Monitoring programs in multiple CICS systems

This example uses the WUI to shows how to monitor the activity of a set of programs (programs whose names begin with the letters PAY) as they are used in a group of CICS® systems (AORs CICSPA01, CICSPA02, and CICSPA03) in CICSplex PLXPROD1.

In this example, the monitoring is to be regular: that is, it will be activated, for each CICS system, from 0800 hours to 1700 hours. CICS systems CICSPA01 and CICSPA03 are running. For none of the three CICS systems is monitoring currently switched on.
  1. Create a CICS system group.
    1. From the WUI main menu, click Administration views > Topology administration views > System groups to open the System group definitions tabular view.
    2. If the current context is not PLXPROD1, specify PLXPROD1 in the Context field and click Refresh.
    3. Click the Create... button and type in the following information:
      System group name
      CSGAORS1
      Description
      AORs PA01, PA02, PA03
    4. Click Yes to confirm. The System group definitions tabular view is redisplayed and includes an entry for CSGAORS1.
  2. Add CICS systems to the CICS system group.
    1. Click Administration views > Topology administration views > System definitions to open the CICS system definitions tabular view.
    2. Select the entries for CICSPA01, CICSPA02 and CICSPA03 and click Add to CICS system group.
    3. In the Group which member will join field, type in CSGAORS1 and click the Yes to 3 remaining button to add all three systems to the group.
  3. Create a time period definition.
    Create a time period definition.
    1. From the main menu, click Administration views > Topology administration views > Time periods to open the Time period definitions tabular view.
    2. Click the Create button and type in the following information:
      Name
      PDFPRIME
      Description
      Prime shift
      Start time
      08:00
      End time
      17:00
      Time zone
      A
      Time zone adjustment factor
      0
    3. Click Yes to confirm. The Time period definitions tabular view is redisplayed and includes an entry for PDFPRIME.
  4. Create a monitor definition.
    1. From the main menu, click Administration views > Monitor administration views > Definitions to open the Monitor definitions tabular view showing any monitor definitions already created in CICSplex PLXPROD1
    2. Click the Create button at the bottom of the screen.
      Note: If you want to use an existing definition as a template, select a definition from the list first.
    3. Provide the following information:
      Name
      MODPAY02
      Description
      Programs PAY*
      Name or generic name of resource being monitored
      PAY*
      Monitoring resource class
      MPROG
      Inclusion in CPSM monitoring option
      YES
      Resource status facility population
      NO
    4. Click Yes to confirm. The Monitor definitions tabular view is redisplayed showing an entry for the monitor definition MODPAY02.
  5. Create a monitor group.
    1. From the main menu, click Administration views > Monitor administration views > Groups to open the Monitor group definitions tabular view showing any monitor definitions already created in CICSplex PLXPROD1
    2. Click the Create button and type in the following:
      Monitor group name
      MOGPAY01
      Description
      Payroll resources
    3. Click Yes to confirm. The Monitor group definitions tabular view is redisplayed and includes an entry for MOGPAY01.
  6. Add the monitor definition to a monitor group.
    Because you want the monitor definition MODPAY01 to be installed automatically whenever any of the CICS systems in group CSGAORS1 starts, you must add MODPAY01 to a monitor group.
    1. Open the Monitor definitions tabular view, select the entry for MODPAY02 and click the Add to Monitor group... button.
    2. In the Resource group name field, type MOGPAY01. In the Period Definition name field, type PDFPRIME (the name of the time-period definition you created in step 3).
    3. Click Yes to confirm.
  7. Add the monitor group to a monitor specification.
    1. Open the Monitor group definitions screen, select the entry for MOGPAY01, and click the Add to Monitor specification... button.
    2. In the Specification name field, type in MOSPAY01.
    3. Click Yes to confirm.

    You'll notice that the monitor specification MOSPAY01 is the one you created in the previous example (Monitoring transaction response times). Instead of creating a new monitor specification for this example, you can reuse an existing specification. (This is important, because a CICS system or CICS system group can be associated with only one monitor specification at a time.) However, you still need to update monitor specification MOSPAY01.

  8. Update the monitor specification.
    1. From the main menu, click Administration views > Monitor administration views > Specifications to open the Monitor specifications tabular view.
    2. Select the entry for MOSPAY01 and click the Update... button.
    3. In the Sample interval for program monitoring field, type in a value of 300. Programs are to be sampled every 300 seconds. Leave the other fields unchanged. You do not have to alter the transaction sample interval, because it takes effect only when a monitor definition, identifying which transactions are to be monitored, is installed in a CICS system. If no such definition is installed, no monitoring of transactions occurs.
    4. Click Yes to confirm. The Monitor specifications tabular view is redisplayed.
  9. Associate the monitor specification with the CICS system group.
    1. In the Monitor specifications tabular view, select the entry for MOSPAY01, and click the Associate CICS group... button.
    2. Type in CSGAORS1 in the CICS system group field and select the FORCE option. (The option value FORCE means that all CICS systems in the group CSGAORS will use this monitor specification.)
    3. Click Yes to confirm.
  10. Switch CICSPlex® SM monitoring on in the CICS systems.
    1. From the WUI main menu, click Administration views > Topology administration views > System definitions to open the CICS system definitions view showing CICS systems in CICSplex PLXPROD1.
    2. Select the entries for CICSPA01, CICSPA02 and CICSPA03 and click the Update... button. This opens a detailed view for system CICSPA01.
    3. Scroll down to the Monitoring status field and change the value to YES.
    4. Click the button Yes to 3 remaining button to change the monitoring status of all three systems to YES.
    Any change you make to the CICS system definitions with the CICS system definitions view takes effect when those CICS systems are next started. However, CICS systems CICSPA01 and CICSPA03 are currently running. To switch monitoring on for those systems immediately, you must also update their definitions with the MASs known to CICSplex view. (How to do this is shown in the previous example, in step 5).
    Note: when you switch monitoring on using the MASs known to CICSplex view, it remains on until the CICS system stops or until you switch monitoring off. The time-period definition PDFPRIME has no effect.
  11. Look at the monitor data.

    You can look at the data that CICSPlex SM is gathering by looking at the Program monitoring views. From the main menu, click Monitoring views > Program monitoring views > Monitor data for programs and clicking on the entry for PAY* . This opens a view showing detailed information (such as usage counts and average fetch times), about programs PAY* in CICS system group CSGAORS1. Whenever you click Refresh, the data in the view is redisplayed. However the frequency with which the data changes is dictated by the resource sample interval. In this example, the data changes at most every five minutes.