IBM Z Decision Support

IBM Z® Decision Support (previously called Tivoli® Decision Support for z/OS®) is an IBM® product that collects and analyzes data from CICS® and other IBM systems and products.

The reports generated by IBM Z Decision Support are useful for the following purposes:
  • Getting an overview of the system
  • Ensuring that service levels are maintained
  • Ensuring availability
  • Performance tuning
  • Capacity planning
  • Managing change and problems
  • Accounting

A large number of ready-made reports are available. You can also generate your own reports to meet specific needs.

In the reports, IBM Z Decision Support uses data from CICS monitoring and statistics. IBM Z Decision Support also collects data from the MVS system and from products such as RMF, TSO, IMS and NetView. This means that data from CICS and other systems can be shown together, or can be presented in separate reports.

Reports can be presented as plots, bar charts, pie charts, tower charts, histograms, surface charts, and other graphic formats. IBM Z Decision Support passes the data and formatting details to IBM Graphic Data Display Manager (GDDM) which does the rest. IBM Z Decision Support can also produce line graphs and histograms using character graphics where GDDM is not available, or the output device does not support graphics. For some reports, where you need the exact figures, numeric reports such as tables and matrices are more suitable.

Using IBM Z Decision Support to report on CICS performance

To understand performance data, you must first understand the work CICS performs at your installation. Analyze the work by its basic building blocks: transactions. Group the transactions into categories of similar resource or user requirements and describe each category's characteristics. Understand the work that CICS performs for each transaction and the volume of transactions expected during any given period. IBM Z Decision Support can show you various types of data for the transactions processed by CICS.

A service-level agreement for a CICS user group defines commitments in several areas of quantifiable CICS-related resources and services. CICS service commitments can belong to one of these areas:
  • Response times
  • Transaction counts
  • Exceptions and incidents
  • Availability

The following topics describe certain issues and concerns associated with systems management and how you can use the IBM Z Decision Support CICS performance feature.