Episode 35 "In search of EXCELence?"

What’s New z/OS dependencies moved from Semeru 11 to 17 before November 2025 Manual of the Moment: MVS Extended Addressability Guide for learning about address spaces, data spaces, and hiperspaces. Mainframe - Looking at ages of fixes you haven't installed yet IBM has started adding a REWORK date to PTFs. The date may be a day or two before the actual availability date. Use case example: requirement with a policy that Security/Integrity (SECINT) PTFs that meet some criteria must be installed within xx days of availability. Fits nicely with the z/OS UUID support, from Episode 34. Performance - Drawers, Of Course Martin explores the IBM z16 drawers, frames, and cache hierarchy. All of an LPAR’s logical processors and memory should be in the same drawer. Important because cross-drawer memory and cache accesses are expensive. Topics - Excel Love It Or Hate It Martin and Marna discuss how they use Excel, and what they like and dislike about it. Graphing and customization difficulties were investigated. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes...

Episode 34 "Homeward Bound" Mainframe - z/OSMF Software Management UUID What it is: ability to programmatically retrieve a unique value (UUID) which can then be used to find out installation information about the active z/OS system. This function is optional. Requires: z/OS 3.1, an SMP/E CSI specific to that software instance, and an installed usermod which is provided by z/OSMF Software Management. How it works: once the UUID has been encoded into your z/OS system's LPALIB data set, you can use a REST API to retrieve the UUID. Then, this allows you to use the UUID to run many other REST APIs to look at the installed software with assurance that you are looking at the actively running system software instance. You must ensure that for each new software instance, you install a new UUID. The UUID is also available from the D IPLINFO command. Performance - Logical Processor Home Addresses This is the LPAR's preferred physical location for a specific logical process to be dispatched. Drawer, DCM, chip, core. Degrees of meaning for Verical High, Medium, Low, and Dedicated. z16 support is in the SMF 70-1 records, OA62064 . Better than SMF 99-14 in some ways. Useful for an analysis of effect of PR/SM weights and HiperDispatch, verify location of ICF and IFL LPARs. Logical processor is not always dispatched to its home address. VH and Dedicated will always dispatch to the home processor. Location of memory is not included, although SMF 113 gives hints. Might need SMF 99-14 in addition, as it has affinity nodes, which 70-1 doesn't. All in all, a very useful advancement in the instrumentation. Topics - Useful Tips for Debugging a DFSORT E15 Exit Martin explores his experiences with DFSORT E15 and offers advice. DFSORT E15 is great at flattening records and enhancing filtering. You might find yourself needing to maintain this exit, which others have written. Some useful advice is: let the exits do the I/O for you, do a COPY first, stop after one record at first, write diagnostic data into output records, forcing an abend can help, code a SYSUDUMP DD, maintain a DFSORT symbols convention, GETMAIN your working storage, and you can write to the spool. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes

Episode 33 "These Boots Were Made" What’s New Preliminary z/OS 3.1 Upgrade materials Python 3.1.1 zIIP enablemment OA63406 and PH52983 Mainframe - Requires: z/OS V2.5 with PTFs, IBM z16 with microcode. Has both driving and target system requirements, use IBM.Function.ValidatedBoot FIXCAT. Front end: Siging the in-scope artifacts (NUCLEUS, LPA, IPL Text, and SA Dump Text), z16 is not required here although z/OS V2.5 and PTFs are. Back end: Verification of those signed in-scope artifacts. z16 with correct microcode level is required here (with z/OS V2.5 and PTFs). Security set up work is required. Performance - Open Data Sets, Part 2 Follow on, from Part 1 which was physical open and close of data sets as seen by z/OS. This is about Db2 with the notion of logically Open and Closed data sets. Its main role is to manage inter-Db2 read/write interest, for Datasharing efficiency purposes. Two Db2 subsystem parameters have traditionally been used to control pseudoclose: PCLOSET and PCLOSEN. PCLOSEN is gone in V12 with APAR PH28280, as part of a DSNZPARM simplification effort. So PCLOSET would need adjusting down to whatever mimics PCLOSEN - in anticipation of this APAR or V13. Topics - Messing With Digital Electronics Martin explores his experiences with input devices (Stream Decks, Quick Keys, ...) Martin has even built his own input devices: having an RFID card kick off automation, rotary encoders, USB Human Interface Device. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes

