What's new in V1.5.0

IBM® Service Management Suite for z/OS® V1.5.0 provides various new automation and performance management features and components, including the IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.5 customizable dashboard interface.

The following new functions and features are available with version 1.5.0 of the suite. For details on installing these updates, refer to Upgrading from version 1.4.2 or Installing component products.

This topic contains the new functions and features of the following items:
IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.5
IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.5 provides the following key new features:
  • Added 'Storage Overview', 'Storage Group Details', and 'Volume Details' dashboards to monitor the storage metrics based on OMEGAMON for Storage.

  • Added the 'Ask Watson' dashboard as an open beta feature to provide a cognitive document search tool.

  • Simplified installation process by providing a prebuilt Docker image to allow you to install Service Management Unite with Docker. See Installing Service Management Unite with Docker.

  • Added support to set up Service Management Unite with high availability to ensure a reliable system. See Setting up Service Management Unite with High Availability.
  • Added support to automate applications that run on non-z/OS systems with Universal Automation Adapters (with APAR OA55386 installed in System Automation for z/OS V4.1). See the concept of Universal Automation Adapter in Service Management Unite architecture.
  • Enhanced SA operations experience:
    • For a stop, start, or suspend request, you can choose the new REMOVE=SYSGONE option to automatically remove the request when the system where the selected resource runs, leaves the sysplex.
    • The resource status of a system is now represented as the worst compound status of all top-level resources running on that system. This can be combined with a Resource name filter or Resource class filter as data set parameter. In this case, the worst resource state is derived by the worst compound state of all resources on the system that match the specified filter criteria.
    • A Hide operational tasks option is added into the automation domain topology and automation node list data sets. Choose this option if the context menu of nodes that are contained in these data sets should not include any operational tasks, such as excluding a node.
For more information, see IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.4.
IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.3
IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.3 provides the following enhancements in IBM Service Management Suite for z/OS V1.5.0:
  • Added JVM Overview, JVM details, and problem isolation dashboards to monitor the Java™ Virtual Machines based on OMEGAMON® for JVM.
  • Integrated with System Automation (with APAR OA52610 installed) by adding support for the command INGSUSPD to suspend System Automation resources.
  • Integrated with System Automation (with APAR OA52610 installed) by providing a problem isolation dashboard for SA Resources based on the command INGWHY, which is introduced in SA V4.1 to provide expert capabilities to easily determine resource problems.
  • Enhanced filtering capabilities in Service Management Unite Automation data sets. This provides the possibility of status reporting based on filter criteria that can be used when you create custom dashboards.
For more information, see IBM Service Management Unite V1.1.3.
OMEGAMON Performance Management Suite for z/OS V5.5.0

This release contains significant updates to the component products that provide enhanced monitoring for z/OS, CICS® Transaction Server, IMS, MQ, Integration Bus, and networks.

A key focus of this update has been on simplifying the deployment and serviceability of the portfolio, which reduces the time that systems programmers spend managing their service management infrastructure. As a result, they can dedicate time to focus on optimizing their system operations.

In addition, the new features and enhancements are introduced to the Parameter Generator (PARMGEN) configuration method and the OMEGAMON® enhanced 3270 user interface.

For more information, see What's new in V5.5.0.
IBM System Automation for z/OS V4.1.0
IBM System Automation for z/OS V4.1.0 provides the following capabilities:

OA55386 – Multiple enhancements

With APAR OA55386, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides the following enhancements.

