Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Originally posted 2011-12-05.) I don’t know how many years it’s been since DB2 Version 8 was shipped but I’ve FINALLY added support for some really useful statistics that became available with that release. As so often happens I was caused to open up my code because of some customer data that exposed a problem inContinue reading “DB2 Package-Level Statistics and Batch Tuning”

(Originally posted 2011-11-20.) The very first computer game I ever played was called Rhino and it ran on a Commodore PET. The school had been lent one for a fortnight. (I don’t know why as we didn’t go on to buy any, instead getting a single RML 380Z.) Imagine a character-grid screen where the rhino’sContinue reading “Rhino’s”

(Originally posted 2011-11-04.) I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before in this blog but Tivoli Workload Scheduler (TWS) has a nice "WLM Integration" feature. With it TWS can change the Service Class a job runs in – before submission. The main purpose of this is to elevate Critical Path work. We wrote about this inContinue reading “Tivoli Workload Scheduler and Workload Manager Service Classes”

(Originally posted 2011-10-25.) One of the nice enhancements in z/OS Release 13 JES2 was the support for SYSIN in a JCL procedure. (See here for the announcement letter.) I have a personal example of where it would’ve been handy. You probably have your own. We used to distribute sample JCL to use DB2 DSNTIAUL toContinue reading “SYSIN In A Proc – New With z/OS Release 13 JES2”

(Originally posted 2011-10-20.) I mentioned APAR OA21140 before – here. It’s quite an old APAR and so it will (in all likelihood) be on your systems. I’d like to draw your attention to a subtle 1-byte field in the SMF 74 Subtype 4 (Coupling Facility Activity) record: R744FLPN. It’s the partition number for the couplingContinue reading “A Small Step For RMF, A Giant Leap For Self-Documenting Systems”

(Originally posted 2011-10-17.) I’ve been looking for an excuse to reference the excellent B52’s Channel Z ever since we started talking about "z". And this is, I think, a good one. 🙂 (Notice BTW the URL in the previous paragraph makes it clear SING365.com (should be "SING360" 🙂 ) is using Domino.) So, back toContinue reading ““Channel Z’s All Static All Day Forever” – IRD and Hiperdispatch”

(Originally posted 2011-10-14.) As mentioned here, I recently participated in a residency in Poughkeepsie. Our task was to write the "Batch Optimization on z/OS" redbook that we hope will get out soon (though I think early next year is the most realistic timescale). These past two weeks I "toured" the redbook in the Nordics: 5Continue reading “Touring The Upcoming Batch Optimization On z/OS Redbook”

(Originally posted 2011-10-10.) I’ve written about Hackday in the past. See My HackDay 6 Project – Mashing Up RMF, My HackDay 5 Project – z/OS System Logger Analysis and Hackday4 and Referer URLs (though I don’t know why I didn’t write about Hackday 7 or Hackday 8). So, this year I participated in Hackday 9Continue reading “Hackday 9 – REXX, Java and XML”

(Originally posted 2011-10-01.) I was going to start this post with an apology. But, as any sensible blogger would, I left it a few days to write this. Now I realise that there’s a wider point than the "I was wrong" one. (But I was wrong – in a way that I think many otherContinue reading “zAAP and zIIP Delay”

(Originally posted 2011-09-27.) Maybe you’ve all heard of BPXWUNIX. Maybe it’s just me that hasn’t. Hence the question mark in the title. Seriously, I doubt this REXX function is as widely known about as it should be. And this post hopes to illustrate a little of its value. Suppose you’re writing a REXX program withContinue reading “BPXWUNIX – z/OS’ Best Kept Secret?”