Episode 32 "Scott Free" What’s New Preview of z/OS 3.1 Mainframe - SMFLIMxx Parmlib Member IEFUSI exit replacement with a parmlib member, related to storage and limits that can be specified. Functions are delivered as continuous delivery, such as the SAF check filter, and number of shared pages used. In z/OS 3.1: Dedicated Real Memory Pools to assign memory to a specific application, like zCX, in all frame sizes. Performance - Open Data Sets, Part 1 Looking at many open data sets (100s of thousands) for middleware. ALLOCxx's SWBSTORAGE has to specify ATB to put control blocks above the bar. Applications need to exploit the service. Monitoring virtual storage is key here, and remains important. The number of volumes needed affects how much memory is needed, so there is no one answer. Topics - Evolution of a Graph Martin explores the large improvements he's made with his custom graphing programs. Start with naive rows and columns, with rigid labels. Then, generating the titles with REXX. Then, using REXX to drive GDDM directly. Then, use REXX to generate many more data point and plotting them directly. Then, have REXX generate the series names. Martin encourages all to evolve their graphs, to tell the story better, and run more efficiently. Customer Requirement ZOSI-2195 "Extended GDG causes space issues", has been satisfied. IGGCATxx's GDGLIMITMAX with OA62222 on V2.3. On the blog Marna's NEW blog location is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

Episode 31 "Take it to the Macs" show notes. This episode is about our After Show. (What is that?) Long show notes can be found here. What’s New New news for CustomPac removal date, it is July 10, 2022. Data Set File System released OA62150 closed April 28th, 2022 only on z/OS V2.5 Mainframe - z/OS Management Services Catalogs: Importance of z/OSMF Workflows z/OS Management Services Catalog, zMSC, allows you to customize a z/OSMF Workflow for your enterprise, and publish it in a catalog for others to "click and use". There are 7 initial sample Services that IBM provides, or you can provide your own with a starting Workflow. zMSC Services are based on z/OSMF Workflows. You can see why the discussion on knowing z/OSMF Workflows is important. Performance - System Recovery Boost (SRB) Early Experiences System Recovery Boost provides boosts of two kinds: speed and zIIP. There are different capabilities of SRB, based on which HW server you are running (z15 or z16):Shutdown - which allows you to have 30 minutes worth of boosting during shutdown. This function must be requested to be used each time. IPL - which allows you to have 60 minutes worth of boosting during IPL. This function, provided by default, is on. Recovery Process Boost, provided on IBM z15. Extends to structure or connectivity recovery, for instance. Newer additional functions for Recovery Process Boost, specifically on IBM z16, for stopping and starting certain middleware. Martin has several early field experience, which he has summarised in four blog posts. Topics - Stickiness This topics explores what makes some technologies sticky, and some not. Martin and Marna discuss some of the attributes are important for continuing to be used, and what makes a function fall away over time.Value Completeness Usability and immediacy Reliability Setup complexity On the blog Marna's blog is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

