Mainframe, Performance, Topics

Here are the show notes for Episode 12 "Baker's Dozen". The show is called "Baker's Dozen" because it is the thirteenth episode, after starting at Episode #0.

Where we've been

Martin has not been anywhere since our last podcast.

Marna has not been anywhere, either.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic discussed some fun small enhancements Marna has enjoyed from GRS.

1. With OA42221 back to z/OS R13, GRS has the ability to write SMF records (87 subtype 1) to identify heavy users of global generic queue scans. This is what Marna calls a new "monitoring capability". These issuers might be the cause of increased CPU and GRS private storage. Turn on with GRSCNFxx MONITOR(YES)

   • Existing monitoring of ENQ/DEQs at this point, are not written into SMF records. And the only filtering capability at this point is the old "ISGAUDIT" method. "ISGAUDIT" is a where you prepare you filter, assemble and link edit it into load module and then manipulate it with many MODIFY commands. Not very simple for everyone to do.

2. With z/OS V2.2, there are two excellent new functions building on OA42221:

   1. SMF 87 subtype 2 records can be written for ENQ/DEQs, and
   2. a new filtering capability available with parmlib member GRSMONxx. There is no IEASYSxx for GRSMONxx, so you must start it with SETGRS GRSMON=xx. Only one GRSMONxx is allowed per system.

Now, you can get all your "monitoring" into SMF records for both ENQ/DEQs and global generic queue scans. And you don't need to use the cumbersome ISGAUDIT anymore.

Performance

Martin talked about coupling facility structure performance, especially as it concerns DB2 lock and cache structures. Having a lot of structures isn't a problem, as long as you are looking at how "busy" the coupling facility is - both CPU- and memory-wise.

Sorting in descending order the structures by a metric you want is an important and easy way to figure out which structures to pay attention to.

Balance this with the number of DB2 structures to manage - perhaps hundreds! Some advice was given as to what were the most important metrics to concentrate on.

Looking at "false contentions" and "XES contention" for lock structures is important, and may indicate that these structures need to be larger. Especially if the number of false contentions is high, relative to the lock structure requests.

For cache structures, there are different metrics.

You may have gotten a large number of structures because you are using DB2 data sharing. Look at names and types for a clue as to where they came fromm.

Topics

Our podcast "Topics" topic is how the audio for this podcast gets produced. If you are interested in audio editing, here are some items that recording this podcast has uncovered:

• For recording:

  1. Equipment: Headphones and microphones are necessary.

  2. Recording programs: We use Skype with plugins to record: For Windows, Marna uses iFree Skype Recorder. Martin uses a nice recorder on the iMac: Ecamm's Call Recorder for Skype

• For editing process:

  1. Record in chunks, for each podcast section.

  2. Audacity is used for the actual editing. Martin places each speaker on a different side (right or left). Guests might be half-left, half-right, or in the middle. Audacity makes this very easy.

  3. Clean up removes noise, ensures flow, and sound effects are added. Audacity has some nice filters for noise removal, though this isn't 100% perfect.

As you can tell some "humanity" (mistakes and flubs) is kept in. But hopefully not too much.

Customer Requirements

Marna and Martin discussed two customer requirements which concern sysplex:

• 76875 and 75766: Migration check for CF structure sizes “at risk” due to impending new levels of CFCC

• 75831: Excessive and error prone maintainence of the COUPLExx member of parmlib for CF pecifications

Where We'll Be

Marna will still be at IBM Systems Technical University in Orlando, May 22-26, 2017.

Martin will be in Chicago, IL USA for pizza in mid April, and he'll have to make a customer visit while he's there.

On The Blog

Martin has published one blog post recently:

• A Few of My Favourite Things

Marna has finally finished one blog post:

• GDG to GDGE conversions

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.

Marna Walle and Martin Packer talk about the z/OSMF Workflow Editor, zHyperlinks, and a kid "assembling" a "mainframe".

Here are the show notes for Episode 11 "XI-Ting". The show is called "XI-Ting" because, well, it is episode #11 and we had one shot at the Roman numeral to use and took it.

Follow-ups

In Episode 10 we talked about the Workflow iOS app, and its role in automation. Just this week it was announced Apple has bought the Workflow app and its developers are now Apple employees. The app is now free on the iTunes Store.

