Support for viewing Db2 utility history (in Db2 13 function level 501) was available in Db2 Administration Tool 13.1 at the time of GA (general availability). For a quick 5-minute video that demos this support, see Db2 Administration Tool 13.1: Utility History Support.
Support for viewing Db2 object-level history (in Db2 13 function level 504) was added around the time that function level 504 was released. For a brief 6-minute video that demos support for object-level history, see Db2 Administration Tool: Utility Object-Level History.
Db2 Admin Tool has since provided the following additional enhancements:
- the ability to view the utilities that were active at a particular time
- the ability to view utilities that ran at the same time or on the same object or both
- the ability to view a list of objects that have the highest estimated Db2 utility CPU time
- additional options to group and view utility history so that you can better analyze the data
Keep in mind that all of these features for viewing utility history require that utility history be enabled on your Db2 subsystem. Enabled means that the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm is set to UTILITY or OBJECT, depending on the features that you want to use.
Viewing active utilities at a point in time
This feature requires Db2 13 FL501 or higher and the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm set to UTILITY or OBJECT.
If you need to view data about the utilities that were active at a particular timestamp, you can use the new Active at field on the Display Utility History panel (option Z.2H from the main menu):
The resulting list shows rows from Db2 utility history table, SYSIBM.SYSUTILITIES, for those utilities that were running at the specified timestamp, meaning that they have a start time <= timestamp and
an end time >= timestamp:
Viewing utilities that ran at the same time or on the same object or both
This feature has the following requirements:
- Viewing utilities that ran at the same time (the UST line command) requires Db2 13 FL501 or higher and the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm set to UTILITY or OBJECT.
- Viewing utilities that ran on the same object (the USO and UTO line commands) requires Db2 13 FL504 or higher and the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm set to OBJECT.
When looking at the utility history for a particular utility execution, you can now view related utility executions by using the following new line commands on panel ADB2Z2H1:
For example, assume the USO (utility same object) line command is issued against the following utility execution in SYSUTILIITES:
The resulting list shows the utility history data for those utility executions that ran on the same object or objects as the selected utility event at any time that is recorded in the utility history:
Similarly, you can use the UST (utility same time) line command to display utility history for any utilities that ran at the same time as the selected utility event. And you can use the UTO (utility time object) line command to display utility history for any utilities that ran against the same objects at the same time as the selected utility event.
Viewing objects with the highest estimated Db2 utility CPU time
This feature requires Db2 13 FL504 or higher and the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm set to OBJECT.
You might also want to know which objects are being processed the most by your utility jobs. On the Display Utility History panel, specify the new predefined query option 3O:
The resulting panel lists the top 25 objects with the highest estimated Db2 utility CPU time:
Grouping and viewing utility history data
This feature requires Db2 13 FL501 or higher and the UTILITY_HISTORY zparm set to UTILITY or OBJECT.
You can also now group utility history by date, job name, or user ID. (Previously, you could group the history only by utility.) You can then optionally drill down on a particular group and view it according to another category.
For instance, you might want to group all of your utility history by date to see the utility jobs per day. Then, you can select a particular day and either view the utility history for that day or group it further, perhaps by utility. If you do this second grouping, in this case by utility, you can then select a utility, such as LOAD or REORG, for which you want to view the utility history on the selected day.
On the Display Utility History panel, you can see the new 5x options for grouping:
If you specify option 5D to group utility history by date, you’ll see a summary similar to the following example:
At this point, you can view the utility history for one of the dates by using the S (Show rows) line command or you can drill down on a particular date by using the available “Show by” line commands:
Note that these line commands change based on context. For example, if the data was already grouped by user ID, the panel will show line commands to group by job name, utility, or date.
In this case, you might want to drill down on a date where a significantly higher number of utilities were run. To see the particular utilities that were run on that day, use the SN line command:
A new summary will be displayed. This summary shows the utilities run on the selected day, grouped by utility:
Notice that this panel does not show any “Show by” line commands. Grouping is limited to two levels.
At this point, you can view all relevant utility history data in SYSUTILITIES or limit your viewing of history data to just the failures.
Use the S line command to view the utility history data for a particular utility:
The SYSUTILTIES rows are displayed for the selected utility, in this case LOAD, on the selected date:
Alternatively, you could have selected the SF line command:
In this case, the resulting panel shows SYSUTILIITIES rows for only LOAD utility failures on the selected date:
For more information about viewing and managing utility history in Db2 Admin Tool, see Utility history (Db2 Administration Tool for z/OS 13.1 User Guide).
For more information about Db2 utility history, see Monitoring utility history (Db2 for z/OS 13 Utility Guide and Reference).
#Db2Toolsforz/OS