Cheryl's List #97 -
May 2, 2005
 |
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1. Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter 2005 No. 2
2. Correction to Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter 2005 No. 2
3. RMF Spreadsheet Reporter Version 5.1.3
4. Google Maps
5. z/OS Basics
1. Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter
2005 No. 2
The forty-eight page 2005 No. 2 TUNING Letter was emailed to electronic
subscribers last Thursday (28Apr2005). Single issues may be obtained
for $135 each from our Web site at http://www.watsonwalker.com.
The following is a summary of just some of the contents of this latest
TUNING Letter:
PDSE Data Sets and CPU Consumption
If your installation uses any PDSE data sets, please make sure to read
the article starting on page 30. This is probably the most important
performance article in this issue. About a year ago we started hearing
that some installations were having performance problems after converting
many of their older PDS data sets to the improved PDSE format. These
installations were seeing a lot of CPU time being consumed by the SMSPDSE
address space (the address space that processes PDSE requests), and the
performance would get worse the longer the system stayed up after initialization.
This situation got so bad for some installations that they took the drastic
step of converting hundreds of data sets back to PDS format. We talked
about this at SHARE, but have done much more research since then, and we
have an analysis of the situation and some recommendations. For most
sites, it turns out that some simple parameter changes would have solved
the problem.
SHARE In Anaheim
Since our last issue, we attended the SHARE user conference in Anaheim.
It was good to say hello to many of you in person. In addition to
presenting four different sessions, we came back with lots of good information.
Make sure to read our SHARE Trip Report on page 23 if you want the highlights
of the week. Starting on page 18, we have also included a much enlarged
version of the Hot Flashes session that Cheryl presents on Friday mornings.
Even if you attended this session, please scan through this article.
We have expanded upon many of the topics and have included new research
that has been done since the conference.
CPENABLE Tuning Option
The CPENABLE parameter is not new, but it continues to cause confusion
and raise questions. This important option affects the way that your
processors handle your I/O requests, so setting it incorrectly can cause
potential performance and throughput problems. Even if you have something
tuned correctly, that doesn't mean it will stay that way, and some recent
IBM recommendations concerning this option have further muddied the waters.
See the article on page 45 for our recommendations.
z990 Cryptographic Performance
We have received a number of questions regarding the performance of
applications that do heavy cryptographic work and run on z990 processors.
Some users have reported much worse performance when these applications
are moved to these processors. We have spent a good deal of time
talking with IBM experts and users, and we think we have some answers.
Refer to page 42 for more information.
Elsewhere in this Issue
On page 29 we warn about a z890/z990 microcode change that could cause
potential reporting problems. See page 38 if you're still not convinced
that Variable Workload License Charging (VWLC) can help reduce your software
budget. Finally, if you run the CICS Transaction Gateway, we provide
a pointer to a free Health Checker on page 8.
2. Correction - Cheryl Watson's
TUNING Letter 2005 No. 2
On page 7 of this issue, we include a warning about catalogs on devices
with 31-bit UCBs. Unfortunately, we incorrectly indicated that APAR
OA10995
caused
the error. It actually corrects the error. We apologize
for the inconvenience this may have caused. Here is a full list of
the APARs related to that article. The important point to note is
that you should apply the PTFs for the first two APARs shown if you plan
to use catalogs residing on devices with 31-bit UCBs. Thanks to Dean
Montevago of Visiting Nurse Service of New York and
Mark Thomen
of IBM for pointing out our error.
- APAR OA10995 (HIPER, DFSMS - all, 29Mar2005), ABEND in IGG0CLEB
+ B71 05/03/21 PTF PECHANGE. (Note that the description doesn't
indicate that an intermittent failure to IPL could be one of the symptoms
of the problem this PTF corrects, but the symptom was reported to us by
a reader.)
APAR OA11212 (DFSMS - all, 29Mar2005), AE OA10995 Fix Completion. This is sysrouted from OA10995.
