Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2017-10-31.) Hot on the heels of Screencast 11 – DDF Spikes is my latest screencast: Screencast 12 – Get WLM Set Up Right For DB2. In it I talk about the important topic of ensuring DB2 is protected against shortages of CPU (and zIIP). There are a couple of quite nice examples toContinue reading “Screencast 12 – Get WLM Set Up Right For DB2”

(Originally posted 2017-10-30.) It’s been a busy few weeks but we’ve a new episode out. The experiment with narrowing the “stereoscape” was an interesting one. It is always going to be effort to do this, but having edited all 5 segments I got quite good at it. I think I maybe narrowed it a littleContinue reading “Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 16 “Chapter And Worse””

(Originally posted 2017-10-24.) It’s been a month since I last did a screencast – and boy what a busy month I’ve had. And in that month I had the privilege of working with a very nice customer, exercising my DDF Analysis code.1 As so often happens, a graph or two come together to tell aContinue reading “Screencast 11 – DDF Spikes”

(Originally posted 2017-09-06.) So this is a shorter episode, much to Marna’s pleasure. (Personally I’m indifferent to show length, regularly listening to episodes of other podcasts that run to 1.5 to 2 hours.) It was very good to have a guest: Barry Lichtenstein. (I kept in the bit where I mispronounced his name, as IContinue reading “Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 15 “Waits And Measures””

(Originally posted 2017-07-14.) If a customer has Transaction goals[1] – for CICS or IMS – it’s possible to observe the CPU per transaction with RMF. But you have to have: Transaction rate CPU consumed on behalf of the transactions. This might seem like stating the obvious but it’s worth thinking about: The transaction rate andContinue reading “How Does Transaction CPU Behave?”

(Originally posted 2017-07-08.) I’m writing this under a lovely cherry tree in my back garden, in cool shade on a warm summer’s day. Before you complain “that ain’t working” I’ll just point out this is on a Saturday afternoon. 🙂 And the “air cooling” is what makes this post possible. 🙂 Just this past weekContinue reading “My Point Of View”

(Originally posted 2017-07-07.) Boy has this one been a “slow train coming” but I’m glad it’s out now. And it was fun making it. Especially the piece with Frank and Jeff. It’s a long listen; As always I’m comfortable with long podcast episodes. Enjoy! Episode 14 “In The Long Run” Show Notes Here are theContinue reading “Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 14 “In The Long Run””

(Originally posted 2017-06-25.) Back in 2009 I wrote about Performance of the (then new) DFSORT JOIN function. This post is just a few notes on things that might make life easier when developing a JOIN application. Specifically the one I alluded to in Happy Days Are Here Again? when I talked about processing SMF 101Continue reading “Some Lessons On DFSORT Join”

(Originally posted 2017-06-20.) I’ve written a lot about DDF and SMF 101 (Accounting Trace) over the years. It turns out my code went backwards a few years ago, and with good reason. Let me explain. But before I do, recall “my code” refers to a DFSORT E15 exit that “flattens” SMF 101 records, extracting theContinue reading “Happy Days Are Here Again?”

(Originally posted 2017-06-17.) This post follows on from Some Parallel Sysplex Questions, Part 1 – Coupling Facility. Again it’s a high level treatment. In contrast to Coupling Facility (CF), there is really only one type of resource: Signaling paths. But again application componentry is what brings it all to life. In this case it’s XCFContinue reading “Some Parallel Sysplex Questions, Part 2 – XCF”