Using SMF records to monitor requests

z/OS® Connect can be configured to write SMF 123 records, which capture information about individual API provider, API requester and administration requests. This data can be used for auditing, workload monitoring, capacity planning, and problem determination.

Started task Applies to z/OS Connect Servers run by using a z/OS started task procedure. Also applies to deployments in a z/OS container.

Monitoring API provider and API requester requests

SMF 123 records have two subtypes and each subtype can have different versions.

SMF type 123 subtype 1 records
  • Version 1 contains some basic information about both API provider and API requester requests.
  • Version 2 supersedes version 1 and contains more detailed information about each API provider request, including information about which system of record (SOR) the request was sent to. The version 2 record contains data for multiple requests in one record, making it more efficient as the server information is captured once per record rather than for each request.
SMF type 123 subtype 2 records
  • Version 2 supersedes subtype 1 version 1 and contains more detailed information about each API requester request, including information about what HTTP endpoint the request was sent to. The version 2 record contains data for multiple requests in one record, making it more efficient as the server information is captured once per record rather than for each request.
Important: SMF 123 subtype 1 version 2 and SMF 123 subtype 2 version 2 together are known as version 2 of the SMF 123 records. Version 2 records contain data for multiple requests in a single SMF record. Therefore, the record is only written when one of the following conditions is met:
  • The server processes the required number of requests to fill a record. Currently, this is 20.
  • The apiProviderMaxDelay or apiRequesterMaxDelay attributes are set and the maximum delay has expired before 20 requests have been processed.
  • The server is shut down.

z/OS Connect provides the audit interceptor to capture SMF 123 records. For zosConnect-2.0 see Configuring the audit interceptor and for zosConnect-3.0 see, Configuring the audit interceptor. By default the audit interceptor captures version 1 records. To enable version 2 records, you must specify the required attributes for API provider and API requester.

CAUTION:
SMF 123 version 2 records are not a compatible extension of the version 1 records. Therefore, before you select version 2 of the records, check that the tools you use to format SMF 123 records support the version 2 format.

Monitoring administration requests

The audit interceptor monitors all administration requests sent to z/OS Connect, including administration requests for APIs, services, and API requester resources.

Note: zosConnect-2.0 All administration requests are classified as API provider requests and are therefore written as SMF 123 subtype 1 records.