With aggregation in CICS Explorer®, you can merge resource records
together to display a summarized view for one or more attributes. Aggregation helps you identify
similarities and differences in a set of CICS® resources.
Aggregation provides different functions to control how data is aggregated, for example, to
return the maximum, minimum, or average value. You can also group resource records by a specified
set of attributes, known as grouping attributes, and aggregate the values of non-grouping
attributes.
The following graphic takes some simple data as an example, to show how data is aggregated with
and without grouping attributes specified.Figure 1. Aggregation examples
checking and comparing the status of different resources.
Migrating from the WUI: Aggregation in CICS Explorer is equivalent to the summarize function in the CICSPlex® SM Web User Interface (WUI), and provides a more
powerful capability. For more information, see Reference: Comparison with WUI summarization.
Prerequisites
To enable aggregation, your environment must fulfill the following prerequisites:
CICS
Your CICS must be configured with a CMCI JVM server, which provides the underlying CMCI GraphQL API that supports the aggregation function. For a CICSPlex SM environment, its WUI region must be at least CICS TS 5.5 and be configured to use the CMCI JVM server. For a single CICS region (SMSS), it must be at least CICS TS 5.6 with APAR PH35122 and be configured with the CMCI JVM server. For instructions, see Setting up CMCI in CICS TS documentation.
CICS Explorer
To use aggregation in CICSPlex SM environments, your CICS Explorer version must be at least IBM® CICS Explorer for Aqua 3.21 or CICS Explorer on Eclipse Marketplace. To use aggregation in single CICS regions, your CICS Explorer version must be at Fix Pack 5.5.20 or later, be it
CICS Explorer for Aqua or CICS Explorer on Eclipse Marketplace.
Your CICS Explorer must connect to a CICS environment that is configured with the CMCI JVM server.
Common tasks with aggregation
In CICS Explorer, you can enter or exit the aggregation
view through any CICS resource view by toggling on or off the
Aggregate Records button () on the view toolbar. You can aggregate data in the resource view directly or specify
grouping attributes and aggregate functions in the Aggregation dialog.
Tasks you can perform with aggregation are as follows.
Aggregate functions control how aggregation summarizes values.
You can choose from a list of applicable
functions for each attribute depending on the attribute type.
Investigate records within a group in more detail in a temporary expanded view.
Filter aggregated records
As in other resource views, you can apply quick filters to aggregated records by right-clicking
the column header of an attribute. For more information, see Filtering data in a resource view.
Instead of applying aggregation to the records in the view directly, you
can specify grouping attributes and aggregate functions for each attribute in the
Aggregation dialog.
Save the aggregation view to the view configuration
To exit the aggregation view, toggle the Aggregate Records button off. If
you close the resource view or restart CICS
Explorer, the grouping attributes that you last specified are saved and can be reactivated by
toggling on the Aggregate Records button in that view again.
Grouping resource records by attributes
Specify grouping attributes by which the resource records are
to be grouped, directly in the resource view.
To group records by an attribute, right-click the column of that attribute, and select
Group By. Figure 2. Group records by Priority
As Figure 3 shows, the aggregation field is
shaded, with the grouping attribute (priority) in a darker color and moved to the left of the field.
A Count column is also added to indicate the number of records in each
group.
Figure 3. Records grouped by Priority
You can group records by multiple grouping attributes, by repeating the action against other
attribute columns.
Figure 4 shows records
that are grouped by both the priority and the region attribute. The first row indicates that two
records share a priority value of 0 and are in the IYCWEZG1 region.
Figure 4. Records grouped by Priority and Region
To ungroup records that have been grouped by a grouping attribute, right-click that attribute
column and click Group by to remove that grouping attribute.
Aggregate functions control how aggregation summarizes values.
You can choose from a list of applicable
functions for each attribute depending on the attribute type.
To choose an aggregate function used for each attribute, right-click the attribute column and
select one of the options under Aggregate Function. Figure 5. Choosing an aggregate function
In Figure 5, the priority attribute uses
the Average aggregate function to calculate the average priority of the local
transactions, and the region attribute uses the Difference aggregate function
to show the common and different values in the region names.
To expand a group for further investigation, right-click the row of that group, and click
Expand Group in New View. This opens all the records within that group in a
temporary expanded view. You can apply quick filters in the expanded view, but the view with all its
settings is removed after it is closed.Figure 6. Expanding a group
If no grouping attributes are specified when aggregation is applied, all attributes are
aggregated.
To clear grouping attributes in the aggregation view, click the arrow to the right of the
Aggregation and Grouping button () on the toolbar, and select Clear grouping. All records are
aggregated into a single row as a result.Figure 8. Aggregation with no grouping specified
Instead of applying aggregation to the records in the view directly, you
can specify grouping attributes and aggregate functions for each attribute in the
Aggregation dialog.
To specify grouping attributes in the Aggregation dialog
Click the arrow to the right of the Aggregation and Grouping button
() on the toolbar, and click Configure grouping. This opens the
Grouping tab of the Aggregation dialog. If you are already in the
Aggregation dialog, click the Grouping tab.
If aggregation is not already toggled on, you need to select the Enable
aggregation check box before you can specify grouping attributes.Figure 9. Grouping tab of Aggregation dialog
To specify grouping attributes, select the attributes from the Visible
attributes column to the Grouping attributes column.
You can change the order of grouping attribute columns in the resource
view by clicking the Up and Down buttons beside the
Grouping attributes column.
Click OK to apply changes.
To specify aggregate functions in the Aggregation dialog
Click the arrow to the right of the Aggregation and Grouping button
() on the toolbar, and select Configure Aggregate Functions. This
opens the Aggregate Functions tab of the Aggregation dialog. If you are already
in the Aggregation dialog, click the Aggregate Functions tab.
If aggregation is not already toggled on, you need to select the Enable
aggregation check box before you can specify aggregate functions.Figure 10. Aggregate Function tab of Aggregation dialog
From the Aggregate Functions column, select an aggregate function for
each attribute. See Reference: Applicable Aggregate functions for available aggregate
functions for different attribute types.