About IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z Code Optimization Advice

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Learn about Z Code Optimization Advice, its features, and how it works.

What is Z Code Optimization Advice

Z Code Optimization Advice is a tool that provides detailed guidance on optimizing COBOL programs for the best performance on IBM z/OS. It can assist you in your modernization journey, help you optimize your existing code base, and ensure ongoing performance excellence for new code.

Z Code Optimization Advice empowers COBOL developers to enhance the quality and performance of code they are working on. It performs in-depth runtime analysis on mission-critical COBOL code, identifying performance inefficiencies and delivering prioritized actionable recommendations through the VS Code user interface.

Key features include:
  • 2.4+ Profile and analyze Enterprise COBOL 6 and Enterprise COBOL 4 applications and programs from VS Code
  • View analysis results in an intuitive and interactive report interface in VS Code
  • Identify performance inefficiencies prioritized by performance impact
  • Fix performance inefficiencies with tailored recommendations
  • Navigate directly to inefficient lines of code with source code linking
  • Display runtime and compiler options for your applications and programs

How does Z Code Optimization Advice work

There are two main components of Z Code Optimization Advice.
  1. The z/OS host (on-prem) component profiles and analyzes the programs running on IBM Z hardware to generate the report.
  2. The client-side VS Code extension displays the report data directly in the editor and links to the user’s source code.
Figure 1. Z Code Optimization Advice architecture
This image shows how all the components and inputs of Z Code Optimization Advice work together to generate optimization reports.

Generating your first optimization report

There are a few steps to get started with generating your first optimization report with Z Code Optimization Advice, shown in the following figure.
Figure 2. Getting started with using Z Code Optimization Advice
This workflow shows the roles of the administrator and the COBOL developer in setting up and using Z Code Optimization Advice.

It is important to configure the launcher JCL correctly. Refer to Generating an optimization report and Submitting a job with the Z Code Optimization Advice launcher for more information.

Open your optimization report by following the instructions at Viewing an optimization report. Then, follow the suggestions to correct performance problems by following the instructions at Comparing optimization reports. Compare results after making and running code changes by following the instructions at Comparing optimization reports.