APAR OA10213 (HIPER, DFSMS - all, 11Feb2005), IEC331I 004-86 Issued for a USERCAT or ABEND0C4 in IGG0CLE0 after Apply of PTFs for OA09237 05/01/24 PTF PECHANGE. (This is a fix for OA09237. Note that this APAR indicates that OA10995 is a fix for this PTF in error, but OA10995 doesn't make any reference to OA10213.)
APAR OA10458 (DFSMS - all, 11Feb2005), AE OA10213 Fix Completion. This is sysrouted from OA10213.
APAR OA09237 (HIPER, DFSMS - all, 14Dec2004), Catalog Address
Space ABENDs with ABEND0C9 in ICVDSD05 or ICVDSD03 after a Dynamic Activate
or Deactivate.
- "Those who are concerned about the general state of their catalog maintenance
might want to look at APARs OA11087, OA11088,
and OA11089 that are Catalog Level Set APARs for HDZ11G0,
HDZ11H0, and HDZ11J0 respectively."
3. RMF Spreadsheet Reporter
Version 5.1.3
A new version (5.1.3) of the RMF Spreadsheet Reporter feature was made
available on 26Jan2005. There is no additional charge for this software,
and it and several other useful tools can be downloaded for free from the
RMF Tools Web site (http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/rmf/rmfhtmls/rmftools.htm).
This program allows you to analyze RMF data on your workstation and produce
a number of graphical reports to monitor your performance. Starting
with Version 5, the product was completed redesigned to use a resource-oriented
interface.
The current version is written to run under Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Windows ME. The download is quite large (45 MB), so we suggest that you use a fast connection if you want to download it. There is also a smaller PDF file available (1.5 MB) that gives you an overview of the product. You might want to check out the overview first before starting the download for the full product.
If you have access to the proceedings area of the SHARE Web site (http://www.share.org), there are also some sessions you can download that relate to the RMF Spreadsheet Reporter. Here are the two sessions from the latest SHARE in Anaheim:
2554 - RMF - The Latest and Greatest
2556 - RMF Spreadsheet Reporter Hands-On Lab
4. Google Maps
There are many Web sites that provide mapping functions, but did you
know that our friends at Google are providing a beta version of a mapping
tool? Open your browser and go to the address http://maps.google.com.
The first thing you see is a map of North America. Like most mapping software, there are navigation buttons that allow you to move in any of the four major directions, or to zoom in or out. You can also double click on any area of the map, which will cause that location to become the center of the map. If you don't want to navigate through the maps, you can just enter a search address in the bar at the top of the screen. Enter a street address, followed by the city and state or just the postal code. When you have finally found your destination, you can request driving directions between the location on the map and another address that you enter. Another nice option is the Local Search, which does a secondary search on the mapped area you have selected. For example, you could find the map of your house and then do a local search for "pizza." This would return the location of all the pizza establishments close to your home. The search results include the name and phone number of the establishment and the distance from your home. It also indicates on the map where each one is located, so that you can quickly identify the closest one if you're in the middle of a severe pizza attack.
One of the really fun additions is satellite maps. Click on the "Satellite" link in the upper-right hand corner of the screen and the map on the screen will be replaced with a satellite map. All of the same mapping functions seem to be supported with the satellite maps, so you can move in different directions and even zoom in and out.
Google has long been our favorite Web site for searching, but now it appears we may be going there for our mapping needs as well.
5. z/OS Basics
A contributor to the IBM-Main discussion group recently alerted us
to a new IBM publication designed to teach the basics of z/OS. This
is a PDF file that can be downloaded for free from the z/OS library at
http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/bkserv/.
Look on the right-hand side of the screen and you will see a link for it in the box "New to z/OS?" This seems to be quite comprehensive, but is not quite as technical as some of the other publications available from IBM. It would be a good introduction to z/OS for those with no prior experience with the platform.
Stay tuned!
Cheryl Watson
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