Author Archives: Martin Packer

(Originally posted 2011-05-24.) When tuning DB2 batch it’s important to know which SMF 101 Accounting Trace record corresponds to which job step. A few years ago I wrote code to do this. It works fine for all z/OS DB2 Batch except that originated by IMS. Here’s how it works: Find all the Type 30 Step-EndContinue reading “Finding The DB2 Accounting Trace Records For an IMS Batch Job Step”

(Originally posted 2011-05-22.) While I was putting together the original three posts in this series a number of thoughts struck me, amongst which two really cried out for further investigation: I don't know how your XML data arrives on z/OS but quite a lot of scenarios don't have the data all as one document (file).Continue reading “XML, XSLT and DFSORT, Part Three – Multiple XML Input Files”

(Originally posted 2011-05-20.) I’ve done a little analysis of hits on recent blog posts. I wonder what you make of it: Looking at this pie chart slices start at the top and go anticlockwise. Reading the legend is from latest to oldest, left to right, wrapping appropriately. While the blog is called "Mainframe Performance Topics"Continue reading “Who Are You And What Have You Done With My Readers? :-)”

(Originally posted 2011-05-20.) Following on from this post and this one, this post discusses the DFSORT piece. The DFSORT code in this post parses the Comma-Separated Variable (CSV) file produced by XSLT processing. In this simple example it merely produces a flat file report, but the post has a few additional details you might findContinue reading “XML, XSLT and DFSORT, Part Two – DFSORT”

(Originally posted 2011-05-14.) This is the second part of a (currently) three-part series on processing XML data with DFSORT, given a little help from standard XML processing tools. The first part – which you should read before reading on – is here. To recap, getting XML data into DFSORT is a two stage process: FlattenContinue reading “XML, XSLT and DFSORT, Part One – Creating A Flat File With XSLT”

(Originally posted 2011-05-11.) In the distant past I’ve written about using DFSORT to parse XML. This post (and two follow-on posts) will describe an experiment to make such processing much more robust. In this post I’ll talk about what the problem I’m trying to solve is. And why. And a brief outline of my solution.Continue reading “XML, XSLT and DFSORT, Part Zero – Overview”

(Originally posted 2011–05–09.) I think people know better than to ask me for a trip report to a conference I’ve attended. They’ll get what I think is important – and their priorities are probably different. So here is that trip report anyway… 🙂 You’ll probably have gathered by now I’m for a “for the journey”Continue reading “Vienna Conference – A Trip Report”

(Originally posted 2011-05-04.) Up until now I haven’t talked much about DB2, except perhaps to note it’s a little different. But what is a DB2 Batch job anyway? It’s important to note a DB2 job ISN’T necessarily exclusively DB2 – although some are. It’s just a job that has some DB2 in it. The reasonContinue reading “Batch Architecture, Part Three”

(Originally posted 2011-04-26.) This is literally a sketchy outline for a new presentation I want to build. The working title is indeed "I Know What You Did Last Summer". There’s clearly not much structure to this. But the basic outline idea is there: What can an installation glean without too much effort? Let the graphologyContinue reading “I Know What You Did Last Summer”

(Originally posted 2011–04–25.) I concluded Batch Architecture – Part One with a brief mention of inter-relationships and data. I’d like to expand on that on this part. Often the inter-relationships between applications are data driven – which is why I’m linking the two in this post (and in my thinking). But let’s think about theContinue reading “Batch Architecture, Part Two”