What's New in V5.5.0

The following updates have been introduced in OMEGAMON for CICS on z/OS Version 5.5.0.

New in OMEGAMON for CICS V5.5.0

April, 2021
  • The Enhanced 3270 UI now allows you to enable and disable Task history collection. Place the cursor on a CICS region and select C CICS Control Functions, then select O CICS Task History Status. This displays the current Task History Status (Active or Inactive). To change the status, type over the current status and press ENTER. An informational message, KCP4301I, will indicate that your request has been issued.
  • The Enhanced 3270 UI now allows you to view temporary storage models defined in a CICS region. Place the cursor on the CICS region and select R CICS Resources, select M More Options, then T CICS TS Models Summary. The TS Model Overview panel appears, showing all TS models and their attributes. Some columns are sortable. TS models can be selected and will have S CICS TS Model Details, which also includes Resource Signature Data.
  • Display of a CICS terminal now includes displays the Logon Time when the terminal connected to CICS. The User Area Address is also provided. Authorized users can view this storage with IBM OMEGAMON for z/OS or IBM Z OMEGAMON Monitor for z/OS if installed.
  • When the Bottleneck Analysis collector is not started in the KOCCI address space, only one information message is written to RKLVLOG, instead of multiple messages: 
    KCP0032E: AGENT KCPxxx@S IN CICS xxxxxxxx: 
OMEG HAS NOT BEEN INITIALIZED IN THE CICS ADDRESS SPACE
    When OMEGAMON is not started in CICS, only one message will be issued per collector in each CICS region.
  • New details have been added to the Region Summary display in the Ehnaced 3270 UI. These include Start Date, Start Time, and Highest percentage of the class limit for any of the defined classes "MXT," which can be zoomed to see the Transaction Class Summary Total Queued Transactions for either MAX tasks or Class Max tasks.
  • Service Class Rules can be updated with a new action, E Edit.
  • Enhancements to Related Tasks: If the NETUOWSX is generated on another system, and the time used to generate the NETUOWSX does not match that of the local system, it is sometimes not possible to determine which tasks are related to this unit of work. OMEGAMON now uses the original transaction attach time or the value from the NETUOWSX (whichever is lower) to search for related tasks.

Related PTF: OA61162 (April, 2021)

Updates introduced in PTF UJ03400 (June 2020)

  • CICS Transaction Class Summary: The CICS Transaction Class Summary has new metrics, which allow significantly greater insight into the behavior of the transaction classes. These metrics include Total Queued, Task Purged while Queuing, Times at Purge Threshold Limit, Purged Immediately, Attach Requests, Total Queuing Time, Average Queuing time and Oldest Task Queuing Duration.
  • Db2 Entries and Db2trans monitoring in Enhanced 3270UI (e3270UI): Display of the Db2 Entries and the Db2 Transaction resources has been added to the e3270UI to allow a greater understanding of the Db2 configuration. The resources can be modified without the need to logon to the CICS region.
  • Transaction RATE Summary: A new Transaction Rate display in the e3270UI allows the user to see the current attach rate for the CICS transactions. It can be used to determine if the rate of transactions exceeds expectations. The attribute group can also be recorded to history using the history configuration view.
  • Control of Task History in the Enhanced 3270UI: You can control Task History from the e3270UI. A new option is available under the control functions for a CICS region. You can also use the View History configuration workspace.
  • Monitoring the Temporary Storage Main limit: The Temporary Storage main limit and the percent of main limit used have been added to the e3270UI. You can dynamically alter the limit to alleviate a potential problem.
  • CICSplex Agent performance improvements: The CICSplex agent can now obtain information from CICS regions running on the same LPAR while consuming considerably less resources. If CICSplexes are organized by LPAR this will result in less workload for the HUB and remote TEMS the agent is connected to.

