What's new in IBM Instana Observability on z/OS

The latest available service

Download the Instana Observability on z/OS latest service. Depending on the platform you are using, download the available fixes for both host and distributed machines from:

• IBM Fix Central for x86
• IBM Fix Central for s390x

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 7

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 7 in July 2024, the following transaction tracking flows are supported and new changes are enabled:

• IMS-related translation flows:
  • Added support for tracing of IMS-MQ Bridge transactions using IMS Fast Path to Db2, IMS DB and FP DEDB and MSDB Databases. To use this feature, you also need to ensure the corresponding PTF UJ95620 (APAR OA66562) is installed.
• CICS-related transaction flows:
  • Added support for continued tracing of transactions to downstream (distributed) applications monitored by other Instana agents when the transactions enter CICS Transaction Server for z/OS through IBM MQ for z/OS. To use this feature, you also need to ensure the corresponding PTF UJ95620 (APAR OA66562) is installed. For more information about the configuration, see Tracking CICS to MQ to an Instana monitored application.
• Updated CICS DTP support to mitigate incorrect linking in a complete business transaction.
• Security updates for images and their dependencies
  • Updated Universal Base Images (UBI) used in Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway, including build dependencies for enhanced security.
  • Updated Debian Base Images used in Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway, including build dependencies for enhanced security.
• Fixed a bug where the certificate used for authentication with an Instana server was mounted incorrectly, resulting in instana-exporter containers restarting.

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 6

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 6 in April 2024, the following new changes are enabled.

• Added support to enable internal Kafka TLS for encryption and two-way authentication in the DG Cluster deployment
  • Updated the Helm Chart to include the new internal Kafka TLS fields in values.yaml and template YAML files.
  • Updated the Kubernetes manifest YAML files to include the new internal Kafka TLS fields.
• Added additional support for CICS long running transaction consuming MQ messages (using MQGET) to generate tracing spans immediately after the first SYNCPOINT. For example, for the flow: MQGET-> Call downstream CICS transaction/program->MQPUT->SYNCPOINT. To use this feature, you also need to ensure the corresponding PTF (APAR OA66309) is installed. For more information about the configuration, see Configuring Z APM Connect CICS TS Data Producer for Long Running CICS transaction.
• Security updates for images and their dependencies
  • Updated Universal Base Images (UBI) used in Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway, including build dependencies for enhanced security.
• Updated Zookeeper binary version within Kafka.
• Fixed Instana UI issues to ensure proper linking between services using IMS TMRA (IMS Transaction Manager Resource Adapter).

Instana Build 270

With the release of Instana Build 270 in April 2024, the support for tracing WebSphere® Application Server on z/OS or WebSphere® Liberty on z/OS is available and adds the tracing support for the following transactions:

• Webservices HTTP(S) calls from WAS or Liberty Java application into CICS
• JDBC calls from WAS or Liberty on z/OS to Db2 for z/OS

To enable the tracing support, see Tracing WAS/Liberty on z/OS.

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 5

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 5 in January 2024, the following new changes are enabled.

• Added IMS Transaction Manager resource adapter (IMS TMRA) support. The new support allows you to track IMS transactions that flow from a WebSphere Application Server (WAS) instrumented by Instana to connect to IMS Transaction Manager (IMS TM) via IMS TMRA. For more information about the new support, see Optional IMS TM resource adapter support.
• Updated the Instana Exporter to report IMS Connect using the RPC protocol.
• Enabled Redis Database password authentication to Z APM Connect Redis image. For more information about the configuration, see Pre-deployment configuration.
• Updated Universal Base Images (UBI) used in Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway, including build dependencies for enhanced security.
• Fixed a bug in the SMF Db2 flow that caused the duration of the SMF record to be ten times less than intended if the duration was higher than one second.

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 4

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 4 in November 2023, the following new changes are enabled.

• Enhanced CICS DTP processing
• Security updates for images and their dependencies
  • Updated Universal Base Images (UBI) used in Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway, including build dependencies for enhanced security
  • Updated Kafka and Redis build dependencies for enhanced security
  • Updated Kafka image version to 3.5.1
  • Updated Redis image version to 6.2.13
• Configuration updates
  • Updated Helm template in Cluster deployment to set REMOVE_SEQUENCE_NUM to true by default
• Fixed a bug in the Standalone deployment when configuring Kafka TLS

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 3

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 3 in August 2023, the following new changes are enabled.

