Implementing CICSPlex SM monitoring

Possibly the best way to implement CICSPlex® SM monitoring is to start with no monitoring at all, and to implement it piecemeal for particular CICS® systems and CICS resource instances. That is:

  1. Create a monitor specification, and associate it with every CICS system in the CICSplex. However, ensure that every sample interval remains at its default value of zero, and that monitor status remains set to "OFF". This is because the one thing you must have in place before you can gather any monitoring data is a monitor specification. If you follow these instructions, monitoring will be enabled, but not activated.
  2. When you decide to monitor a particular resource instance, as used by one of the CICS systems in the CICSplex, you must:
    1. Update the CICS system definition to switch monitoring on, and to specify a sample interval for the resource. You make this change to an active CICS system (using the TOPOLOGY MAS view), and it applies for the current execution of the CICS system only.
    2. Create a monitor definition to name the resource instance, and install it manually in the CICS system.
  3. Repeat this piecemeal approach to monitoring until it becomes apparent that you have some regular requirements. At that point, consider installing the monitor definitions automatically (and for every execution of the CICS system) by adding the monitor definitions to a monitor group, and associating the monitor group with the monitor specification. You can make the sample interval and monitor status permanent by setting them either in the monitor specification--in which case, they apply to all CICS systems associated with the monitor specification and for which an appropriate monitor definition has been provided--or in the CICS system definition, in which case they affect no other CICS system.

You can refine your approach to monitoring gradually, by creating additional monitor specifications for the CICSplex, for example, and by using timed monitor definitions, which are installed automatically for a specified duration. Remember that:

Aim to ensure that any monitor specifications and monitor definitions you provide support the normal situation, and that CICS system overrides are used for the exceptions.

Activating the resource status facility

To activate the resource status facility you must:

Instructions for all of these tasks are provided in CICSPlex System Manager Administration and CICSPlex System Manager Managing Resource Usage.

For more information about the resource status facility see the description of the RESSTATUS parameter in the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS® Installation Guide

Using the CICS Monitoring Facility (CMF)

Some classes of monitoring data--in particular, the detailed task-related data that is displayed in the TASKD and MLOCTRAD views--cannot be collected unless CICS performance class data monitoring is active in the monitored CICS system. You can activate performance class data monitoring for an active system using the CICSPlex SM operations functions or the CEMT SET MONITOR transaction. Alternatively, you can activate performance class data monitoring permanently via CICS SIT parameters.

CMF data is usually written to an SMF data set. However, if you prefer, you can collect CMF data for use by CICSPlex SM without having it written to an SMF data set.

More information about the CICS SIT parameters and about suppressing the output of CMF data to an SMF data set is provided in the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Installation Guide. For more information about CMF, see the CICS/ESA Performance Guide.

A recommended approach

When you decide to implement MON functions in your enterprise, you should begin by defining the appropriate objects. You should:

Then, to create associations between these objects:

You can use the MAP action command to display a visual map of the MON definitions in your data repository. If you want to see a list of the objects and associations you have already defined, use the MONINGRP, MONINSPC, and MONSCOPE views.

CICSPlex SM includes a Starter Set of CICSPlex SM object definitions that illustrates the concepts and components introduced in this chapter. The Starter Set is described in detail in The CICSPlex SM Starter Set.

If you have problems defining any particular object or association, refer to the CICSPlex SM Starter Set examples. The Starter Set includes many resource monitoring examples that you can use as models for your own objects. You can copy the supplied samples directly into your data repository via the batched repository-update facility. For more information about using the Starter Set as a model and about the batched repository-update facility, see CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Installation Guideand CICSPlex SM Administration, respectively.

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