Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast

By Marna WalleTechnology

Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast episodes

November 16, 2020Episode 27 "And Another Thing"
Episode 27 "And Another Thing" show notes. Long show note are here.
Follow up
Additional System Recovery Boost enhancements:
Sysplex partitioning recovery: Boosts all surviving systems in the sysplex as they recover and takes on additional workload following the planned or unplanned removal of a system from the sysplex.

Two more portable software instances: Db2 and IMS added to Shopz on Aug 20, 2020, in addition to CICS (Dec 2019).
ASK MPT
Martin was asked about which systems in a System Recovery Boost Speed Boost situation get their GCPs sped up to full speed.
Mainframe - Trying out Ansible for driving z/OSMF Workflows
Marna's been learning about Ansible and how it can drive z/OSMF work. So far with z/OSMF Workflows, from ansible-galaxy collection for ibm.ibmzoszosmf

Needed lots of assistance from two gracious Poughkeepsie system testers (massive thanks to Marcos Barbieri and Daniel Gisolfi !!)
Learning about an Ansible

Encountered two kinds of problems:

Security issues connecting the Linux environment to a large Poughkeepsie System Test z/OSMF environment

Workflow-related: duplicate instances when part of the playbook ran ok, and selecting an automated workflow.
Performance - So You Don't Think You're An Architect?
Brand new presentation for 2020, builds on the “who says what SMF is for?” slide in "How To Be A Better Performance Specialist"

Presentation talks about 3 layers

The Top Layer - Machines, Sysplexes And LPARs

The Middle Layer - Workloads And Middleware: Spikes, Restarts, Cloning, Topology, Software Levels

The Bottom Layer - Application Components: Db2 and MQ Accounting Trace, DDF topology, data sets

Fulfilling the definiton Of Architecture? Understand what's really going on and valuable to system architects
Topics - Notifications
They are unsolicited messages appearing on the device, generally interruptions whether wanted or not.

Examples of what is received and where/
IFTTT still a favorite of Marna's, mentioned in Episode 23 “The Preview That We Do” Topics topic. Martin just subscribed to Premium, but at a low-ball price.

How do you manage them to reduce their number.

An advanced topic is how you can generate your own

On iOS the Pushcut app: a webhook from eg IFTTT can cause a notification

On Android we have MacroDroid.
Customer requirements
Customer Requirement 138729 : z/OS Console message help support JES2 messages
IBM response: This RFE has been delivered via APAR PH24072 at end of June 2020. It's available on both V2R3 and V2R4. The JES2 message prefix such as $ can be setup in "Configure Message Help" dialog in z/OSMF Console UI.

On the blog
Martin's blog posts are here

Marna's blog posts are https://blog.share.org/Article/tag/marnas-musings
So it goes.
57 min
July 06, 2020Episode 26 "Sounding Board"
Here are the show notes for Episode 26 "Sounding Board". The show is called this because it relates to our Topics topic, and because we recorded the episode partly in the Pougkeepsie recording studio where Martin sounded zen, and partly at home.
What’s New
APAR PH21919: NEW FUNCTION - WORKFLOW SUPPORT SAVE JOB OUTPUT
PTF Numbers are UI68359 for 2.3 and UI68360 for 2.4

APAR OA56774 (since 2.2) Provides new function to prevent a runaway sysplex application from monopolizing a disproportionate share of CF resources
Not based on CF CPU consumption. Is based on deteriorating service times to other structures - which you could measure with SMF 74-4 Coupling Facility Activity data.

Mainframe - z15 FIXCATs
IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RequiredService: Absolute minimum needed to run on a z15. Usually intent is to keep these PTFs to a minimum - and keep the number of PTFs relatively constant. <>

IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.Exploitation: Needed for optional functions, and you can decide when you want to use them. This PTF list could grow - if we add new functions

IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RecommendedService: Usually to fix a defect that is found but haven’t risen up to required. Might want to run an SMP/E REPORT MISSINGFIX to see what’s in this FIXCAT. Might install some, all, or none of the fixes. Might want to be more selective. Based on how much change you want to encounter, versus what problems are fixed

By the way there are other FIXCATs you might want to be interested in for z15, e.g. IBM.Function.SYSPLEXDataSharing
Performance - DFSORT And Large Memory
A very special guest joins us, Dave Betten, former DFSORT performance lead.