One view of this announcement can be read here: Apple Acquires Workflow - from MacStories

Feedback

A special hello to Australia and Sweden ("Hallå !"), who we've heard from and has listened to the podcast.

Where we've been

Martin has not been anywhere (except for Hursley, UK) since our last podcast.

Marna has been at SHARE in March 2017 in San Jose, California. It was an excellent conference with familar faces and was made even better by the ability to talk about the z/OS V2.3 previewed items.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was Marna's experience in trying out the z/OSMF Workflow Editor. The z/OSMF Workflow Editor is a new function in z/OSMF to create your own Workflow, or change an existing Workflow. The Workflow Editor is available on z/OSMF V2.1 in PTF UI43814 and on z/OSMF V2.2 in PTF UI42847.

Marna pointed out some hints about using this new feature. Some discussion points include:

• "Folders" for information you need to provide: Metadata, Variables, Steps, ...

• You will always have a correctly produced Workflow definition file. Much easier than the old way (Marna used Notepad++ and kept interating).

• Your first Workflow will probably use a "template" (file like JCL, script, or exec in a step) that you want to drive. You will probably have "variables" (customized values in that template) that you want the Workflow user to specify. Always make sure you associate your variables with the steps! Otherwise they won't coordinate together.

• The open source Apache Velocity Engine is used for variable substitution and conditional directives.

• There is a very small checkbox for resolving variable substitution in the Workflow Editor. Don't forget to check it if you are using variables!

• Remember to remove the first "dummy" step when creating a Workflow from scratch. You don't need it.

There is a self-directed lab to learn about the z/OSMF Workflow Editor available here which you can run on your own system by using the samples in the Appendix.

Performance

Martin had a special guest for a conversation on zHyperLinks, Anna Shugol, IBM Mainframe Technical Specialist.

Martin and Anna talked about a Statement of Direction that was released at the beginning of 2017. This topic is very important because it is an innovative new IBM I/O and Storage technology to improve performance for DB2-centric applications. This is designed to provide dramatic improvements in I/O latency, and change the I/O paradigm.

It complements existing technology, such as Hiper Performance FICON and using large DB2 buffer pools. zHyperlinks is intended to provide short distance (150 meters between the CEC and the storage unit) point-to-point improvements, which are expected to support 8GBs (gigabytes per second) with new protocols.

• Today, there is I/O to the Coupling Facility, and FICON to disk and tape and times associated with those. zHyperlinks is planned to support improvements in the connect and pend times, with Sync I/O wait times being the dominant DB2 components helped with zHyperlinks. A tool to help with the analysis is expected, along with SMF record evaluation, at a later time.

• The IBM Storage device required for this solution will be a minimum of DS8880, with up to 16 zHyperLinks being able to be connected.

• The minimum z/OS and DB2 levels will be provided later.

Stay tuned for more on this topic, as further details are released; Remember this is a Statement Of Direction (SOD) rather than a formal announcement at this stage.

Topics

Our podcast "Topics" topic has been sub-titled "Some Assembly Required" ; Not the HLASM that mainframers might think that relates to, but actually something in the same vein.

Marna's 14-yr old son who is interested in hardware has just built his first personal computer. Marna and Martin talk about how that first computer has a lot in common with a mainframe:

• Workload ("gaming and intense graphics" for the kid) had to be optimized, with availability and performance in mind.

• Budget was a big consideration. Some compromises had to be had, but there would be no compromise on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

  • Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti : with almost 4,000 cores (for shading, texture mapping, and rendering output).
  • "Offloading" is a familiar concept, where the GPU was the "specialty engine".

• Air vs. Liquid cooling? The CPU and GPU need serious cooling (the way he's going to run it). Liquid cooling was the better choice, but had to be foregone for air cooling (8 fans: 2 CPU and 6 chassis). Granted those fans are pretty good, and Marna wanted them quiet.

Here's the interesting thing about Marna's son:

• He saved up for two years to buy the parts for this computer. Talk about a kid being focused.

• He did not learn from any mentors, he learned only from YouTube videos. He had never build a computer before. He had a Raspberry Pi, but shunned it as it was "too software".

Well, the first smoke test passed fine. The thing to understand? The new generation can understand mainframe concepts and likes them, even if they don't know they are mainframe concepts.

