGAMON Task and Task history displays will now show data related to the original task in the CICS environment as well as the prior task or prior hop, if they are not the current task.; This data can be useful to determine the component parts of a complex CICS transaction. These tasks may or may not be a part of the current CICSplex.; You can use the links that are available to view the Original and Previous Task details from within the same region or Previous Hop data from another CICS region.; For more information, see Viewing Original and Previous Task History data.
New display for task time values: OMEGAMON AI for CICS collects a lot of Task time values, but it can be difficult to determine which of these values are the most important.; Starting with version 6.1, the task time values are shown in a new display where the task timings are separated into WAIT times, that contribute to task delays, and ACTIVE times which accumulate while the task is dispatched. The DETAILED view provides all the time values in a detailed format. You can use these new task time displays to immediately see where a task spent its time.; The displays show the times with a microsecond resolution and period count (the number of times the clock was started). It also shows a bar graph that represents the time as a percentage of the response time.; For more information, see Viewing task times in enhanced display.
Program tracking contains the total Getmains by a program: Program Tracking now collects data related to all the Getmains requests for a program in the USER storage below or above the 16 MB line. This does not account for the Freemains requests.; The storage might be released during the life of the program. A program with a high storage value might not contribute to a short-on-storage condition.; This information is useful to identify a program that makes a lot of Getmains requests.; For more information, see Viewing all CICS programs used by a task.
Task History can be paused: You can now pause and resume Task History collection, allowing display of previously collected Task History.; You can use the Global option to start the Task History in a paused state and view a dataset for any existing collection. You cannot view the Task History for a dataspace as there is no prior data to display.
Umbrella summary display for Task History: The Umbrella summary display provides information related to the Umbrella data values for a task. You can use the summary display to view the Umbrella data that contains important application-related data which might be useful in determining the task function.; To access the display, type UMBRELLA on the Task History Summary workspace.; For more information, see Viewing Umbrella data in Task History Summary.
Standard started message: Each OMEGAMON started task now displays a single WTO message that can be used for automation and appears in the JESMSGLG/JESYSMSG for the component's started task.; OMEGAMON AI for CICS displays the message in the CICS monitoring agent, CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) Monitoring Agent, OMEGAMON CICS Classic, or a CICS region.; An example of the message for a started task would be:; KCPAG1000I IBM Z OMEGAMON AI for CICS (5698-T11) Monitoring Agent V06.10.00 started.