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SMF 115 v9.3.0.0 Blog Post

By Kieran Murphy posted Tue October 04, 2022 05:51 AM

  

Why have we implemented this?

An increasing number of MQ on z/OS customers want to get as much data as they can out of their
queues, so they can monitor what it is that's occurring and detect developing anomalies before they
result in failures. This has then been taken one step further by using this data to train machine
learning models to automate this process. These applications require a way to capture accurate
queue statistics at high-frequency intervals in order to get the desired results.
Previously the only way a z/OS customers could gather this type of data for their applications was
using SMF accounting data, which provides in-depth information about an application and a level of
information about the queues that they interact with. However, this data is excessively fine grain which
results in a large cost when captured on a frequent basis.

What is the new solution?

To provide customers with this data we have introduced a new SMF115 subtype and class, which will
collect specific statistics regarding each queue.
These new statistics data can provide a more queue-oriented view of a system at a higher level then
is currently available. This means customers will have the ability to capture queue statistics at a lower
cost than the existing accounting data. This means the queue status is able to be captured at a more
frequent interval, giving data about the queues that are more timely and therefore applicable to
monitoring queues in real-time.
How to enable it?

For the customers wanting to begin gathering these statistics, they must start the new class 5
statistics trace, by issuing the command ‘START TRACE(STAT) CLASS(5)’
On the queue, the STATQ object must be set to identify which queues should have their statistics
gathered. By default the STATQ object on the queues will be QMGR, which will copy whatever value
for STATQ has been set on the queue manager, by default, this is OFF.
Therefore, if the user would like their queue to gather statistics either the queue manager’s or the
queue’s value of STATQ must be altered to ON depending on their requirements. This can be done
using the command ‘ALTER QUEUE(<QNAME>) STATQ(ON)’
Once the STATQ object has been set and the trace class 5 has been started the new statistics data
will be collected at the specified interval of STATIME.

How to use it?

After enabling this functionality and allowing enough time to capture some SMF data, you are able to
run the MP1B formatter to generate a human-readable and CSV report of the data collected. Below is
an example of the MP1B output with some sample data.

Example v9.3.0.0 SMF Statistics Data from MP1B Formatter - CSV

Example v9.3.0.0 SMF Statistics Data from MP1B Formatter - CSV

Here you can see the data that is currently collected at version 9.3.0.0, This includes information on
the queue such as its name, queue manager, its disposition as well as its CF Structure and QSG
where applicable. Information on the record itself, with the date/time the data was collected, in
addition to whether to record is complete or not. At this stage information regarding the queues' status
is limited to its current depth, but additional statistics will be introduced in later versions.
Making this data easily available to clients will allow them to, not only manually monitor the status of 
their queues and understand what is going on with them, but also, use the data in conjunction with
machine learning models to predict a failure before it occurs.
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