Customer Requirements

Marna and Martin discussed two customer requirements:

• z/OSMF Textbox with Editor capabilities

• z/OSMF - display options via operator command (D IZUPRM)

Where We'll Be

Marna will be at IBM Systems Technical University in Orlando, May 22-26, 2017

Martin has a plan to go nowhere but as always, things change with his schedule.

On The Blog

Martin has published three blog posts recently:

• Mac-hinations

• Structural Analysis

• What Are Goals Made Of?

Marna has written one half of one, which is not ready to talk about.

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.

Marna Walle and Martin Packer talk about the z/OS V2.3 preview, z/OS memory enhancements over the years, and automating on iOS.

Here are the show notes for Episode 10 "234U". The show is called "234U" because:

• We are very happy that we can talk about z/OS V2.3 now that it's been previewed on February 21, 2017.

• We liked the consecutiveness 2-3-4, and U added works nicely.

Where we've been

Martin has not been anywhere (except for Hursley, UK) since our last podcast.

Marna has not been anywhere, except her desk (to work on SHARE presentations).

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was a highlight of some of the newly previewed z/OS V2.3 enhancements! We will surely talk a lot about z/OS V2.3 in podcasts to come.

First, it is important to know that z/OS V2.3 will only IPL on an zEC12, zBC12 and higher. Prepare now if you need to.

Here's a brief list of the items planned for V2.3 (which is planned to GA on September 29, 2017)

• System logger's log stream staging datasets can be allocated greater than 4 gigabytes.

• Data set encryption for z/OS data sets and zFS file systems (policy-enabled), and CF structures (list and cache, with the CFRM policy).

• zFS:

  • zEDC compression on individual files, and existing and new zFS files systems. Existing zFS while in use!

  • Salvage utility to run online with file system is still mounted

  • Dynamic changes to aggregrate attributes for common MOUNT options, and dynamic changes to sysplex sharing status.

  • New facility (from TSO or UNIX shell) to allow for migration from HFS to zFS, without requiring the "from" file system to be unmounted.

• email: ability to have an email address in the RACF user profile. JES2 and z/OSMF could use email notification to the user.

• JES2 JCL, the delimiter keyword (DLM) on SYSIN is extended from 2 to 18 characters long.

• SCRT is a component delivered in z/OS, with support for enabling ISVs to generate an ISV-unique SCRT report.

• Auto-starting z/OSMF be default, late in the IPL hopefully after OMVS and TCP/IP are up. The biggest migration action in z/OS V2.3 identified yet.

• TSO/E support for 8 character userids. Many products require changes to support this, so do planning for this one.

Important SODs:

• The release after V2.3 is planned to be the last release to support HFS.
  In other words, the release planned for 2021 is anticipated to not contain HFS support. Move to zFS well before then! Use the new z/OS V2.3 facility to help you with this.

• In the "future" IBM intends to discontinue delivery of z/OS platform products and service on magnetic tape. DVD remains for physical delivery. We recommended electronic delivery.

Performance

Martin had an esteemed guest for our "Performance" topic, Elpida Tzortzatos, Distinquished Engineer from z/OS Development.

Martin and Elpida chatted about several important recent advances made in the area of z/OS memory management.

• Review of UIC (Unreferenced Interval Count), which is how long in seconds a page has remained unreferenced. High count is low contention, low count is high contention. Since moving to large memory (64-bit, zArch), the design changed to reduce the review frequency from 1 sec to 10 seconds.

  When more memory support was added (128G to 4TB) it was again reduced to not do any UIC updates, other metrics are used to judge contention instead.

  • RMF reports high impact, medium impact, and low impact frames evicted today, for a performance judgement. The calculations are based on a percentage on the page frame table reviewed, which can then be used for a classification of low, medium, or high.

  • Because of today's behavior with the UIC, other means are more important to use as mechanisms to show memory contraints, such as the AFQ, available frame count. Demand paging is very fast today (with paging from Flash).

  Customers should be looking at average available memory, and minimum too. Make sure your AFQ can handle workload spikes and SVC dumps. Here is a WSC paper about that.

• Large frames (1MB and 2GB page sizes): the Dynamic Address Translation (DAT) is on the critical performance path for every program execution. The TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer) is close to the processor chip(expensive and not a lot of memory). The TLB size hasn't changed much, but addresses that can be covered is increased with large frames. To improve performance, then increase the size of the working set in the TLB, to reduce a TLB miss.

