Mainframe systems are the backbone of many large enterprises, driving critical business operations. Given their importance, monitoring and analyzing mainframe performance requires diligent oversight. With modern business analysis technologies, new opportunities have emerged to provide deeper and more proactive insights into mainframe performance.

The IBM RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin is an innovative solution that takes advantage of these opportunities. It is designed to enhance the analysis and visualization of the Resource Measurement Facility for z/OS (RMF for z/OS) Monitor III metrics and reports within the Grafana platform. Users can create, explore, and share interactive and customizable dashboards, turning raw data into valuable information. This transformative tool empowers users to efficiently monitor, analyze, and optimize their systems by harnessing the capabilities of the RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin using Grafana.

The new RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin brings many features to the table. Some of them are listed as follows:

• Users can choose different visualization options such as graphs, charts, panels, and reports, providing invaluable insights into Monitor III data trends, patterns, and variances. The ability to create dynamic and engaging dashboards by piecing together various panels, each displaying a unique visualization of Monitor III data, empowers users to tailor their monitoring experience based on their specific needs.
  
  
• The RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin provides the freedom to customize each panel based on individual requirements, including appearance, size, and the Monitor III data queries it displayed. It gives users control over Monitor III data monitoring.
  
  
• Users can add multiple Distributed Data Servers (DDS) as data sources using the RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin. Users can then select the required data sources from the drop-down list to present the data in a unified dashboard, which offers a holistic view of Monitor III data.
  
  
• With RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin, you can automate the monitoring of incoming RMF for z/OS metrics data and set up the alerting system to recognize specific events or conditions. When any problems are detected, the system will send notifications automatically, relieving you from the necessity for manual monitoring and preventing system outages that could cause significant incidents.
  
  
• The ability to define dashboard variables, enabling users to change the RMF for z/OS data displayed in their dashboard simply by selecting a value from a drop-down list at the top, adds a new layer of flexibility and interactivity to the monitoring process.
  
  
• Users can view historical Monitor III data using absolute and relative time ranges. Thereby, you get valuable insights into the status, usage, performance, and health of various resources.
  
  
• By utilizing the RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin, users can efficiently access cached metric data for queries, data sources, and timestamp combinations that have previously been accessed by another user on Grafana. When a user requests metrics data for the same query, data source, and timestamp, the cached data can be displayed more rapidly than if a service call were made to Distributed Data Servers.

The following image is an example of values plotted by the RMF for z/OS Grafana plugin between execution velocity by service class periods versus execution velocity by report class periods for a specified relative time: