IMS Tools for IMS Version 9
By
Ron Steele
L. B. Software - an
IBM Business Partner
Raleigh NC
919-523-0305
June 2005
43 IBM Tools are IMS V9 Ready
I want to focus on three very important ones, and then list and provide a link to more information for the other 40 for your reference. The three I want to focus on are:
- IMS performance Analyzer
- IMS Problem Investigator
- IMS Connect Extensions
Please
contact me for presentations, brochures, prices, education, or any information
about these tools.
IMS performance Analyzer V3.3
Even though this tool is V9 ready, it also supports V7 and V8.
The IBM IMS Performance Analyzer improves IMS system performance by providing a wide variety of reports that analyze performance, usage, and availability, including monitor reports, Fast Path Log reports, New Transaction Transit reports, Transaction Statistics Report, System Checkpoint Reports, Deadlock Reports, and an extract capability which includes CPU usage and DB update activity. IMS Performance Analyzer, Version 3.3 offers new reports and features that include comprehensive reporting for IMS Connect Extensions for z/OS event collection; a new Dashboard report that provides a quick overview of critical system performance indicators as well as being a springboard to other reports; a new BMP Checkpoint report that measures batch checkpoint frequency
that can impact online performance and system restartability; a Transaction History File
which allows you to collect detailed transaction performance data and export it into DB2
for help with long-term capacity planning and trend analysis; and an improved Report
Analysis that provides additional information to aid in the interpretation of reports.
Here is a link to the latest on this tool. This link will take you to the manuals, Brochure, and other documentation.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2imstools/imstools/imspa.html
The following is a description of some of the reports (there appears to be over a hundred good reports in IMS PA V3.3) you can get that are not in the IMS Monitor, and how you might use them.
The
Database IWAIT Analysis Report: This report (a portion of the report is
shown below) shows which database ddnames were waited on most by IMS, and
therefore, these might be the datasets you might want your DASD Tuner to focus
on for improving their performance. For example, notice that DB23AR2 was waited
on more times than the other ddnames, but its average IWAIT Time is very good.
Then notice that the second most IWAITs was for ddname DB23AR5, and its average
IWAIT Time is more than 4 times longer than DB23AR2, so a DASD Tuner may want
to focus on DB23AR5 first as improving its DASD response time will have
significantly more impact on improving user response time.
Also, note in the above report that you can see the percent of the total calls by region that are waiting on this ddname. This is another indicator as to which datasets you may want a Database or DASD Tuner to focus on, i. e., you want to focus on the datasets that will give you the most bang for the buck spent on tuning. Notice that ddname DIMS01D1 had the highest average IWAIT Time, but it only happened once during this monitoring interval.
The Transit Time Analysis by Transaction Code Report: This report comes from log data, and queuing time cannot be gotten from IMS Monitor Reports because the Monitor does not report Queue Times. This report shows where transactions are spending most of their time relative to the message queues, and it does support the Common Queue Server (CQS) for the Shared Queues feature which was delivered in IMS V6.
Notice that transaction TSTOCK, PSB PINVENT spent an average time in the Input Queue 3.217 seconds. This is a lot of time to spend in the Input Queue, and deserves investigation by the IMS Performance Person. Notice that the number of responses is provided so that you get the most bang for the buck…you may not want to spend a lot of time on what appears to be a performance problem, if the problem rarely occurs.
IMS Problem Investigator V1.1
IMS Problem Investigator for z/OS provides an enhanced level of problem determination services for IMS Transaction Manager (IMS TM) and IMS Database Manager (IMS DB) systems. Powerful automated features help to reduce the amount of time required to identify and analyze defects or other events of interest in the IMS log. Services can be accessed via an ISPF dialog or a batch reporting utility.