Dave talked about DFSORT memory controls
DFSORT has historically been an aggressive user of memory

Installation defaults can be used to control that

But the EXPOLD parameter needs special care - because of what constitutes "old pages", which aren't actually unused.

DFSORT Tuning Guide, especially Chapter 3

Dave talked about how handy rustling up RMF Overview Reports can be, with several Overview conditions related to memory.

Most of the information in this topic is relevant to LPARs of all sizes
Topics - Update on recording techniques
Recording of podcast - still using Skype to collaborate

Production - Editing - Moved to Ferrite on iPad OS

Publishing - same process as before, but on a new publisher!
Customer requirements (assume usual disclaimer)
RFE 139477 “Please include the CPU Time Limit for a Job/Step in SMF Type 30”
After the fact - End of step looks useful. Could run query comparing to actual CPU time, then track to see if ABEND is on the horizon

“ As it happens ” - Would like on the SMF Interval as well as Step End records. May not need the SMF information if vendor and IBM tools already do it today.
On the blog
Martin's has blog posts since the last episode.

Marna has three on her blog here.
So it goes...
57 min
March 22, 2020Episode 25 "Flit for Purpose"
Here are the show notes for Episode 25 “Flit for Purpose”. The show is called this because it relates to our Topic, and also can be related to our Mainframe topic (as a pun for “Fit for Purpose”).
Mainframe Topic: Highest highlights of z/OS V2.4 and z/OS on z15
Highlight 1: zCX

Highlight 2: z/OSMF
Lots of z/OSMF enhancements that have arrived in z/OS V2.4, and the good news is that most of them are rolled back to V2.3 in PTFs that have been arriving quarterly.

Security Configuration Assistant: A way within z/OSMF to validate your security configuration with graphic views, on the user and user group level. Designed to work with all three External Security Managers!

Available back to V2.3 with APAR PH15504 and additional group id enhancements in APAR PH17871

Diagnostic Assistant for z/OSMF : A much simplier way to gather the necessary information to need for a Service person to perform debug for your z/OSMF problem.
Hightlight 3: SRB on on z15: System Recovery Boost :Speeds up your shutdown for up to 30 minutes and speeds your re-IPL for 60 minutes, with no increase to your rolling four hour average.
Performance Topic: z15 from chip design on upwards
Disclaimer: personal view, not from Development or Marketing. Marna and Martin were talking about the z15 Chip design – and we thought those observations might be useful to include in the Performance topic.

Two traditional levers were raising clock speed or shrinking the feature size.

GHz and nm aren’t the be all and end all. Look at chip design.

Start with a similar sized CP chip and putting more on it. It helped to get rid of the Infiniband-related circuits, and some layout enhancements.

At the top end there are up to 190 characterisable cores, coming up from 170. This can give us a fifth drawer – which is quite important.
Topic: How To Do A Moonlight Flit
This topic is about moving one’s social output, in particular blogs and podcast series. Martin’s blog had to move, because the IBM developerWorks blog site is being shut down. Martin's blog has had to move, as well as this podcast.

Immediately people might worry about Request For Enhancements being affected , and it is not.

Martin and Marna discuss important aspects to consider when moving your social media.

You must consider all the pieces when do you the most.

You must also try to redirect your audience.
Contacting us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
42 min
March 22, 2020Episode 24 "Our Wurst Episode"
Here are the show notes for Episode 24 “Our Wurst Episode”. The show is called this because we both attended the IBM TechU in Berlin, Germany, and our Topics topic is our trip report.
Mainframe Topic: CICS ServerPac in z/OSMF
IBM’s first delivery on new installation strategy, will be with CICS and associated SREL products. This is the first of many (really, all).

Choice on new installation strategy or old during ShopZ ordering.

We encourage making the z/OSMF choice, as that is consistent between IBM and other vendors, and is intended to be easier.

Infrastructure already available in continuously delivery PTFs, and rolled back to z/OS V2.2. This makes the driving system have the proper infrastructure so anybody can package and deliver that way.

All software that you ordered as a ServerPac, and installed either way, will give you the same (or hopefully better) equivalent installation.

There is an IBM Statement Of Direction that this installation choice is coming, but we do not have an exact date yet.

For other software ISVs, they can exploit the new z/OS installation strategy whenever they are ready.

