Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Originally posted 2015-08-19.) In What’s The Latency, Kenneth? I talked about Coupling Facility Link distance and OA37826. The whole supposition was that you might want to know about really long links. A recent situation showed me that short distances might be a different and interesting matter. So what’s a microsecond or two amongst friends? Well,Continue reading “What’s The Latency Really?”

(Originally posted 2015-08-17.) In true IBM fashion this post features graphs without scales. [1] My aim is to share a rhetorical device I used in a recent customer workshop. I hope you find it useful. [2] The customer was worried about a piece of hardware whose responsiveness had deteriorated over the past year, but gotContinue reading “The Right Curves?”

(Originally posted 2015-07-10.) Numbers are key to what I do; They’re the basic data I use as evidence. Without them it’s often just supposition. And nowhere is this truer than when trying to reduce bad[1] habits and reinforce good ones. So a while back I invested a small amount of money in a very niceContinue reading “Tally Ho!”

(Originally posted 2015-06-22.) As a matter of chance, over the past few months I've been involved in a number of situations where IMS has been an important component of the customers' infrastructure (and I'm about to be involved in another one). Although I hope my customers don't think I think of them only as testContinue reading “IMS Though My Eyes”

(Originally posted 2015-06-02.) As most people know, I thoroughly enjoy conferences and learn a lot. The Dublin one 18 – 22 May was no exception. It was great to meet up with old friends, connect with potential new ones and have a couple of compromising 🙂 photos of myself and friends to prove it. 🙂Continue reading “z Systems Technical University, Dublin 18-22 May 2015, Slides”

(Originally posted 2015-05-15.) I’ve put off writing this post for a while. Largely because it might sound like boasting. The truth being I have very little to boast about. But here goes anyway. I’m a fitful [1] exerciser. It’s not that it’s painful but that it’s not interesting. I’ve never found a sport I enjoyedContinue reading “The Unfit Bit? :-)”

(Originally posted 2015-05-09.) Just a brief one this time. A customer recently asked me how to detect Sysplexes sharing Infiniband links. [1] It arose when discussing the information in the new(ish) Channel Path Data Section in RMF’s SMF 74 Subtype 4 record. The question really boils down to “how do I detect in RMF /Continue reading “Sysplexes Sharing Links”

(Originally posted 2015-05-04.) This post is one where I really don’t speak for IBM.[1] It’s also one that’s firmly in the “Topics” category of “Mainframe, Performance, Topics”, [2] being about the emergent fields of iOS Automation (and Web Automation). And, while I give Remember The Milk a “could try harder” score I’m actually a bigContinue reading “Remember The Milk: Automatic For The People?”

(Originally posted 2015-05-03.) Being about Coupling Facility structures, maybe this should be called “re Structuring”. 🙂 Standing on the shoulders of giants, as I do 🙂 , it is with some temerity that I rethink one of their designs. And it’s only because you might find it helpful that I mention it now. Since theContinue reading “Restructuring”

(Originally posted 2015-04-19.) Regular readers of this post will have noticed the masthead [1] changing. I thought it appropriate to replace the zEC12 (and zBX) graphic with the new z13. I’ve also taken the opportunity to weave in a little gag. The blog’s title remains “Mainframe Performance Topics” but you’ll see I’ve injected a coupleContinue reading “Commatosis”