  Use the LFAREA specification for 1MB and 2GB frame usage. Breaking of 1MB frames into 4K (and reconsolidation) can be done, but not in all cases.

Summary

1. Memory management has evolved to scale to nicely support very large sizes.
2. Memory is interesting, and has been scaling up and improving performance with each release, and done it in a way that improves application performance.

Topics

Our podcast "Topics" this time was about Automation in iOS, and should appeal to anyone looking at getting more use out their Apple products. Martin talked about how to save time with tailored apps from simple ones, and ways of automating for "bulk" processing.

A wide range of topics to do with iOS and Web Automation were covered in the Topics topic.

The iOS apps mentioned were

• OmniFocus

• Drafts

• Launch Center Pro

• Launcher

• Pythonista

• Editorial

• Workflow

• Airmail

One that wasn't mentioned but which would be useful is:

• Copied. There's a nice article about it here.

The x-callback-url specification is described here..

The web automation services discussed can be found here:

• IFTTT

• Zapier

• Stringify

Mostly everything discussed in this item is from 3rd party app developers. Although not everything has an Android equivalent, we can see where this is going and how to easily take advantage of what you have once you know about it. It's advanced quickly over the past few years.

 

Customer Requirements

Marna talked about one customer requirement that caught her eye, and even Martin liked:

• 99998 on developerWorks RFE: BCPii support for additional properties

The requestor would like BCPii to provide more CEC information, specifically:

• storage-total-installed

• storage-hardware-system-area

• storage-customer

• storage-customer-central

• storage-customer-available

Where We'll Be

Marna will be at SHARE in San Jose, California March 6 through March 10, 2017.

Martin has a plan to go nowhere but that could be oh so easily derailed. :-)

On The Blog

Martin has published one blog post recently:

• DDF Networking

Marna has written one:

• Arriving in HOLDDATA near you: z/OS V2.3 FIXCATs!

  z/OS V2.3 FIXCATs are: IBM.Coexistence.z/OS.V2R3 and IBM.TargetSystem-RequiredService.z/OS.V2R3

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.

Martin Packer and Marna Walle discuss a z/OS platform installation strategy (between IBM and ISVs!), Parallel Sysplex performance updates, and voice-activated assistants.

Here are the show notes for Episode 9 "Back in Black". The show is called "Back in Black" because:

• We've been away for a long time, traveling for Martin and on vacation for Marna.

• A vague reference to a BBC tv show about British fantasy author, Terry Pratchett

We are very happy to be resuming our episodes, and the next isn't far behind this one!

Continuous Delivery Follow-up Announcements

• January 10, 2017 IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.3 is further enhanced with the continuous delivery model and the IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.4 open beta offering is updated

• January 19, 2017 IBM Customer Insight for Banking V2.0, IBM Client Insight for Wealth Management V2.0, and IBM Incentive Compensation Management V10.0 follow the IBM Continuous Delivery Lifecycle Policy.

Where we've been

Martin has been all over since our last podcast! Whittlebury UK (with Marna), Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Toronto, Chicago, and the IBM Silicon Valley Lab.

Marna has been to the IBM Technical University in Austin, TX.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was an interview with John Eells, z/OS System Test and lead on the Software Installation Strategy.

This topic is very important for z/OS system programmers to understand. IBM and ISVs have been working on a common install method, that handles both SMP/E and non-SMP/E. This would go beyond laying down code, and would eventually hook seamlessly into doing configuration tasks (via z/OSMF Workflow). It would even be able to package software, if you wanted to, and all delivered within the base z/OS operating system.

The common install method would be provided through z/OSMF's Software Management plug-in, so make sure you are setting up and becoming familiar with z/OSMF now.

John and Marna also talked about some of the wishlist items we'd like to see in this solution.

Performance

Our "Performance" topic was about some about additions and changes to Martin's Parallel Sysplex Performance presentation that he's been presenting over the years. Somehow this presentation never seems to get any shorter.

This presentation has several sections: Structure-Level CPU, Matching CF and PR/SM views of CPU, Structure Duplexing, XCF traffic, CF link information, and CF Thin Interrupts.

The new parts and changes he has made in this presentation are:

• Asynchronous Duplexing for lock structures. You can also find a good Mainframe Insights article about this by David Surman here.

• XCF traffic and Data Sharing Group topology

and

• CF Thin Interrupts and CPU.