Short show notes - long show notes here We have a special guest joining us for the performance topic, Scott Ballentine. What’s New New news for CustomPac removal date, which has been extended past January 2022. The reason was to accommodate the desired Data Set Merge capability in z/OSMF which customers needed. For the new withdrawl date, it is planned to be announced in 2Q2022. Mainframe - Only in V2.5 This topic was looking at some new functions that are only in z/OS V2.5. Data Set File System, planned to be available in 1Q 2022. Dynamic Change Master Catalog RACF data base encryption has a statement of direction. Increase z/OS Memory limit above 4TB to 16TB. More Concurrently ”Open” VSAM Linear Datasets. Db2 exploits with Apar PH09189, and APAR PH33238 is suggested. ISPF Updates to ISPF in support of PDSE V2 member generations, and SUBMIT command to add an optional parameter SUBSYS. Access Method Services - IDCAMS - DELETE MASK has two new options TEST and EXCLUDE z/OS Encryption Readiness Technology zERT There’s a lot of other stuff rolled back to V2.4 Performance - What's the Use? - with special guest Scott Ballentine This discussion is a summary from a joint presentation on Usage Data and IFAUSAGE The topic is motivational because customers can get a lot of value of out this usage data, and understand the provenance of IFAUSAGE data. A macro vendors or anybody use can use to show which products are used and how. It can show names: Product Vendor, Name, ID, Version, Qualifier, Show numbers: Product TCB, Product SRB, FUNCTIONDATA The data is ostensibly for SCRT, which is fed by SMF 70 and SMF 89 Scott talked about encoding via IFAUSAGE, appears in SMF 30 and 89-1 SMF 89-1: Software Levels query, Db2 / MQ subsystems query SMF 30: Topology (e.g. CICS connecting to Db2 or MQ), Some numbers (Connections’ CPU) Both SMF 30 and 89: FUNCTIONDATA Examples were mentioned that might inspire developers to think about how they code IFAUSAGE Hope is developers will delight customers by using IFAUSAGE right, and customers will take advantage in the way shown with reporting examples. Topics - Choices, Choices This topics is about how to choose a language to use for which purpose. Different languages were discussed for different needs. Use Case: Serving HTML? Host consideration: Running on e.g. laptop? Host consideration: Running on z/OS? Overall lesson: Choose the language that respects the problem at hand. On the blog Marna's blog is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

This episode is about how to be a better z/OS installation specialist, z/OS capture ratios, and a discussion on using Trello. We have a special guest joining us for the performance topic, Miroslava Barahona Rossi.  Long show notes are found here . Mainframe - Being a Better Installation Specialist "Better" here means lessons learned, not competing with people. "Installation Specialist" might just as well have used "System Programmer" or another term. There's definitely a reason to be optimistic about being a person that does that Installation Specialist or System Programmer type of work: There will always be a need for someone to know how systems are put together, how they are configured, how they are upgraded, and how they are serviced...how to just get things to run. Consider the new function adoption needs too. There are so many "new" functions that are just waiting to be used. A really good installation specialist would take information they have and use it in different ways. Knowing parmilb really well. You can't be better by only doing things yourself, no one can know everything. You've got to work with others who are specialists in their own area. Last but not least, learn how to teach yourself. Know where to find answers (and that doesn't mean asking people!). Learn how to try out something on a sandbox. Performance - Capture Ratio Our special guest is Miroslava Barahona Rossi, a technical expert who works with large Brasilian customers. Capture Ratio - a ratio of workload CPU to system-level CPU as a percentage. Commercial considerations when billing for uncaptured cycles. You might worry something is wrong if the capture ratio is low. Reasonable value is usually 80 - 90. Seeing more like 85 - 95 these days. It has been improved because more of I/O-related CPU is captured. Summary: Don’t be upset if you get a capture ratio substantially lower than 100%. That's normal. Understand your normal. Be aware of the relationship of your normal to everybody else’s. But, be careful when making that comparison as it is very workload dependent. Understand your data and causes. See if you can find a way of improving it. Keep track of the capture ratio over the months and years. Topics - Hello Trello Trello is based on the Kanban idea. Why are we talking about Trello?  We moved to it for high level podcast planning.  Template used for hatching new future episodes. We move cards around sometimes between episodes. Marna uses it to organise daily work, with personal workload management and calendaring. But it is not a meetings calendar. Probably with Jira will be more useful than ever. We'll see. Martin uses it for team engagements, with four lists: Potential, Active, Dormant, Completed. Engagement moves between lists as it progresses Martin's blog Marna's blog So It Goes.