Added:

• Support for deploying the Cluster Distributed Gateway on zLinux‑s390x based architectures. Current support is for RHEL 8 distributions on s390x only.
• Support for linking Z APM Connect transaction trace details for Db2 via CICS transactions to ODP (OMEGAMON Data Provider) based infrastructure dashboards in Instana.
• Support for linking Z APM Connect transaction trace details for Db2 via JDBC transactions to ODP (OMEGAMON Data Provider) based infrastructure dashboards in Instana. (Requires PTF/APAR UJ93393/OA65201)

Updated:

• Updated Db2 Instana tags received via Common Data Provider.
• Removed Zookeeper as an image dependency in both Standalone and Cluster DG
• Enabled KRaft as the replacement for Zookeeper dependency in Kafka

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 2

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 2 in June 2023, the following new changes are enabled.

• Updated Universal Base Images (UBI) used in Z APM Connect Base
• Updated Kafka image to version 3.4.1
• Updated Redis image to version 6.2.10
• Updated Apache Log4j logging library
• Updated Kafka, Redis, and Zookeeper build dependencies for enhanced security

Z APM Connect 6.1.1 Fix Pack 1

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1.1 Fix Pack 1 and PTF UJ09535 in November 2022, the following new features are enabled.

• Tracking CICS® transactions invoked via a CICS Transaction Gateway
  This fix pack adds support for tracking performance and availability of CICS Transactions that are invoked via a CICS Transaction Gateway using Instana. To use this feature, you also need to ensure the corresponding PTF (UJ09535: APAR OA63880) is installed. For more information about how Z APM Connect provides support for tracking CICS Transaction Gateway, see Z APM Connect request monitoring exits for CICS TG and Enabling support for tracking CICS Transaction Gateway.

• Support for reporting transaction flows into Db2 for z/OS via JDBC to Instana
  This fix pack adds the ability to track transaction flows directly into Db2 for z/OS via Type 4 JDBC calls. You are able to see the wait times, locks and delays that are occurring within Db2 for z/OS, including connection and SQL issues. For more information about how Z APM Connect provides support for tracking transaction flows into Db2 for z/OS via JDBC, see Z Common Data Provider for tracking flows into Db2 for z/OS via JDBC and Tracking flows into Db2 for z/OS via JDBC.

Instana Build 235

With the release of Instana Build 235 on 22 September 2022, IBM OMEGAMON Instana Integration Proxy 1.2.0 is available and adds the support for the following metrics:

• MQ on z/OS
• JVM

For more information, see Integrating with IBM OMEGAMON

Z APM Connect 6.1.0 Fix Pack 17

With the release of IBM Z Application Performance Management Connect V6.1 Fix Pack 17 in July 2022, the following features are added:

• Support for reporting MQ to CICS transaction flows to Instana
  Added support for reporting outbound CICS calls from MQ in Instana. This feature allows for continued tracking of an MQ transaction to downstream CICS regions. To use this feature, you are required to use PTF/APAR UJ08777/OA63410.

• Support for reporting MQ to IMS transaction flows to Instana
  Added support for reporting outbound IMS calls from MQ in Instana. This feature allows for continued tracking of an MQ transaction to downstream IMS regions. To use this feature, you are required to use PTF/APAR UJ08552/OA62827.

For more information, see Installing Z APM Connect Components.

Instana Build 227

With Instana Build 227 that is released on 14 June 2022, you can integrate Instana with IBM Z OMEGAMON Data Provider by using the proxy sensor and get key infrastructure monitoring metrics sourced from OMEGAMON agents for z/OS, CICS, and Db2 on z/OS. For more information, see Integrating with IBM OMEGAMON.

• Performance and availability tracing of transactions when they flow from HTTP calls to CICS Transaction Server
• Performance and availability tracing of transactions when they flow from z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition calls to CICS Transaction Server
• Performance and availability tracing of transactions when they flow from z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition calls to IMS Connect
• z/OS infrastructure monitoring
• Automated dependency mapping
• Automated extension of application dependency maps with supported IBM Z transactional data
• Automated event correlation
• Anomaly detection with seasonality
• Smart alerting
• Custom dashboarding
• Slice-and-dice ad hoc analytics