IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS, Version 5.1.0

New in this release

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS, V5.1.0 provides full support for IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3. In addition, this product incorporates the new OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 User Interface, new features, enhances existing functionality, and continues migration of functionality from OMEGAMON for CICS (3270) interface and OMEGAMON II for CICS. The following sections provide details about these features.

IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3 support

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS V5.1.0 is designed to run on IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3 and higher and provides support for many Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3 features. Read about the features in the IBM Tivoli Monitoring: User's Guide.

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS supports a mixture of V4.1, and V4.2 monitoring agents in your environment during the migration period so that you can deploy new V5.1.0 monitoring agents to z/OS operating systems and subsystems along with older monitoring agents of the same product. For more information about running in this mixed environment, refer to the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE and Tivoli Management Services on z/OS: Upgrade Guide.

Support added for self describing agents

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS provides full support for the IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3 self describing agent feature. Using this feature requires the installation of IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.2.3, Fixpack 1.

The use of self describing agents ensures that the latest level of OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS application data is installed on all your IBM Tivoli Monitoring servers by using runtime verification checks for updated application data. If inconsistent conditions are detected, the application data is propagated from the CICS agent to the various IBM Tivoli Monitoring servers, then automatically updated without requiring recycles of the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server or the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server.

Self-description eliminates the need for application data to be installed on IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Servers, and Tivoli Enterprise Portal Servers, often requiring a recycle of these servers, and resulting in unacceptable monitoring outages for all managed systems. If you monitor a large number of LPARs and managed systems on your z/OS operating system, you might find it difficult to deploy OMEGAMON maintenance and Interim Features, which require agent PTFs to be kept in sync with matching fixpack levels on your Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Servers and Tivoli Enterprise Portal Servers. Also, you might find that the application data installed on your IBM Tivoli Monitoring servers are out of sync with the versions of your monitoring agents. When you enable self-description, it automates the deployment of application support files and eliminates the manual intervention previously required to keep these in sync across your enterprise.

Service Level Analysis component exploits IBM System z Integrated Information Processors

The Service Level Analysis component of OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS automatically detects and exploits specialty IBM System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) processors when they are available; this reduces the charged Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) consumption of the product.

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS uses zIIP to free up computing capacity and lower overall total cost for computing for select data and transaction processing workloads. The zIIP environment accepts eligible work from the z/OS operating system, which manages and directs the work between the general processor and the zIIP processor.

PARMGEN configuration method

The PARMGEN configuration method is the primary method to configure your V5.1.0 monitoring agents. Although the Configuration Tool (ICAT) method can still be used to configure the Tivoli Management Services on z/OS components and the OMEGAMON XE products, the PARMGEN method might be more suitable for new OMEGAMON XE customers who are already accustomed to supplying parameter values directly in the SYS1.PARMLIB data set and do not want to learn a new tool. With the PARMGEN configuration method, you edit a comprehensive list of parameters for configuring all installed products and components. You then submit a series of jobs to create a complete runtime environment with the parameter values you specified.

For more information, see "Using the PARMGEN method to set parameter values" in the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE and Tivoli Management Services on z/OS: Common Planning and Configuration Guide, the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE and Tivoli Management Services on z/OS: Common Parameter Reference, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE and Tivoli Management Services on z/OS: PARMGEN Reference, the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS: Parameter Reference, and the PARMGEN Technote at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21417935.

Support for reporting at the CICSplex level

OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS provides data on both individual CICS regions and logical grouping of CICS regions in a CICSplex. You can classify CICS regions into CICSplex instances using simple rules or use the definitions again, if you use CICSPlex System Manager.

Previously OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS has reported summarized data at the agent level. Examples of this summarization include Service Level Analysis, where the data is collected and summarized by the agent and presented as a row (or rows) which represent the agent's view of the enterprise. If you have workloads which span LPARs (and, therefore, agents) this results in the representation of your workload(s) as a series of discrete rows, which each row represents the performance of the workload as measured by each individual agent. CICSplex reporting enables summarization of data at the CICSplex level. A CICSplex can represent CICS regions that span multiple LPARs (and, therefore, multiple agents), so it is essential to classify your CICS regions into one or more CICSplexes, which in turn will drive requests to one or more agents. Note, a CICS region can only be classified by OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS into one CICSplex.

Support for OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 User Interface

The OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 User Interface enables you to monitor the performance of your z/OS systems, applications, and devices in your environment and helps you identify and troubleshoot problems with those monitored resources.

In the interface, data is presented in workspaces and sub panels in which the collected data and relevant information is displayed. OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS provides predefined workspaces that enable you to quickly and easily diagnose problems with monitored resources and take action to correct them. You can customize the workspaces to suit your requirements, even design and create your own workspaces and navigation.

For more information about the OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 interface, see the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270 User Interface Guide.

New OC commands added to analyze the OMEGAMON CICSplex configuration

The following OC commands were added to enable you to analyze your OMEGAMON CICSplex configuration:

See the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for CICS on z/OS Trouble shooting Guide for more detailed information.

New attribute groups and workspaces added to define a CICSplex environment

The CICSplex Overview and CICSplex Plex Service Class Analysis attribute groups display key metrics that identify the health of your collected CICS regions in your CICSplex environment and are used to populate the new CICSplex Summary workspaces and views.

The CICSplex Summary workspace is located at the CICSplex level of the Physical Navigator of the Tivoli Enterprise Portal, and provides key summary information for the internal resources of each monitored CICSplex within the CICS region or regions. This workspace displays the key metrics with regard to storage, files, maximum task percentage, CPU usage and transaction rate for all CICS regions within a CICSplex.

New attributes added and WLM usage blocks data reorganized in Service Task Details workspace

Two new attributes are added to the Service Task Diagnostics table view of the Service Task Details workspace in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal that enable you to monitor the defined CICSplex name and the source of the CICSplex name.

The existing WLM block usage information is placed into the new OMEGAMON WLM Blocks Usage table view, which displays data on the number of WLM blocks requested, the current percentage in use for transaction records, the peak percentage of usage for transaction records, the current percentage of WLM storage in use for the accumulated summary records, and the peak percentage of WLM storage in use for the accumulated summary records.

Service Level Analysis collection interval settings updated

To provide an accurate Service Level Analysis (SLA) across all your defined CICSplexes, the collection interval setting must be defined consistently at the runtime environment level rather than at the individual monitoring agent level. For this reason, the 'INTERVAL=' agent startup parameter has been deprecated and is ignored, if you specify it. The SLA collection interval that is used is defined either through the CICS SLA view in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal or the SLA Batch command line utility. The possible values for the collection interval have been simplified to match the settings available for historical collection intervals.

These are the possible values:

If you migrate to this release and have a collection interval specified that differs from what is now acceptable, for example 20 minutes, this value is ignored by the monitoring agent and the default value of 15 minutes (historical data collection) and 5 minutes (current data collection) is used. You can update this value through the CICS SLA view in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal or using the SLA Batch command line utility.

In the SLA Batch command line utility, the possible values allowed for the <CollectionInterval> tag are the following:


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