An ISPF-based log browser shows all log records in a single, consistent interface. You can browse summarized records from multiple logs merged in time sequence, then view all fields of a single record and target details of a single field. Users familiar with the ISPF editor will quickly be familiar with the ISPF-based log browser. Scroll, find text strings, bookmark records, navigate by log record time stamps, filter records based on field values and create extracts from original logs.

You can generate various batch reports that are designed to help solve common transaction analysis issues. For example, combined CICS-DBCTL transaction analysis reports can help determine whether long response time are caused by problems in IBM CICS® or IBM IMS™.

Connect and understand events of logs from transactions that span subsystems. In the ISPF log browser, enter TX next to any log record. The browser displays the records related to the same transaction and hides other records. It tracks the transaction across available logs to provide you with a cross-subsystem timeline of events, and highlights delays often not apparent in subsystem-specific tools. Tracking can also help developers understand the behavior and interrelationships of systems.

You can run IBM® Transaction Analysis Workbench for z/OS® batch jobs that forward log data to off-host analytics platforms such as the Elastic Stack or Splunk. View your log data in Kibana or Splunk dashboards that complement on-host analysis.

IBM Transaction Analysis Workbench offers an optional framework for analyzing problems in sessions. A session encapsulates information about a problem and its analysis. It includes the time period, systems involved and corresponding log files. If you create a session, other users can share that session, rather than creating their own. You can also tag log records of interest and add notes to the history of a session to help other users resume work on a session that you created.

A consistent user interface for all log records helps make it easy to extend analysis skills into unfamiliar log types and subsystems. Learn to use the log browser to analyze log records from subsystems that are familiar to you, then reuse those skills to analyze other record types.

When creating a session for a problem, you can optionally select a session template that describes a workflow. A workflow is a sequence of tasks for analyzing a problem. Each task can be either a written instruction or JCL for a batch job. Experts can develop workflows to help other users, such as help desk staff, begin to analyze a problem or, at least, select the log files necessary for analysis, rather than immediately assigning the problem to an expert.

Automated file selection eliminates the tedious process of manually locating the log data required for analysis. You specify a time period and the systems that you are interested in and IBM Transaction Analysis Workbench locates the corresponding log files and attaches them to your problem session.