Prepare now by becoming familiar with z/OSMF Software Management and Workflows
Performance Topic: DB2 And I/O Priority Queuing
Follow on from Screencast / Martin's Blog post topic:, "Screencast 12 – Get WLM Set Up Right"

Recent talk has been about whether to turn off I/O Priority Queuing in WLM.

Service classes with DB2 subsystems in are heavily I/O Sample oriented, which is unusual among service classes in a system.

Means access to CPU is not properly managed, as CPU & zIIP samples few, relative to I/O samples. Reminder: Most of DBM1 is now zIIP-eligible.

Can achieve goal even with lots of delay for zIIP or CPU, but that’s definitely not what you want.

You don’t want to just turn off WLM I/O Priority Queuing, as it’s sysplex-wide, it might affect other work that needs it, and Db2 might actually need it.

First you need a reasonably achievable goal for the service class. Make sure you’re more or less achieving the existing goal.

Second, calculate what the velocity achieved would be without I/O priority queuing .

You should evaluate or adjust the goal attainment, but that is BAU. Changing WLM always needs some care.
Topics: Berlin Trip Report May 20-24
We both attended IBM Z TechU in Berlin, and got to see each other.

Marna had about six sessions.
The SMP/E Rookies session had fabulous attendance – 44. Some were more experienced, but most were not.
z/OSMF had good attendance too, about 82. More are interested in this topic, especially if you compare to just a couple of years ago.
Best attended was the z/OS V2.4 Preview, with about 150 people. There was excellent interest in what is coming in the new release.
Marna did her own poster to help with z/OSMF configuration, and several people came by to chat.

Both Marna and Martin shared a poster about this podcast. We helped with getting one person a podcast app (on each platform), and a subscription to this podcast.

Martin had five sessions. One was co-written with Anna, “2 / 4 LPARs” Two were solo efforts: Parallel Sysplex Performance Topics, and Even 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 and blogs at blog.
43 min
March 22, 2020Episode 23 "The Preview that We Do"
Here are the show notes for Episode 23 “The Preview That We Do”. The show is called this because we talk about the newly previewed z/OS release, V2.4, in the Mainframe section. This is our 24th episode too! How convenient!
Mainframe: z/OS V2.4 Preview
“z/OS Container Extensions” (zCX) zCX Information

z/OS Upgrade Workflow, no book

More in Pervasive Encryption

zFS enhancements

MCS logon passphrases
Biggest question one may have: what level of HW will z/OS V2.4 IPL on? z/OS V2.4 will run on zEC12/BC12 and higher.
Performance: Coupling Facility Structure Duplexing
Two types of CF structure duplexing:
User-Managed: Only DB2 Group Buffer Pools (GBP)
System-Managed: e.g DB2 IRLM LOCK1 Structure

Structure performance matters:
User-Managed not an issue.
System-Managed matters.

Asynchonous CF Structure Duplexing Announced October 2016

Important considerations if Async CF Duplexing good all the time:
People make architectural decisions and this should not be a leap in the dark .
Ideally should be established with a little testing, with testing as close to production behaviors as possible.
Generally it’s good for you.
Configuration: Format couple data set, put into service, and then REALLOCATE. Again speaks to planning and testing.

The main event for this item is SMF.

SMF 74-4 Coupling Facility Activity data, primarily interested in structure-level, especially for structure duplexing of any kind. Though CF to CF pathing information also available.

New Async CF Duplexing instrumentation APAR OA49148

Early days of Async CF Duplexing despite having been announced in 2016. Martin has been using a customer’s test data, and would like to build experience. Only a portion of this new SMF 74-4 data is surfaced in RMF Postprocessor reports.

z/OSMF Sysplex Management can help visualize and control the Sysplex resources. This function to help with control is in PI99307: SYSPLEX MANAGEMENT APPLICATION ENHANCEMENTS TO MODIFY SYSPLEX RESOURCES.
Topics: Smart home thermostats
Marna just installed two Nest thermostats, one in each zone (of a three-zone house). Is sharing data with Nest, and presumably whoever owns Nest currently (Google). Instrumentation benefit is having an app in which she can look at what is happening at home, when away, and control it too.
There are excellent graphs on what has been used (hours of heating, cooling) in the app.
Martin doesn’t have a smart home thermostat, but does have a remote oil tank sensor to determine how much oil is left. This sensor feeds back into a device in the house, and connects to an app on his phone.
It costs 5 GBP a month, but is unsure yet if it is worth it.
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
34 min
March 22, 2020Episode 22 "Great App-spectations"
Here are the show notes for Episode 22 “Great App-spectations”. The show is called this because we talk about app expections in our Topics topic.
Mainframe: PI99365 Two enhancements in z/OSMF Operator Consoles
Support for “sticking” WTOR and held messages on the top of the console area