Updates introduced in PTF UJ01596 (November 2019)

  • Default CICSplex assignment: OMEGAMON CICS allows the customer to define which CICSplex a CICS region will be reported against. If there is nothing defined, OMEGAMON will look to see if the region is assigned a CP/SM CICSplex and use that. If no CP/SM CICSPlex is defined, the value OMEGPLEX is used as the CICSplex name. This is also the behavior if the rules the user creates classifies the region into a CICSplex named OMEGPLEX. With this fixpack the user now has the ability to choose the behavior of the OMEGPLEX CICSplex.
  • Task History filtering: Task History filtering now lets you specify a list of transactions, userids, terminal IDs to either include or exclude. These can be specified using the asterisk (*) wildcard character. Tasks can be filtered using the counts for VSAM, MQ, DL1 and other databases.
  • File/database search: Task History filtering now lets you specify a filename or a filename mask to locate transactions in history that have accessed that file. This also applies to MQ and the other databases that we collect detail information for.
  • Displaying the DB2Entry, DB2Plan and DB2TRAN used for a transaction: Active Task and Task History displays show new metrics for transactions that use Db2. These metrics are Db2 Entry name, Db2 Tran and Db2 Plan.
  • ICE summary: A new ICE Summary display is added to the Enhanced 3270UI that creates a summary line, by each combination of Transaction ID, Terminal ID and CICS region, from here users can display the ICEs that make up that summary for more detail. A user can also delete all for a specific terminal or transaction ID.
  • Library Views: An new Library views are provided for e3270UI. A user can see all the libraries defined in a CICSplex listed by Region. They can select to see which regions a particular library dataset is used in, they can see which programs are loaded or located from that library.
  • MQ active requests: In conjunction with the OMEGAMON MQ product, and the PTF for OA58339 a user can see all the OPEN MQ requests that are active for a CICS region. They can see this listed by the queue being referenced. From here a user can select details of the task get more details from OMEGAMON MQ about the queue or the queue manager.
  • IPCONN show information about the Partner: Display of the IP address and the Port number of the partner connection have been added to e3270UI.
  • User excluded Transactions to simplify Situation logic: It is possible to include a list of transactions in the OMEGAMON CICS global data member that should be excluded from situations. This list can include the asterisk (*) wildcard character. A user defined situation can then check for this value rather than code a long list of transactions using the situation editor.
  • Enable/Disable SMF writing via OMEG Transaction using operator command: The OMEGAMON for CICS OMEG transaction now supports the OMEG SMFON and OMEG SMFOFF commands. This allows to dynamically enable and disable the recording of the CICS Performance data without logging on to OMEGAMON. As this is a CICS transaction, this can be issued via an MVS console, allowing for the command to be automated using System Automation or any such tool.
  • Enable/Disable RLIM writing via OMEG Transaction using operator command: In addition to enabling and disabling SMF via a command, a similar capability is extended to the Resource Limiting feature. This is controlled via the RLIMON and RLIMOFF keywords on the OMEG transaction.
  • Umbrella Data in Task History: It is possible to view the Umbrella data collected for a task in the task history displays. This is output in both character and hexadecimal format.

Terminal Control Table (TCT) capability introduced in OMEGAMON for CICS Enhanced 3270 UI

OMEGAMON® for CICS® enhanced 3270 UI has TCT capability, which provides you with the ability to view the summary and the detail of the terminals in any CICS region. When unusual situations occur, you could enter Take Action commands to set the terminal in-service, out-of-service, released, or to purge Automatic Initiate Descriptors (AIDs) pending on a terminal.

Related PTF: PTF UA96510 (March 2018)

Ability to display the summary of response time for each task function

OMEGAMON for CICS enhanced 3270 UI provides the ability to display the summary of response time for each task function. With this capability, you can intuitively know which functions might not be normal and the next action to take.

Related PTF: PTF UA96510 (March 2018)

Enhancements to CICS private area storage (OSCOR) management

Enhancements are made to CICS private area storage management so that the available space of the private area storage both below the line (OSCOR) and above the line is displayed in the OMEGAMON for CICS enhanced 3270 UI. When you enter Take Actions command to set DSA and EDSA limits, the largest contiguous size is also provided on the same panel for your reference.

Related PTF: PTF UA96510 (March 2018)

Changes in previous releases of OMEGAMON for CICS

  • IBM OMEGAMON II (CUA) removed

    IBM OMEGAMON II (CUA) interfaces are no longer supported, so the relevant messages, PARMGEN parameters, and commands are removed. You can instead use OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 user interface.

  • Network Response Time monitoring deprecated in OMEGAMON for CICS (3270)

    The network response time of predefined VTAM LUs (also known as end-to-end response time) is deprecated in this release.

    Groups can no longer be defined as LU. Related commands such as RESP LU, RSP LU, and CNT LU are discontinued. See Command reference for more information about the commands that are displayed through OMEGAMON for CICS (3270).

