Mainframe, Performance, Topics

Here are the show notes for Episode 7 "We Were On a Break". The show is called "We Were On a Break" because:

• It's been a very long time since we last recorded an episode. You should read nothing into other than our schedules and, in particular, Martin's long holiday put paid to recording for a while.

  But now we're back...

We had one piece of follow up:

• IBM Doc Buddy - available for iOS and Android.

  This app has been enhanced with new components (aka libraries) and has received some fixes that users have found. There's a very reponsive team working on this tool! This app is now better than the old LookAt tool, since reason codes can be searched.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was a discussion on Continuous Delivery.

Marna talked about four important references to understand what the z/OS platform is doing for Continuous Delivery. (IBM is embracing Agile development for many new functions, and will be providing those functions to customers in a Continuous Delivery method.)

• March 18, 2016 Redpaper on the z/OS base operating system's usage of Continuous Delivery: IBM z/OS Continuous Delivery

• May 24, 2016 General IBM announcement on what an IBM product might do for Continuous Delivery: IBM Software Support Lifecycle Policy is enhanced with a continuous delivery support model for eligible, on-premise IBM software products

• April 19, 2016 IBM MQ for z/OS announcement for usage of Continuous Delivery: IBM MQ for z/OS, V9.0 delivers new, more flexible delivery and support options, standards-based messaging support for additional environments, and improved management and administration capabilities. Note "... From this version of IBM MQ onwards, IBM offers a new delivery and support model that separates out the delivery of defect fixes from the delivery of any new function. ..."

• July 12, 2016 IBM CICS Transaction Server announcement for some functions using Continous Delivery: IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.3 is enhanced with continuous delivery and the IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS, V5.4 open beta offering is introduced . Note "....delivered using the standard CICS service channel.."

Takeaway: some products will be putting their new functions in the service stream, while others might be putting them in releases. Read announcements carefully to see which of your products is following which model. Performance

Our "Performance" topic was an extension of this blog post of Martin's: Why Do We Keep Building Bigger Machines?

We acknowledge this is quite a high level treatment but it's a question that we're sure has been in the back of lots of minds. We've ideas to take some of the subtopics and make them topics in their own right.

Topics

In our "Topics" section we discussed what we (especially Martin) are using for creating presentations these days.

Products Martin mentioned were:

• PDF Pen
• Pixelmator
• Autodesk Graphic
• Powerpoint
• Dropbox
• Box

These are all available in some form or other for both Mac OS and iOS. And, of course, other tools are available.

Where We'll Be

Martin is going nowhere fast. :-) Seriously, his travel plans are relatively local for the next few weeks.

Marna is going to:

• Edge in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 19-22, 2016

• IBM TechU Comes to You in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 4-6, 2016

Interesting Customer Requirements

Here's two customer requirements we've taken notice of. Of course, IBM may or may not decide to do them, but they might be interesting if you'd like to vote on them.

• "zFS Definitions of Greater Than 4 GB Not Being SMS-Managed Should be Available Under IDCAMS", ID 92523

• "Let IBM Knowledge Center search within a manual and simplify the use", ID 93288 .

Request for Enhancements (RFEs) can be found here. Most z/OS items are under Brand "Servers and Systems Software", and Product "z/OS". Hint: use "I want to specify the brand, product family, and product" when searching. On The Blog

As well as Why Do We Keep Building Bigger Machines?, Martin posted to his blog since our last episode:

• A Record Of Sorts - about using DFSORT SMF 16 with SMF=FULL creatively to track record counts across job steps.

• Fearful Symmetry - about why things are out of balance.

• Correlation Not Corroboration - about DB2 SMF 101 Accounting Trace Not Accounted For Time.

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 updates to the zEvent app, a new app for messages (IBM Doc Buddy), and when new workload arrives to z/OS.

Here are the show notes for Episode 6 "Expect The Unexpected". Here is the link back to all episodes: Mainframe, Performance, Topics episodes.

The show is called "Expect The Unexpected" for two reasons:

• We really didn't expect to be recording an episode in this timeframe.
• The Performance topic lends itself to such a title.

We had one piece of follow up:

• IBM zEvent has been updated to 3.0.0 ("The Cat") on both Android and iOS. It has enhancements in lots of areas. The one we both noticed was the ability to show and scan QR codes for connections.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was a discussion on IBM Doc Buddy - available for iOS and Android.

It's a tool for looking up error messages and is now enhanced with z/OS Unix Reason Codes. It enables retrieving z Systems message documentation and provides the allows you to look up message documentation without Internet connections after downloading desired files.

It's available for z/OS, as well as other products like CICS, and IMS, and for many releases of those products.

Performance

Our "Performance" topic was about what happens when unexpected work appears on your beloved mainframes. A number of themes were discussed, including:

• Not knowing mobile workload was appearing - leading to potential loss of savings on Mobile Workload Pricing.
• When unannounced work arrives, leading to implications for e.g. Security, Performance Management, and Capacity Provisioning.

In reality how you handle this is a governance and culture question, but we want you to think about the problem.

Topics

In our "Topics" section we discussed two items:

• iTunes - where you can now find our podcast here. We hope some of you find this new way to subscribe easier.
• Liberated Syndication (or LibSyn for short). This gives us some interesting statistics about our listenership.

Where We'll Be

Martin is taking a well deserved vacation for July, so there'll be no new podcast episodes in July. But we promise to return early in the Autumn!

Marna is going to SHARE in Atlanta, August 1-5, and IBM Systems Symposium in Sydney Australia (August 16-17).

On The Blog

Martin posted to his blog, since our last episode:

• What Do I Know?

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 their trip to Munich, Germany for the z Systems Technical University. Several technical tidbits that were picked up or noted are covered, including the zEvent app.

