Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2015-02-21.) … or probably more. I was going to use “Send In The Clones” but I’ve already used it – and someone who shall remain nameless once misremembered it as “Let There Be Clones”. Let there be clones, indeed. 🙂 So, how do I detect cloned CICS regions, for example? (And if youContinue reading “As Alike As Two Peas In A Pod”

(Originally posted 2015-02-15.) In He Picks On CICS I mentioned XCF traffic and CICS. This post is about a customer situation where looking at this traffic was important. Often I’m looking for topology (maybe “tourist information” to some of you). This time I have another motivation: Performance. In this customer saving z/OS CPU is important.Continue reading “CICS XCF Traffic Analysis – A Suitable Case For Treatment”

(Originally posted 2015-02-08.) I have a new conference presentation in mind. Its working title is “DB2 Through My Eyes”. Here’s the structure I’ve devised for it: Abstract What Is DB2? CPU General Purpose zIIP Memory Real Virtual I/O Database Subsystem Application Connections Performance Parallel Sysplex Coupling Facility XCF Specialist Subjects Restarts Workload Manager Stored ProceduresContinue reading “Proposed “DB2 Through My Eyes” Presentation”

(Originally posted 2015-01-10.) As I’m working with a couple of colleagues on a performance study I thought I’d list some “starter set” questions I’d ask about any customer’s WLM policy.[1] Before you go too far with this post you might like to read Analysing A WLM Policy – Part 1 and Analysing A WLM PolicyContinue reading “Some WLM Questions”

(Originally posted 2014-12-31.) It’s a little surprising to me that nobody complained about one aspect of the behaviour in the code in GreaseMonkey Script To Sum Selected Numbers In A Web Page. I’ve been muttering under my breath and I wrote the code. 🙂 This code naively assumes that in every web page there isContinue reading “I’m Surprised Nobody’s Complained :-)”

(Originally posted 2014-12-13.) This post is meant to inspire people who like programming the web to do simple tasks. It contains a sample Firefox GreaseMonkey [1] script, which I hope you will find useful. [2] Suppose you are looking at a web page, perhaps one with a table in, and you want to add upContinue reading “GreaseMonkey Script To Sum Selected Numbers In A Web Page”

(Originally posted 2014-12-07.) I thought I’d write about how I begin looking at virtual storage, occasioned by a customer who had a 24-bit virtual storage (878–10) ABEND[1] . Most of this is in our code, so easy for me to do. I hope you’ll find it similarly easy. You’ve had hints of this in HowContinue reading “How I Look At Virtual Storage”

(Originally posted 2014-11-29.) Here’s an interesting case that illustrates the effect of distance between a z/OS image and a Coupling Facility structure. I don’t think this will embarrass the customer; It’s not untypical of what I see. If anything I’m the one that should be slightly embarrassed, as you’ll see… A customer has two machines,Continue reading “The Effect Of CF Structure Distance”

(Originally posted 2014-11-23.) Or “who made all the pies”? 🙂 I’ve written a number of times about Coupling Facility Performance but I don’t think I’ve written about memory for a while. In any case I’d like to share with you a couple of graphs I’ve taught my code to make. The first isn’t strictly speakingContinue reading “Coupling Facility Memory”

(Originally posted 2014-11-16.) In After A Decent Interval I talked about the need for frequently-cut SMF Interval records. This post is about bad behaviours (or maybe not so bad, depending on your point of view). It’s actually an exploration of when interval-related records get cut, which turned into a bit of a “Think Friday” experiment.Continue reading “After An Indecent Interval”