  • Service Management Unite (SMU) Automation V1.1.4
    • The installation of SMU is simplified with a prebuilt Docker image. See Installing and uninstalling SMU Automation with Docker.
    • "Ask Watson" dashboard is added as an open beta feature to provide a cognitive documentation search.
    • To ensure a reliable system with high performance and less downtime, you can set up SMU with high availability. See Setting up Service Management Unite with High Availability.
    • With Universal Automation Adapters, SMU Automation can automate applications that run on non-z/OS systems. See Universal Automation Adapter concept in Service Management Unite Automation architecture.
    • SA operations experience is enhanced:
      • For a stop, start, or suspend request, you can choose the new REMOVE=SYSGONE option to automatically remove the request when the system where the selected resource runs, leaves the sysplex.
      • The resource status of a system is now represented as the worst compound status of all top-level resources running on that system. This can be combined with a Resource name filter or Resource class filter as data set parameter. In this case, the worst resource state is derived by the worst compound state of all resources on the system that match the specified filter criteria.
      • A Hide operational tasks option is added into the automation domain topology and automation node list data sets. Choose this option if the context menu of nodes that are contained in these data sets should not include any operational tasks, such as excluding a node.
    Note: The listed SMU Automation V1.1.4 functions are supported by SA z/OS V4.1 APAR OA55386. If you want to use those functions with SMU V1.1.4 Automation, install SA z/OS V4.1 APAR OA55386 first.
  • End-to-end automation

    SA z/OS V4.1 extends its cross-sysplex automation capabilities to true end-to-end cross platform automation. Resources on distributed systems, for instance running on Linux, can be managed by the Universal Automation Adapter that is a part of Service Management Unite Automation. See End-to-End Automation on z/OS.

  • Processor Operations

    Processor Operations is enhanced to support dynamic creation of target system names. The new AOF_AAO_ISQ_DYNTGT option is introduced to define the dynamic name pattern. The benefit is that you can define a backup LPAR for another processor entry, without the need to define a corresponding system entry and the need for a 'dummy' system name. See Processor Operations – setup for dynamic target system names.

  • Other enhancements
    • SDF now supports the status update of the primary focal point and the backup focal point in parallel. See Using SDF for Multiple Systems and SDF FOCALPOINT Policy Item.
    • The new DSN parameter is added to the INGPLEX IPL command. It allows you to specify a different IPL data set for displaying and comparing IPL information. It might be useful in case of a disaster recovery when you need IPL information of the sysplex that is down. See INGPLEX and INGPLEX IPL.
    • The new MAXINT parameter is added to the INGRCHCK command to limit the maximum times of resource status check. You can use it to avoid infinite resource check, which is task blocking. See INGRCHCK.

OA53587 – IBM z14 Exploitation Support

With APAR OA53587, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides IBM z14 exploitation support.
  • New SNMP MIB attributes that are introduced with IBM z14 can be queried with the new GETRAW command.
  • The existing ProcOps SNMP protocol now allows to redirect connections over SA-BCPii as an alternative to TCP/IP based network connections.

Watch this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/iacnKGFFjmM) to learn more.

OA54030 – INGRDS Command Enhancements

APAR OA54030 provides enhancements for the SA z/OS Relational Data Services (RDS).

The new enhancement keeps RDS tables now in 64-bit memory. Only the control data is still held in 31-bit memory of the NetView address space. This increases the capacity of user data stored into the RDS tables. Furthermore, the INGRDS command supports direct key access for RDS tables. The direct key access improves the search performance significantly. For that purpose, a new KEY parameter has been introduced. The INGRDS functions QUERY, UPDATE, and DELETE are effected. The new functions DROPKEY and LISTKEYS are provided.

After performance measurements, it becomes apparent that for a table with 10000 rows a query with direct key access is 10 to 100 times faster than a query that uses just the standard WHERE parameter. For more information, see INGRDS Supports Direct KEY Access.

APAR OA53366

With APAR OA53366, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides multiple enhancements.

  • INGSHCMD is enhanced to allow invocation of commands depending on either there is a system shutdown in progress or not. The new read-only global variable AOFSYSTEMSHUTDOWN contains YES if a system shutdown has been invoked either via GDPS or via INGREQ ALL.
  • The SUSPENDFILE option is added to the automation manager member HSAPRMKS and to the configuration assistant skeleton HSASPRM.
  • INITPARM (TINYDS) is added to sample member INGESSN and to skeleton INGSSSN.
  • User specific synonym member (INGSYNU) is introduced for AOFMSGSY to allow customer specific synonyms. The SA z/OS supplied AOFMSGSY should have a user include similar to those in the SA z/OS supplied AT INGMSG01.