Key
Features
- Provides functionality which is similar to the IMS File Select and Formatting Print utility (DFSERA10) but with advanced features that make Log analysis quicker and easier. For those not familiar with DFSERA10, the following describes it features:
- Assists in the
examination and display of data from the IMS log data set
- Print or copy
an entire log data set
- Print or copy
from multiple log data sets based upon control statement input
- Select and
print log records on the basis of sequential position in the data set
- Select and
print external trace data sets
- Select and
print log records based upon data contained within the record itself,
such as the contents of a time, date, or identification field
- Allow exit
routines to special process any selected log records
- Contains an ISPF Dialog utility with a powerful viewing facility that enables easy navigation and formatted or ISPF Browse log data presentation. You can drill-down to display information at the field level.
- Includes a variety of statistical reports for improved tuning.
- Contains a batch reporting utility that lets you produce formatted or personalized reports. The Extract function can be used to produce a reduced log file for easier online analysis.
- Offers a Record Forms
function that lets you design your own customized record reporting layout
so you view required information only.
- Offers a Filtering
Criteria function that lets you select only the records you want to view.
Selection by field name avoids field-offset calculations, and the
conditional logic offers full flexibility.
- Contains a DBRC
Log Selection function that automatically selects the required log
files for the specified reporting period. Sysplex support lets you
merge log data from all systems participating in the sysplex to
get a system-wide view of IMS events that require investigation.
Here is a link to the latest on this tool. This link will take you to the manuals, Brochure, and other documentation.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2imstools/imstools/imsprobleminvest.html
The type 67 log record is one that is commonly needed to view. The following is a sample you can get with IMSPI:
IMS Connect Extensions V1.1
IBM IMS Connect Extensions enhances the basic IMS Connect (now included in IMS V9) product with extended features and functions in the areas of availability, security, and performance monitoring. The availability extensions provide enhanced services for user exits, transaction pacing, dynamic routing, workload balancing and extended control and reporting. The security extensions provide protection against access by unauthorized clients. The performance monitoring extensions provide performance measurements
and basic reporting, with more extensive reporting being provided via the IBM IMS Performance Analyzer for z/OS product.
Here is a link to the latest on this tool. This link will take you to the manuals, Brochure, and other documentation.
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2imstools/html/imsconnectextv11.html
Here is a link to a recent SHARE presentation
on IMS Connect Extensions. This presentation shows how the IMS Performance
Analyzer Tool (described above) can be used with IMS Connect Extensions Data
Collection:
http://ew.share.org/client_files/callpapers/attach/SHARE_in_New_York/S1222JAA.pdf
The following is a description of some of the reports and how you might use them.
This example shows output from the transaction summary report.
The amount of data shown on the report will vary depending on the collection
level in place when the records were collected. Collection Level 4 will produce
the most output. Notice the description on the right of each line.
If you choose to use IMS Connect Extensions with IMS PA (Performance Analyzer) described earlier in this article, you can get reports like the following.
The Transit
Analysis provides a summary of IMS Connect transaction performance. Performance
data can be summarized by one or two sort keys including Time of Day, Trancode,
User ID, datastore (originating and target) and Port number. Performance
statistics are provided as averages, and optionally, peak percentiles (i.e. 90%
of transactions completed within the reported time).
The Port Usage report provides a summary of the TCP/IP
ports used by the IMS Connect system. For each port, summary statistics are
provided for port depth, message processed count, and ACCEPT, READ and WRITE Socket
counts.
The Other 40 Tools Ready for IMS V9
Here is a link to the other 40 tools ready for IMS V9:
Note from the above site that the following are not supported in IMS V9:
- IMS Advanced ACB Generator (Replaced by IMS Library Integrity Utilities)
- IMS Library Management Utilities (Replaced by IMS Library Integrity Utilities)
- IMS Online Recovery Services (Replaced by IMS Database Recovery Facility)
If you would prefer viewing these tools by category, please click on this link, and look on the left middle of this web page: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2imstools/
Summary
Is your tools vendor up to date with IMS V9 exploitation? If not, you might wish consider moving to the IBM solution. Contact us when your current tools contract is close to expiration!
Credits
Due credit is given to each of the following:
- IBM Corp. for use of the information in the IMS documents