What's New in IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS
The following enhancements are available in IBM® Z OMEGAMON® for CICS® 5.6.0.
FixPack 3, December 22, 2023
New Resource Types for Resource Limiting
- RUNTIME: This is for held tasks due to MXT or Class maximum, where you do not wish to include the time held in the resource limit. The task will be allowed to run for the time specified.
- CPUGP: This limits the task time on a general processor. It excludes time where the task was using CPU on a specialty processor.
- CPUQR: This is the time spent on the QR TCB. It excludes time on a specialty processor or an Open TCB. With only one QR TCB, it can be important that tasks not spend too much time occupying it.
CICS API Requester application monitoring via zCEE
IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS can now monitor CICS API Requester applications, with an enhancement that enables CICS applications to call RESTful APIs through z/OS Connect (zCEE). This provides workload measurement for Outbound API calls to zCEE. See also: Displaying Outbound API Request Metrics and CICSplex Outbound API Request summary attribute group.
New values for task displays
IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS now provides the CPU on General Purpose, CPU on specialty, and CPU eligible for specialty, as well as TCPIP Service and TCPIP Port if applicable. These values are provided for active tasks and in task history.
CICSplex transaction rate displayable per second or per minute
You can now view CICSplex transaction rates per minute (the default) or per second by setting the
Transaction Rate option. Use the Options command from All Active CICSplexes or CICSplex Regions
Summary and select how you would like the transaction rate to show. Add the following statement to
your profile (UKOBDATF) member to make the selection of seconds permanent: SET U_KCPTRANRATE
= SECONDS
See also: Viewing transaction rate per second or per minute.
FIND for Temporary Storage models
The find command has been updated to allow searching for Temporary Storage models based upon the TSQ prefix. This allows the user to search for models which may match specific queues.
Related PTF: PTF UJ94353
September 6, 2023
Program Tracking is now disabled by default. You can enable it permanently in the Global Data Area by setting the ENABLE parameter. For more information, see Determining the values for the monitoring options in IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS. Related APAR/PTF: APAR OA65155 / PTF UJ93507
May 31, 2023
The following updates are included in this release. Related APARs: OA64694, OA64869.
The Program Historical Summary now shows correct data after an OMEG RECYCLE was issued while the program was running.
The Task History program filter now allows task filtering by program, even if Program Tracking is not enabled. With program tracking disabled, you will only be able to search for the program ID that is in the transaction definition, not for other programs which the task may have used.
FixPack 2, February, 2023
The following new features are included in FixPack 2. Related APAR: OA64307.
Background Tasks: If you have tasks that are normally running in the background and do not need to appear in the workspaces used for routine monitoring, you can use the new CICS Background Tasks Summary workspace to create a list of such background tasks, specified by Transaction ID. These tasks will still be monitored, but they will not be shown in workspaces that show active tasks (for example, the CICS Task Summary workspace), output from the FIND command, and other workspaces that are used to monitor tasks and identify performance issues. For more information, see Specifying background tasks to remove from active task displays and CICSplex Background Task attribute group.
CP/SM CICS System Groups: OMEGAMON will now import any CP/SM CICS system groups which are configured. Users can then use the context command to see the monitored regions which are part of the group. They can then use the find command to search for resources in the selected group of regions. For more information, see Using CP/SM CICS System Groups.
TRUE Monitoring: You can now monitor activity generated by Task Related User Exits. This feature collects usage information about each Task Related User Exit (TRUE) program which the task has invoked via an application request or for syncpoint processing. This will collect the count and elapsed time each exit is in control. For more information, see Enabling Task Related User Exit (TRUE) monitoring.
FINDing the TCP/IP Service Port: You can now search across a CICSplex or group of regions for Port used by a region's TCP/IP service. The PORT resource type is now searchable with the FIND command. For more information, see The FIND command.
October, 2022
Correlating CICS tasks and Db2 threads. The CICS Task History Detail panel now lets you correlate CICS task history with Db2 thread history. You can navigate directly between the CICS Task History Detail panel and the Db2 Thread History Detail panel in IBM OMEGAMON for Db2 Performance Expert. This makes it much easier to identify which historical Db2 thread was associated with a CICS task that was hung or running slowly. Without this enhancement, it was possible to correlate CICS tasks and Db2 threads while they were running, but it was difficult once they had been cancelled or had finished processing. Navigating between CICS task history and Db2 thread history.
The FIND command lets you search for the LogonID resource type. This lets you
find user IDs currently logged onto the CICS region. The FIND command now also supports searching
for BUNDLE resources. Additionally, FIND supports searching for PORTs, returning the PORT number
that is being used by the CICS region's TCP/IP service, for example, 12345,321*
You can use the single-character question mark (?) generic mask or wildcard in the FIND command and in task history searches.
You can search across a CICSplex or group of regions for bundles defined to CICS based upon the bundle directory.
You can search task history for both the real and umbrella Transaction IDs. The original CICS Transaction ID is also now displayed for Task History if an umbrella Transaction ID is provided. The original Transaction ID and the umbrella Transaction ID are now used for included or excluded transaction filters.
Related PTF: UJ09255
June, 2022
Program Tracking adds a powerful new diagnostic to IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS. Previously, you could see resource usage data for all transactions in a CICS region, and all CICS programs installed in a region, but it was not possible to see a list of the programs used, by region and by task, with the resource usage for each program. Program Tracking lets you do this.
At the CICS region level, a new tab on the Program Summary panel allows you to see a list of all CICS programs that have been used in a region, with usage statistics for each, including CPU time (total and average used per invocation), number of abends, number of mode switches, and other useful metrics:
For more information, see Viewing all CICS programs used in a CICS region.
- Programs used by a given task
- Tasks that have used a given program
For more information, see Viewing all CICS programs used by a task.
You can also look at it the other way, by viewing all tasks that have used a given CICS program. The Task History Filters workspace now lets you specify the program name as one of the inclusion criteria in a Task History filter. Once you have done this, the CICSplex Task History panel will display only the tasks that have used that program:
For more detail, see Viewing all tasks that have used a CICS program.
Program Tracking helps you quickly identify poorly performing CICS programs and the transactions that use them.
For step-by-step detail on how to use Program Tracking, see Using Program Tracking to identify CICS programs used by tasks.
Also in IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS 5.6.0
IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS 5.6.0 includes several other significant enhancements:
- Resource limiting resolution for CPU has been increased, to allow transaction limits to be set in millisecond increments. This lets you take action much sooner, to prevent tasks from impacting the region.
- Finding resources within a group of regions is now much more intuitive. The new FIND command menu provides a drop-down list of resources to search for, together with related help for each resource type. FIND is now extended to CICS temporary storage and transient data queues.
- New CICS policy statistics are available. For customers using policies within CICS to take actions on applications, IBM Z OMEGAMON for CICS will now show statistics relating to the use of those policies.
- CICS Transaction Gateway Memory statistics are now available. This allows users to monitor their CICS Transaction Gateway Daemon for problems related to memory usage.