IV70476: SLOW PA PLUG-IN LOGIN AND LONG DELAYS IN OBTAINING QUERY RESULTS

IBM CICSPA-5.2.0-FP0001

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• You have a very large CICS PA DB2 data base and find that the
  login to the data base from the PA plug-in can take several
  minutes and various queries can take up to 15 minutes to return
  a result.
  
  Analysis of the performance issues has been identified in 3
  areas.
  
  1. Database tuning: Primary issue is because the PA database is
  not tuned for the SQL that the plugin submits. Queries are
  taking an excessive amount of time to complete because the
  database is very large. The user would see benefits using
  plugin specific indexing which focusses on the queries used by
  the plugin.
  
  2. Duplicate records in Manifest table: When the tables
  navigator is loading after connecting, duplicate records in the
  manifest tables cause each of the tables to be sampled multiple
  times. The DBA should remove duplicates from the
  qualifier.CPA_MANIFEST table and the plugin will in future
  reject duplicates.
  
  3. Plugin unresponsive: Much of the processing in the plugin
  has historically been performed in the display thread as those
  queries have previously been very quick to complete. when the
  query involves large data volumes the user will experience
  delays as the thread waits for all responses to complete. The
  initial lag upon connection is one such example because each
  table referenced in the Manifest causes an SQL query to be run.
  This is also impacted by causes 1) and 2). Other areas of the
  plugin that can take a long time should provide the user with
  better feedback, for example, running row counter (500/10000)
  
  4. Best practice: Some plugin issues with default alert tree
  row limiter not being read in certain circumstances, plus
  suggest a much lower default for the Maximum rows values
  (Currently 10000)
  
  Possible solutions may be:
  
  1. Tuning the database using appropriate indexing in the host.
  
  2. Use background threads when populating the SMF table lists.
  This will require a new release of the PA plugin. 5.2.0.1.
  
  3. Other tuning of the plugin to limit response to what is
  required and use lazy loading where possible.
  
  Additional Symptom(s) Search Keyword(s): KIXREVWJB logon perfm
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• A number of performance issues have been identified using the
  CICS Perfomance Analyzer plug-in, either against a large PA data
  base, or over a slow network connection.
  These include:
  - Redundant processing when duplicate entries exist in the
  manifest table.
  - Superfluous data can be extracted from the database as the
  query can require a full table scan.
  - PA Alerts tables are slow to populate.
  - PA Navigator analyses table specifications in the display
  thread.
  

Problem conclusion

• The Performance Analyzer plug-in has been updated with fixes for
  the issues described.
  This fix will be made available in Version 5.2.0.1 of the CICS
  Performance Analyzer plug-in for CICS Explorer.
  For installation instructions please see:
  Ordering maintenance for the IBM Explorer for z/OS, IBM CICS
  Explorer and CICS Explorer plug-ins
  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21380083
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  CICS PA EXPL PL

• Fixed component ID

  5655Y2301

Applicable component levels

• R520 PSY

     UP