I am happy to share that a new version of IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS is available, following the 4-weekly delivery schedule for this product. The new release is available through IBM’s Fix central software distribution system. The complete release notes can be found here. 

Please check out the release video that can be found here: Release Video.

With this release, IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS’s support of disciplines across the Z platform has been extended to include IMS.

This initial IMS release focuses on IMS transaction reporting. This reporting follows a similar approach to our CICS transaction reporting which has been well-received by customers.

• Transactions are rolled up into user-configurable intervals that typically align with RMF intervals and with other components across the platform.
• Top-level reports of CPU and transaction volumes and key timing metrics are provided.
• Report sets provide reporting by transaction code and by IMS ID.
• An extensive set of drill downs is available to focus analysis despite large data volumes.
• “Raw data” report sets make almost all fields available when required for specialized analysis.

IMS reporting faces the challenge that IMS does not generate SMF records. Instead, IMS writes numerous record types to the IMS log. That means IMS needs some “help” to create the types of consumable metrics typically found in SMF records. Fortunately, there are two widely used products that perform that function.

• IMS Performance Analyzer (IMS PA) creates x’CA01’ summary (“transaction index”) records that contain curated key metrics for IMS transaction workloads.
• BMC AMI Ops Monitor for IMS (formerly known as MainView for IMS) collects IMS event data and writes it to the IMS log as user x’FA’ (transaction) records.

A sample report of top 20 transactions by volume appears below. The many drilldown options available to focus further analysis on a subset of the data are also shown.

Several key timing metrics (along with transaction volume) can be viewed together in the multichart generated by the “Timing Overview” drilldown, shown in the example below.

The IMS PA data also contains many types of activity metrics. The “Transaction Database” report set presents database call activity. The following image shows the per transaction counts of each type of database call for the selected transaction.

The “Completion Code” report set identifies counts of IMS abends and CPU consumed by those abending transactions, presented by abend code, transaction code, and IMS ID.

With the addition of IMS to IntelliMagic Vision’s supported Z areas, mainframe performance teams are now able to take advantage of the full-range of AI-driven performance analytics across their end-to-end z/OS infrastructure in a single interface. This will only continue to enhance collaboration amongst infrastructure teams, accelerate learning opportunities for analysts, and further improve application availability.

The announcement for IMS Transaction Performance Management with IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS can be found here.

To learn more about IBM Z IntelliMagic Vision for z/OS, or to book a custom demo, visit our website: https://www.ibm.com/products/z-intellimagic-vision-for-zos

To stay up to date on all the latest enhancements to IntelliMagic Vision and performance topics in general, join our community: https://community.ibm.com/community/user/ibmz-and-linuxone/groups/public?CommunityKey=1d107e16-3c1e-45f1-ac77-e53129e79ff5