Application Performance Analyzer 14.1.4 (APA 14.1.4) has been enhanced to provide a MVS START command that you can use to start a new APA measurement request. The JCL procedure specified in the START command will run a REXX EXEC which, in turn, calls CAZBATCH with the NEW command specification.
You can use this command with system monitoring tools. For example, you can customize IBM OMEGAMON for z/OS or BMC MainView for z/OS to start a new measurement request when an event or situation like a CPU threshold in a batch job is exceeded. This will help you to more deeply analyze the reasons for the high CPU. APA’s report can show you the program(s) in the job that contribute to the high CPU or WAIT times for a database query amongst other measurements.
Performance bottle necks are hard to isolate since it can happen at any time and are difficult to recreate since other dynamics like time of the day or database availability can play an important role. By integrating your system monitor tool with APA, you can create the report at the time it takes place giving you the opportunity to isolate the issue quickly.
To help you taking advantage of this enhancement, included in this update is a sample JCL procedure CAZ$NEW in SCAZSAMP and a sample REXX EXEC CAZSTART in SCAZEXEC. Also included are CAZBEWCI, which contains a sample NEW command string for CICS and DB2, and CAZNEWIM which contains a sample NEW command string for an IMS/DB2/MQ Measurement.
Here is an example of how to code the parm string for the START command:
Example: S CAZ$NEW,APARM='MEMBER=CAZNEWCI STC=CAZ0 JOBN=CICS54A’
As you can see this new update opens a set of opportunities to enhance the performance of your applications and takes advantage of your system monitoring tool already in place by providing an integrated approach to help you delve into the core of your application and find the issues affecting the overall performance.
In addition to this new MVS START command, APA 14.1.4 introduces an additional enhancement requested by customers:
- New report: X07 DB2 Stored Procedures Summary. This report presents a summary of the DB2 Stored Procedures from the tagged measurements. Each detail line summarizes the Stored Procedure information for each DBRM from each measurement. The Number of Invocations reports the number of invocations for the DBRM during that measurement. The reported information also includes the number of total SQL calls, the average number of SQL calls per invocation, the mean CPU time per invocation, and the mean Service time per invocation.
- Select the WAS and MQ Data Extractors together.
- Include the ASID(address space ID)/ASIDX(address space ID in hexadecimal) of the measure job in the S01 Measurement Profile report.
With APA V14.1.4 we continue the continuous delivery journey, providing you with timely updates that will help you improve the performance of your applications and with the addition of the new MVS START command you can now easily integrate with your system monitoring tool.
Francisco Anaya
IBM Application Delivery Foundation for Z Systems Architect
#franciscoanaya