The updates have been presented in both Munich (at the System z Technical University) and at GSE Annual Conference. Slides are found on SlideShare's Parallel Sysplex Performance Topics from Munich 2016.

Topics

Ahoy! In our "Topics" section we discuss voice-activated assistants that have been hitting the market for a while now.

Martin has a good amount of experience in Siri from Apple and Alexa (Amazon) Echo and Dot. A third one is Google Home.

Martin talks about the various pros and cons on each. Considerations for using these include: inadvertent waking, integration with household devices (such as Philips Hue lights and Wemo switches), extendable capabilities (for Alexa they're called "Skills") that you can create yourself, what tasks you want it to do, future growth (where competition will help), and country availability.

 

Customer Requirements

Marna talked about two customer requirements that caught her eye:

• 100505 on developerWorks RFE: Specify DSN HLQ for Healthchecker Debugging

• 100362 on developerWorks RFE:z/OSMF create your own category on left bar

Where We'll Be

Marna will be at SHARE in San Jose, California March 6 through March 10, 2017.

On The Blog

Martin has published three blog posts recently:

• Lost For Words With DDF

• The Suite Spot

• SMT - Some Actual Graphs

Marna has written one: Trying out the new z/OSMF Workflow Editor

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.

Martin Packer and Marna Walle discuss z/OS release coexistence timing, Coupling Facility list structures, and the crowd-sourced app Waze.

Here are the show notes for Episode 8 "Queue Me Up". The show is called "Queue Me Up" because:

• Marna talks about moving up to higher z/OS releases...or releases "in the queue".




• Martin talks about the Coupling Facility list structures...or "queues". 

We had some follow up:

• IBM Doc Buddy - available for iOS and Android.

  
  
  

  The latest iOS level is currently 1.1.1.  The latest Android level is currently 1.1.2.  Still keep an eye out for updates, as they are coming out periodically and delivering requested functions.




• Continuous Delivery Follow-up

  
  
  

  October 4, 2016:  A DB2 12 recent announcement includes their Continuous Delivery message, with new functions via the service stream:  IBM DB2 12 for z/OS expands the value offered to your business by IBM's industry-leading mainframe data server

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was a discussion on z/OS upgrade timing considerations.

z/OS R13 is now out of service since end of September 2016, five years of regular service support since GA.  There are three consecutive releases of coexistence (with releases planned on coming out every two years).

This "discrepancy" between five years of service and and six years (three times two) of coexistence has been quite interesting and deserves some thought.  Marna talks about some considerations, and it might be that the "n-2" model should be reconsidered to be a "n-1" model for some customers.

Performance

Our "Performance" topic was an extension of this blog post of Martin's: Right On Queue.

Martin talks about Coupling Facility list structures, and how they are different from lock and cache structures.  He also covers some considerations and causes for how they might get filled up. (Think of the analogy of a pipe getting blocked as one case.) 

Sizing is important and he uses SMF 74-4 and RMF Monitor III.  A good rule of thumb is that your structure's maximum size should be in the range of 50% to 100% of the current size.  More than double puts you at risk of having a list structure full of control blocks and little data. You also need to monitor how much of the current size is actually in use.

Topics

In our "Topics" section we discussed a travel app called Waze.  It's a crowd-sourcing app you can use to get real-time travel estimates and routes.  It also alerts you about such items as accidents, debris, police cars, etc, which other users have reported.  This app is particularly useful even if you have to put up with a very small amount of advertising.

Where We'll Be

Martin is in the *shires (Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire, Wiltshire), as well as a short trip to Amsterdam, during the rest of the year (at the time of going to press). And...also with Marna in:

• Guide SHARE Europe UK, November 1-2, 2016.  A roving microphone might appear, so please join the conversation if you wish!

Marna is going to:

• IBM TechU Comes to You in Austin, TX, November 14-16, 2016

On The Blog

As well as Right On Queue, Martin posted to his blog since our last episode:

• Automatic for the Peep-Hole - about experimenting with automation for his Apple watch to dictate and send emails - using both web-based and on-device tools. It was really a test bed for thinking about when on-device automation is best and when web-based automation is better.




• Transaction Counts - about counting transactions with RMF.

Contacting Us

You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.

You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email.

Or you can leave a comment below.

Martin Packer and Marna Walle discuss Continuous Delivery on z/OS, building bigger servers, and Powerpoint in this podcast.