Visible EMCS console name
View WTOR and HOLD messages in a separate window

Visible console name part

Overall: These two function areas help you manage your z/OSMF operator consoles better.
Performance: Paging Subsystem Design in an age of Virtual Flash
Performance: Paging Subsystem Design in an age of Virtual Flash
Question from customer about need for paging space if Flash installed , which was answered in Martin’s blog post, but there is more thinking about this.

Look at the paging subsystem design in the round, with two flavours of Flash: FlashExpress (PCIE) and VFM

Design standpoint ideally as if no Flash

Paging subsystem design: Two main considerations: Space and Performance

Come together in “30% Contiguous Slot Allocation Algorithm breakdown” rule of thumb

Instrumentation
RMF SMF 71, also covers memory. Flash treated like ordinary paging device.
RMF SMF 74-10 in OA50761

Wrap up: Paging subsystem design still worthy of care, and establish whether risk of Flash or Virtual Flash warrants conservative configuration of paging subsystem.
Topics: Anatomy Of A Great App
“App” here means “third party software” but we’ll say app for short
Highly biased on expectations in iOS, as Martin is a power user.

Marna gave the Android perspective

z/OS perspective was discussed.

Conclusion: Think about more than just what your app is supposed to do. Nobody wants software whose function they like but they hate using. It is way too easy to uninstall an app (or have hundreds of them and not use them).
Keep to the “Principle of least astonishment”.
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
43 min
March 22, 2020Episode 21 "Fits and Starts"
Here are the show notes for Episode 21 “Fits and Starts”. The show is called this because we talk about fitness devices, and the Performance topic that had work submitted after a one minute hiatus.
Mainframe: SMF Recording of APF Modifications
Post-IPL dynamic APF changes are reflected in SMF 90 Subtype 37. A lot of the function is in z/OS V2.2, with these fields in the SMF record:
Function:
Add, Delete, DynFormat, StatFormat
Was the update via SETPROG, SET PROG, CSVAPF
Parmlib member suffix for the SET PROG case, ...

Triggers when post-IPL APF changes dynamically: PROGxx: APF ADD …or APF DELETE … SETPROG APF,ADD,… or SETPROG APF,DELETE,…

Ensure to collect by setting in SMFPRMxx type 90 subtype 37 record

Presumably there’s not much overhead, as it will be produced when changes happen (which is probablyl not often).

Auditors will probably want this
Performance: An interesting Db2 DDF case
Central to Martin’s DDF work is some analysis code to process SMF 101 DB2 Accounting Trace.
A customer complained their DDF application stopped dead one evening – for 1 minute. It was an application serviced by a 3-way Datasharing group. The customer sent SMF 101 data from all 3 members for 3 hours around the stoppage, and for 3 hours the previous evening for a presumably “good behaviour”.
Martin plotted application statistics at a one second interval level. It showed a 40-second stoppage the evening they hadn’t complained, making the 1 minute threshold interesting as a number.
Martin “zoomed in” to a much shorter time range . When transactions started again they were elongated, and it that was due to the clustered arrivals in clearing the backlog.
The best theory is something external stopped transactions arriving.
Further he thought there could be “near misses” many times, just short of the 1 minute mark. After transactions started coming again there were spikes in transactions arriving every minute. The speculation is this might be the middle tier doing something on a 1 minute basis: Maybe retries of some sort?
Topics: Fitness Tracking
Marna uses a Fitbit Charge 2.
Key features: sleep analysis, step counts, heart rate.
Fitbit app for the Android: calculates floors, miles, calories, sleep analysis, across timescales – day, month, overall, etc and compares with age bracket.

Martin uses an Apple Watch, and used to have a Fitbit. He wanted the Watch for other reasons: for health a few months ago, and all of the above – except for sleep tracking.

Marna gets employer incentives, to help with health care cost reduction.