Here are the show notes for Episode 5 "The Long Road Back From Munich". Here is the link back to all episodes: Mainframe, Performance, Topics episodes.

The show is called "The Long Road Back From Munich" because we've both returned from a successful z Systems conference 2016 IBM z Systems Technical University, 13 - 17 June, Munich, Germany. For one of us the journey was much longer back than for the other one.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was Marna's z/OS observations from the conference:

• IBM HTTP Server Powered by Apache: it seemed about 30-40% were impacted by the move from the Domiino to Apache server. More than hoped, but if you work on it while on z/OS R13 or V2.1, you'll be well-positioned for z/OS V2.2.

• zEvent sessions: Martin and Marna both went to Harald Bender's zEvent session where he discussed using your mobile device (either Apple or Android) to receive timely information about events on your z/OS system. The handouts are here: zEvent and z/OS Console Messages to Your Mobile Device . This app was so easy to download and start using, Martin did just that during Harald's session!

• z/OSMF: Marna was happy with the interest in z/OSMF, and with the z/OSMF V2.2 enhancements rolled back into z/OSMF V2.1 in PTFs from January 2016 PTF UI90034.There is no reason to delay using it. The z/OSMF lab for SDSF, however, had a problem as CEA had gotten its TRUSTED attribute removed somehow before Munich. After it was made TRUSTED (after the conference), everything was fine again. Goes to show how important the security settings are for z/OSMF!

• z/OS V2.2: Good interest in the release. Happy to see so many people already running z/OS V2.

• Secure electronic delivery: Since regular FTP for electronic delivery was removed on March 22, 2016, only secure delivery is available. No one at the conference said they were impacted, which was nice to see.

Performance

Our "Performance" topic was Martin's performance observations from the conference:

• State Of SMT Instrumentation Knowledge: Simultaneous Multi Threading (SMT) metrics are not well understood at this point. Customer data from turning on SMF (for both zIIP and IFL) is starting to appear on Martin's desk. The good news is that the pickup on this function is fast.

• His Presentations: Martin's sessions were nicely attended. Martin is continuing with his fun at looking at DDF, and "He Picks on CICS" might have more information to be added in the future.

The presentations can be found on Slideshare:

• He Picks On CICS

• More Fun With DDF

• Parallel Sysplex Performance Topics

• How To Be A Better Performance Specialist

Topics

In our "Topics" section we discussed various other conference observations:

• Martin presented sessions from his iPad.: Although a lot of cables had to be carried around, it did work fine. He even used his Apple Pencil to mark on the slides during his presentations. So he might never lug a laptop to a conference again. Famous last words!

• Conference poster sessions: What a success! Martin & Marna had a poster about...wait for it...this podcast. Martin was very busy talking to people who were interested in our poster. Marna also had a poster on using MyNotifications for New Function APAR notification: New Function APAR Notifications .

  We tried out a QR code for our podcast, and it worked for most all people.

  Paparazzi were there to take photos of some famous folk that stopped by the poster sessions:

  Where We'll Be

  Martin is taking a well deserved vacation for July, so there'll be no new podcast episodes in July. But we promise to return early in the Autumn!

  Marna is going to SHARE in Atlanta, August 1-5, and IBM Systems Symposium in Sydney Australia (August 16-17).

  On The Blog

  Martin posted to his blog, since our last episode:

  • Born With A Measuring Spoon In Its Mouth
  • Engineering
  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 the new AUTHSETSMF option in SMFPRMxx and Martin's "He Picks on CICS" session for the z Munich conference.

Here are the show notes for Episode 4 "The Road To Munich". Here is the link back to all episodes: Mainframe, Performance, Topics episodes.

The show is called "The Road To Munich" partly in homage to the Road To... movies and partly because we're preparing for the 2016 IBM z Systems Technical University, 13 - 17 June, Munich, Germany.

Follow Up

Following up the Episode 3 "Topics" item on iThoughts and Mind Mapping, Martin wrote up how to make a (colour-coded) legend in iThoughts The Legend on his blog.

Mainframe

Our "Mainframe" topic was on a small z/OS V2.1 enhancement that few seem to be using: SMFPRMxx's AUTHSETSMS. This new option controls whether you want to allow use of the SETSMS command, different from the SET SMS command, without tying it anymore to the specification of PROMPT. Exploiting this function is as easy as adding AUTSETSMS to your SMFPRMxx for the next IPL!

Performance

Our "Performance" item was a discussion on another of Martin's "2016 Conference Season" presentations: "He Picks On CICS".

We'll publish a link to the slides when they hit Slideshare, probably after the 2016 IBM z Systems Technical University, 13 - 17 June, Munich, Germany.

Topics

Under "Topics" we discussed Uncharted 4. The Wikipedia entry is here.

On The Blog

Martin posted to his blog, in addition to the previously-mentioned item:

• Shared Coupling Facility CPU And DYNDISP
• Refactoring ISPF File Tailoring And DFSORT
• More Fun With DDF

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.

And we hope to have a poster session in Munich. Join us then or come and stop us any time you like that week.

 

Marna Walle, Martin Packer, and special guest Glenn Wilcock discuss DFSMShsm using zEnterprise Data Compresssion. Martin gives some advice on how to be a better performance specialist (which isn't limited just to performance specialists). Also discussed is using mind maps for understanding concepts that fit in a tree-structure.

Martin Packer and Marna Walle discuss ordering IBM Ported Tools and z/OS V2.2, CF link latency, and an offline map app (Smart Maps Offline).

Martin Packer and Marna Walle discuss the z/OS V2.2 ISPF 3.1 mount table, page fixing db2 buffer pools, and Markdown.