This episode is about several of the z/OS V2.5 new functions, which were recently announced, for both the Mainframe and Performance topics. Our Topics topic is on Martin's Open Source tool filterCSV.  Full long show notes are here. We have a guest for Performance: Nick Matsakis, z/OS Development, IBM Poughkeepsie. Many of the enhancements you'll see in the z/OS V2.5 Preview were provided on earlier z/OS releases via Continuous Delivery PTFs. The APARs are provided in the announce. If you use FTPS for your IBM software electonic delivery, a change is taking place on April 30, 2021. We strongly recommend you use HTTPS instead, but if you still want to use FTPS see IBM software electronic delivery change - take notice! Mainframe - Selected z/OS V2.5 enhancements IBM will have z/OS installable with z/OSMF, in a portable software instance format! z/OS V2.4 will not be installable with z/OSMF, and z/OS V2.4 driving system requirements remain the same. z/OS V2.5 will be installable via z/OSMF, so that is a big driving system change. Learn z/OSMF Software Management at this website. Notification of availability of TCP/IP extended services Workload Manager (WLM) batch initiator management takes into account availability of zIIP capacity Change the Master Catalog without IPL IDCAMS DELETE mask takes TEST and EXCLUDE. IDCAMS REPRO moves I/O buffers above line. New RMF Concept for CF data gathering RMF has been restructured, but all the functions are still intact. z/OS V2.5 RMF is still a priced feature. Performance - zCX enhancements zCX is important for co-locating Linux on Z containers with z/OS. Popular use cases can be found here and in the Redbook here. Another helpful source is Ready for the Cloud with IBM zCX. zIIP eligibility enhancements New enhancements include support 1 MB and 2 GB large pages (still fixed) for backing guests. Guest memory is planned to be configured up to 1 TB Another relief is in Disk space limits Monitor and log zCX resource usage of the root disk, guest memory, swap disk, and data disks in the servers job log. zCX resource shortage z/OS alerts to improve monitoring and automated operations. SIMD (or Vector). SIMD is a performance feature, and can be used for analytics. Nick's presentation (with Mike Fitzpatrick) is here. Topics - filterCSV and tree manipulation Mindmapping leads to trees. Thinking of z/OS: Sysplex -> System -> Db2 -> Connected CICS leads to trees. Has very little automation of its own. But crucially you can mangle the CSV file outside of iThoughts, which is what filterCSV does. filterCSV is a python open source program that manipulates iThoughts CSV files, colouring CICS regions according to naming conventions So it goes.