Martin has been successful, as he hasn’t failed to close his rings for 3 months, for the Apple Watch. This makes him obsessive. Uses iOS Overcast podcast player to send podcast episodes to the watch. Runs with just the watch and AirPods. Listening to podcasts keeps me going – whether running or walking. He has lost a considerable amount of weight! Cardiac situation much better, lowered resting heart rate, faster recovery from exercise, and clothes fit better.
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
34 min
March 22, 2020Episode 20 "Two is One and One is None"
Here are the show notes for Episode 20 "Two Is One And One Is None". The show is called this because our Topic topic is trying to figure out how to archive family photos and videos.
Mainframe: zFS Shrink, Only in z/OS V2.3
A system command for reducing the size of a zfs file system. Not be confused with compressing files within a file system. Found on zfsadm shrink. You specify a target size with the size option, gives _final_ size in KB, gets rounded to 8K boundary .
-noai option: means no active increase. A file system is being accessed, might need additional blocks over the shrink size given. so it can be "actively increased" by default.

During a shrink a scan occurs to determine what blocks must move...longest part of the operation. Blocks are moving from the portion to be released, into the portion that is to remain.

After Blocks are moved, and then space is release - in which it will be briefly quiesced. Applications do not need to be stopped when doing a shrink.
Reminder to use aggrgrow to increase the size of the filesystem. Monitor with SMF 92 subtype 50 for both grow and shrink events. Subtype 59 for # of I/Os and rate, but might occur too often, so use it wisely.
Performance: CPENABLE and HiperDispatch
I/O ends with an Interrupt. Needs to be handled by a processor, and needs to be handled in a timely way. Can be handled with Test Pending Interrupt (TPI). If test true this CP handles pending interrupt. If false then handled by normal interrupt handling. If many TPI successes suggests queue build up. Trade off between timeliness and processor efficiency
There’s a trade off between timeliness and processor efficiency. The CPENABLE parameter’s values manage this trade off. There are two values: if TPI% below first disable a processor from handling I/O interrupts, and if TPI% above second enable a processor to handle them.
Without Hiperdispatch, access to CPU is smeared across online processors, as the LPAR’s weight is evenly spread across its logical processors. Without Hiperdispatch it is recommended that CPENABLE be set to 0,0 which allows all processors to handle interrupts.
Overall this topic shows I/O Interrupt Enablement is a topic worthy of consideration to get timeliness vs efficiency right – particularly in the Hiperdispatch era. Also that the instrumentation really helps.
Topics: Archived Family Information
Talking about personal and family information: photos, audio, and video only. Not writings. Some serious questions:
“What happens when I’m dead?” Facebook, for one, has a protocol. Google has a protocol.

Ideally write a will and tell family how to handle material.

Will anyone else care about the material?

“What about Big Brother” : Everyone has something to hide, it’s about trusting the service provider

“Who owns the material?” and do you care?
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
37 min
March 22, 2020Episode 19 "You've lost that syncing feeling"
Here are the show notes for Episode 19 "You've lost that syncing feeling". The show is called this because our Topic topic is about losing the Xmarks URL synchronization tool.
Mainframe
Our "Mainframe" topic discusses moving from V4 to V5 zFS, prompted by a user comment that had a very positive experience.
The old version for zFS was V4. V5 gives you a directory using a tree structure for faster searching. This should be faster than a naive linear search approach.

To take advantage of this, you need to convert from old V4 format to V5.

You can convert: offline with _IOEFSUTL_, online with _zfsadm convert_ , _IOEFSPRM CONVERTTOV5=ON_ , and on _MOUNT_ - you choose.

Steps are: ensure fully at V2.1, set _IOEPRMxx format_aggrversion=5_ for new file systems, set _IOEPRMxx change_aggrversion_on_mount=on_ for fast safe file system switch to V5, determine if you want _IOEPRMxx CONVERTTOV5=ON_ for one-time switch on directory access. Delay is expected!

If cannot tolerate one-time delay, use _MOUNT CONVERTTOV5_ to selectively determine most benefit, on large directories and those highest used (_F ZFS,QUERY,FILESETS_)

Use _zfsadm fileinfo_ to see a directory version, use _zfsadm aggrinfo -long_ to look at all the file systems.
Performance
Our Performance topic is a survey of Licence-Related Instrumentation. Most shops are very conscious of software costs. Martin discusses the instrumentation portion.
SMF can help you: System-Level SMF 70 give you the rolling 4 hour averages, defined capacity and group capacity information, and high-level CPU . System-Level SMF 89 gives you more detailed information on licencing: product usage names, and CPU. Service Class Level SMF 72-3 gives you Service Units (SUs) consumed on zIIP, on general purpose CP, and zIIP-Eligible on general purpose CP.
Mobile SUs one category and total SUs another

Resource consumption in general . Address Space Level SMF 30 gives you a usage data section for topology and for CPU in a product sometimes.