    Due to the removal of support for network response time, ETE_INTERVAL and ETE_FREQUENCY in Global Options are ignored.

  • Simplify the definition of how the data for task history collection is saved

    The DATA_STORE_TYPE parameter now can be specified as Auto, which simplifies the process of defining how the data for task history collection is saved. You are allowed to have one global file for many monitored CICS regions.

    When DATA_STORE_TYPE is specified as Auto, it indicates that OMGEAMON automatically chooses between DSPACE and FILEOCMP. The value FILEOCMP is used if the file, which is specified for a CICS region exists. If no file matches the definition, then the value DSPACE is used.

New features supported in the OMEGAMON for CICS enhanced 3270 user interface

  • Service Level Analysis (SLA) toolkit

    New in V5.5.0, OMEGAMON for CICS on z/OS® supports the definition of service level analysis for OMEGAMON in the Enhanced 3270 user interface (enhanced 3270UI).

    The SLA feature provides the capability, for authorized users, to set workload performance thresholds to monitor your CICS transactions by using the enhanced 3270UI. The SLA feature provides the capability to define service classes, workloads and service policies. The SLA main panel provides you with intuitive guide to other corresponding panels.

  • Monitoring support for CICS Transaction Server (CICS TS) V5.4.0 asynchronous transaction feature

    The monitoring support for CICS TS V5.4.0 asynchronous transaction feature is now added to the OMEGAMON for CICS enhanced 3270UI.

    This feature provides the capability to view if a task uses asynchronous processing and to find all other tasks that are related by asynchronous processing. With this feature, you can monitor the performance of asynchronous transactions in real time.

  • Ability to display and search the groups of CICS regions other than CICSplex members

    The CONTEXT command is provided to display groups of CICS regions other than the members of a CICSplex. You can switch to an LPAR context, which will display the regions on a specific LPAR. You can also switch to a user-defined CICS group. When a context is set, all subsequent FIND commands can search the context rather than the selected CICSplex.

    The context command can be entered in the CONTEXT CONTEXT SCOPE format, where CONTEXT is the type of group (CICSplex, LPAR, and USERGRP) and SCOPE is the group name (CICSplex name, the LPAR SMFID, or the user group name). For example, CONTEXT LPAR MVSA is entered to set the context to all the regions on the LPAR with SMFID MVSA. You can enter this command from any CICS workspace that has the CICSplex name in the upper right corner of panels.

    Entering CONTEXT command without any parameters displays the the Context Command Usage panel. In this panel, you can directly select the context values.

  • System Initialization Table (SIT)

    The SIT suffix and the CICS SIT parameters are now displayed for the current CICS region in the enhanced 3270UI.

    This feature can be used to view the name of the SIT table that is being used and the values of the CICS SIT parameters within the enhanced 3270UI.

  • Transaction class summary

    OMEGAMON for CICS on z/OS now supports transaction class summary in the enhanced 3270UI.

    Transaction class summary provides the capability to check the status of transaction classes within a CICS region such as current active tasks, peak tasks, the number of tasks in queue, and queue limit. This information can be used to check whether tasks are being queued in the system. The transaction class summary feature also allows users to view task maximum limit and transaction class limit and to change them if authorized.

  • Ability to view and modify CICS task storage areas

    The enhanced 3270UI provides the ability for authorized users to view and modify areas of CICS tasks (MLST and MZAP).

  • Enhancements to CICS active task summary

    In V5.5.0, enhancements are made to CICS active task summary so that the current storage usage for each transaction in a specific CICS region is displayed. The amount of storage that is used above or below the line is provided, which helps you identify the next action to take.

  • Historical task storage detail

    The detailed storage statistics on a specific historical task can be viewed within the enhanced 3270UI. This feature can be used to view the details on the storage that is used by historical tasks and to easily identify task exceptions.

  • VSAM usage statistics

    OMEGAMON for CICS on z/OS now supports VSAM usage statistics for the enhanced 3270UI workspaces. With VSAM usage statistics, you can view the number of records for data component and index component of a particular VSAM file. You might not have to log in to OMEGAMON for CICS (3270) to view them.

  • Start time and start date supported in Task History

    Start time and start date are now displayed in the Task History panels in the enhanced 3270UI. This enhancement results in accurate start time for tasks.