OA52610 - Multiple Enhancements

With APAR OA52610, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides multiple enhancements.
  • Planned suspend capability

    Operators can plan and implement automated operations changes in advance and have the flexibility to make them effective at any time without impacting the existing automation and exposing the changes to the operations team, prematurely. This is accomplished by introducing a "suspend file" on top of System Automation's suspend capability that is already available in V4.1.0.

    To learn more, watch this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/2O0vy2xDJ98) or read Using the Suspend File.

  • Enhanced configuration for Service Management Unite and end-to-end automation
    • Administrators can automatically configure the System Automation z/OS components required for operating with the Service Management Unite graphical user interface and for managing cross-sysplex resource dependencies.

    • System Automation's Configuration Assistant is enhanced to configure the End-to-End Adapter and the End-to-End Agent.

  • INGWHY supports analyzing Reference Resources

    Operators can now also analyze situations why Reference Resources (REF) are not in their desired state and receive possible reasons with corresponding actions presented by INGWHY.

  • Service Management Unite enhancements
    • Using Service Management Unite, operators can isolate problems with their automation resources on a new dashboard using INGWHY but experiencing the same look and feel as they see on any other dashboard on this user interface.

      Watch this YouTube video (https://youtu.be/-s_9rqNTKgA) to learn more.

    • Service Management Unite allows to create filtered lists of resources by name and type on custom dashboards.
  • Other smaller enhancements
    • System Automation reports Gateway sessions to other systems as unknown when detecting NetView or system shutdowns instead of alerting operators with a communication-lost status.
    • Suspend requests can be removed automatically at IPL.
    • REF resources can now be suspended directly using the INGSUSPD command.
    • REF resources are accepted for overriding Schedules from Service Management Unite.
    • Significant performance improvement in ProcOps command ISQIPSWT.

OA52638 – IBM z14 Toleration Support

With APAR OA52638, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides full toleration support for the IBM z14.

OA52425 – Small enhancements

With APAR OA52425, SA z/OS V4.1.0 provides the following enhancements.

  • INGCLEAN is modified to enforce RESYNC SDF to also delete data in SDF and to accept input parameters when called as an environment exit.
  • CICS Automation Message Exit debugging is enhanced.
  • INGSTR command and display are enhanced with structure type information.
  • Help panels ING$QRY and INGQRY are enhanced to clarify where parent information is derived from with the PARENT parameter and enhanced to return the resource suspension information with the new SUSPEND parameter.
For more information, see What is New in SA z/OS V4.1.0.
IBM Tivoli® NetView® for z/OS V6.2.1
IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS V6.2.1 provides the following enhancements in Service Management Suite for z/OS V1.5.0:
  • Provides a new mechanism for automatically maintaining current reference to the oldest available Canzlog archive file, as older files are deleted.
  • To facilitate user management of archived Canzlog data files, common global variables set by the processing of configuration statements for Canzlog archiving (NetView style sheet statements that begin with ARCHIVE.) are being documented.
  • Reduces the number of messages written to the system console and system log during NetView initialization. A missing message id and help text are being added to improve diagnostic information.
  • Provides several enhancements to Command Revision Table, Message Revision Table, and PIPE EDIT:
    • Allow delimiters, such as blanks and commas, to be removed from commands before comparing in a CRT.
    • Allow characters to be removed from strings in EDIT specifications.
    • Support the use of hex strings in UPON statements in MRTs and CRTs.
    • Support message PREFIX values that have lengths other than 3.
  • Provides the symbolic substitution enhancement:
    • You can use system symbols that is shown by the D SYMBOLS command anywhere in your revision specification. In addition, you can use the symbols &DOMAIN, &NV2I, &RODMNAME, &NETID, and &TCPNAME that are local to the instance of the NetView program.
    • If you need to include an ampersand symbol (&) and NOT be subject to possible substitution, one method is to define a system symbol &AMP. where no additional substitution is wanted.
    Note: This function exists without an APAR.
For more information, see New and Changed Functions in the NetView V6R2M1 Program and Enterprise Management Agent Changes.
Parent topic: IBM Service Management Suite for z/OS V1.5.0