Container-Based Pricing introduces new metrics: 70-1, 89, 72-3, and Tenant Classes and Tenant Resource Groups explicitly documented.

Topics
Our podcast "Topics" topic is about Marna losing a handy and simple URL sync tool, XMarks. Xmarks used to let you save bookmarks between browsers with other cool capabilities. It was discontinued on May 1, 2018. XMarks was a plug-in to browser, logon, sync, and they were there! With multiple profiles.
Here are some https://techwiser.com/xmarks-alternatives/ ? :
NetVibes: better for rss feeds and dashboard seem to be its strength.

Google Bookmarks syncs URLs; But still only for Firefox and Chrome. Gmarks will connect to google servers.

Modern browsers can fake the User Agent to look like IE

Diigo (at https://www.diigo.com/toolsw) ith a toolbar: not used it. Pricing plans, sharing URLs. A bit too heavyweight/

The promising one is called Raindrop (at https://raindrop.io/) for Chrome, FF, and Safari. Just started trying it out. Works between Windows and Android!

Safari / Mobile Safari use iCloud syncing and work out of the box. But if you share an Apple ID, watch out!
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
27 min
March 22, 2020Episode 18 "What we won't have in common anymore"
Here are the show notes for Episode 18 "What we won't have in common anymore". The show is called this because our Mainframe topic is about some removals in common storage planned for the release after z/OS V2.3.
Mainframe
Our "Mainframe" topic discusses a future planned removal coming in the release after z/OS V2.3.
Four items actually form what we've titled "User Key In Common Storage Removal". This has been outlined in a Statement of Direction, and is documented in the z/OS V2.3 Migration Workflow and book.
ALLOWUSERKEYCSA in DIAGxx will be treated as NO.

Removal of support for obtaining User Key CSA

Can’t change ESQA storage to User Key

Can’t create a SCOPE=COMMON Dataspace in User Key.

New capabilities with OA53355, which is at z/OS 2.1 and above:
SMF 30 has been enhanced to identify jobs/steps that use user key common storage.

SLIP Trap Capability. Single slip trap covering the removed items.

A new z/OS Health Checker for z/OS health check, ZOSMIGV2R3_NEXT_VSM_USERKEYCOMM..
Performance
Martin talked about what’s in a data set name and this topic is about getting insight by parsing data set names. His reporting code, which processes SMF 14 (OPEN for read) and SMF 15 (OPEN for write) records, bolds data set qualifiers (or segment names) if they match any of a bunch of criteria. Now, new criteria have been added to investigating data set names.
The new criteria are job step name, dates (in lots of formats), job step program name, “SORT” in the qualifier, and system SMFID.
While the code doesn't see "partner" job names (for instance, where one writes to a data set and the partner reads from the data set),
those could be detected using the Life Of A Data Set (LOADS) technique, which we can talk about more one day.
And surely there will be more interesting finds in other customers' data set names. As they are stumbled upon the code can be enhanced to learn these new tricks - as Martin refactored it to make it easier to add new criteria.
Topics
Our podcast "Topics" topic is about two cheap and fun pieces of hardware Martin has been playing with: Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Arduino is more hardware oriented. It is an open source hardware board. It is a microcontroller you download small programs to from e.g. a PC, written in a flavour of C. It is optimised for driving electronics, e.g. on a breadboard and boards you plug into the top of the Arduino (called shields).Martin has three Arduino shields: An SD Card reader/writer, a 7-segment display, and graphical LCD display.

Raspberry Pi is more for software. It is a small cheap computer on a card.Martin's has 4 USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet, Wifi, and runs Raspbian. You can run other builds. He bought an HDMI monitor for it (HP 27es).He also found a Logitech K780 keyboard and a Logitech M720 mouse. Both of these can be switched instantaneously between 3 computers, connected via Bluetooth or USB.
Contacting Us
You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email.
You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.
27 min

About Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast

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Martin Packer (Principal z Systems Investigator) and Marna Walle (z/OS Development) are two IBMers talking about whatever z/OS topics come to mind. Often guest experts weigh in on current…

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Mainframe, Performance, Topics Podcast episodes

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