Episode 27 "And Another Thing" show notes.  Long show note are here. Follow up Additional System Recovery Boost enhancements: Sysplex partitioning recovery: Boosts all surviving systems in the sysplex as they recover and takes on additional workload following the planned or unplanned removal of a system from the sysplex. Two more portable software instances: Db2 and IMS added to Shopz on Aug 20, 2020, in addition to CICS (Dec 2019). ASK MPT Martin was asked about which systems in a System Recovery Boost Speed Boost situation get their GCPs sped up to full speed. Mainframe - Trying out Ansible for driving z/OSMF Workflows Marna's been learning about Ansible and how it can drive z/OSMF work. So far with z/OSMF Workflows, from ansible-galaxy collection for ibm.ibmzoszosmf Needed lots of assistance from two gracious Poughkeepsie system testers (massive thanks to Marcos Barbieri and Daniel Gisolfi !!) Learning about an Ansible Encountered two kinds of problems: Security issues connecting the Linux environment to a large Poughkeepsie System Test z/OSMF environment Workflow-related: duplicate instances when part of the playbook ran ok, and selecting an automated workflow. Performance - So You Don't Think You're An Architect? Brand new presentation for 2020, builds on the “who says what SMF is for?” slide in "How To Be A Better Performance Specialist" Presentation talks about 3 layers The Top Layer - Machines, Sysplexes And LPARs The Middle Layer - Workloads And Middleware: Spikes, Restarts, Cloning, Topology, Software Levels The Bottom Layer - Application Components: Db2 and MQ Accounting Trace, DDF topology, data sets Fulfilling the definiton Of Architecture? Understand what's really going on and valuable to system architects Topics - Notifications They are unsolicited messages appearing on the device, generally interruptions whether wanted or not. Examples of what is received and where/ IFTTT still a favorite of Marna's, mentioned in Episode 23 “The Preview That We Do” Topics topic. Martin just subscribed to Premium, but at a low-ball price. How do you manage them to reduce their number. An advanced topic is how you can generate your own On iOS the Pushcut app: a webhook from eg IFTTT can cause a notification On Android we have MacroDroid. Customer requirements Customer Requirement 138729 : z/OS Console message help support JES2 messages IBM response: This RFE has been delivered via APAR PH24072 at end of June 2020. It's available on both V2R3 and V2R4. The JES2 message prefix such as $ can be setup in "Configure Message Help" dialog in z/OSMF Console UI. On the blog Martin's blog posts are here Marna's blog posts are https://blog.share.org/Article/tag/marnas-musings So it goes.

Here are the show notes for Episode 26 "Sounding Board". The show is called this because it relates to our Topics topic, and because we recorded the episode partly in the Pougkeepsie recording studio where Martin sounded zen, and partly at home. What’s New APAR PH21919: NEW FUNCTION - WORKFLOW SUPPORT SAVE JOB OUTPUT PTF Numbers are UI68359 for 2.3 and UI68360 for 2.4 APAR OA56774 (since 2.2) Provides new function to prevent a runaway sysplex application from monopolizing a disproportionate share of CF resources Not based on CF CPU consumption. Is based on deteriorating service times to other structures - which you could measure with SMF 74-4 Coupling Facility Activity data. Mainframe - z15 FIXCATs IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RequiredService: Absolute minimum needed to run on a z15. Usually intent is to keep these PTFs to a minimum - and keep the number of PTFs relatively constant.  <<Correction:  SRB z15 GA1 is here, not Exploitation!>> IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.Exploitation: Needed for optional functions, and you can decide when you want to use them. This PTF list could grow - if we add new functions IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RecommendedService: Usually to fix a defect that is found but haven’t risen up to required. Might want to run an SMP/E REPORT MISSINGFIX to see what’s in this FIXCAT. Might install some, all, or none of the fixes. Might want to be more selective. Based on how much change you want to encounter, versus what problems are fixed By the way there are other FIXCATs you might want to be interested in for z15, e.g. IBM.Function.SYSPLEXDataSharing Performance - DFSORT And Large Memory A very special guest joins us, Dave Betten, former DFSORT performance lead. Dave talked about DFSORT memory controls DFSORT has historically been an aggressive user of memory Installation defaults can be used to control that But the EXPOLD parameter needs special care - because of what constitutes "old pages", which aren't actually unused. DFSORT Tuning Guide, especially Chapter 3 Dave talked about how handy rustling up RMF Overview Reports can be, with several Overview conditions related to memory. Most of the information in this topic is relevant to LPARs of all sizes Topics - Update on recording techniques Recording of podcast - still using Skype to collaborate Production - Editing - Moved to Ferrite on iPad OS Publishing - same process as before, but on a new publisher! Customer requirements (assume usual disclaimer) RFE 139477 “Please include the CPU Time Limit for a Job/Step in SMF Type 30” After the fact - End of step looks useful. Could run query comparing to actual CPU time, then track to see if ABEND is on the horizon “ As it happens ” - Would like on the SMF Interval as well as Step End records. May not need the SMF information if vendor and IBM tools already do it today. On the blog Martin's has blog posts since the last episode. Marna has three on her blog here. So it goes...