Extending z/OS System Management Functions with IBM zAware

Extending z/OS System Management Functions with IBM zAware

Released March 2013
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

This IBM® Redbooks® publication explains the capabilities of the IBM System z® Advanced Workload Analysis Reporter (IBM zAware), and shows how you can use it as an integral part of your existing System z management tools.

IBM zAware is an integrated, self-learning, analytics solution for IBM z/OS® that helps identify unusual system behavior in near real time. It is designed to help IT personnel improve problem determination so they can restore service quickly and improve overall availability.

The book gives you a conceptual description of the IBM zAware appliance. It will help you to understand how it fits into the family of IBM mainframe system management tools that include Runtime Diagnostics, Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA), IBM Health Checker for z/OS, and z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF).

You are provided with the information you need to get IBM zAware up and running so you can start to benefit from its capabilities immediately. You will learn how to manage an IBM zAware environment, and see how other products can use the IBM zAware Application Programming Interface to extract information from IBM zAware for their own use. The target audience includes system programmers, system operators, configuration planners, and system automation analysts.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Summary of changes
    1. March 2013, First Edition
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM zAware
    1. 1.1 The role of zAware in maximizing availability
    2. 1.2 Challenges faced by IT departments
      1. 1.2.1 Keeping up with changing technologies and skills
      2. 1.2.2 Keeping up with product changes
      3. 1.2.3 Ensuring products are configured appropriately
      4. 1.2.4 Analytics can help address these issues
    3. 1.3 Overview of IBM zAware
      1. 1.3.1 Architecture of IBM zAware
      2. 1.3.2 Transporting messages to IBM zAware application
      3. 1.3.3 Priming IBM zAware with message data
      4. 1.3.4 Creating the behavioral model
      5. 1.3.5 Viewing the results of IBM zAware analysis
    4. 1.4 Layout of this book
  6. Chapter 2. IBM z/OS system management functions
    1. 2.1 Overview of System z system management functions
      1. 2.1.1 z/OS component functions
    2. 2.2 IBM z/OS Management Facility
      1. 2.2.1 z/OSMF tasks
      2. 2.2.2 z/OSMF Incident Log
    3. 2.3 IBM Health Checker for z/OS
      1. 2.3.1 Getting the most out of IBM Health Checker for z/OS
    4. 2.4 Runtime Diagnostics
      1. 2.4.1 Invoking Runtime Diagnostics
      2. 2.4.2 Component analysis
      3. 2.4.3 Global resource contention
      4. 2.4.4 Address space execution
    5. 2.5 Predictive Failure Analysis
      1. 2.5.1 Predictive Failure Analysis overview
      2. 2.5.2 Types of abnormal behavior detected
      3. 2.5.3 PFA and IBM Health Checker for z/OS integration
      4. 2.5.4 PFA processing
      5. 2.5.5 PFA reports
      6. 2.5.6 PFA checks
      7. 2.5.7 How PFA groups address spaces for monitoring
      8. 2.5.8 PFA and Runtime Diagnostics integration
      9. 2.5.9 Achieving maximum benefit from PFA
    6. 2.6 IBM System z Advanced Workload Analysis Reporter
      1. 2.6.1 Preparing IBM zAware for use
      2. 2.6.2 Using IBM zAware
      3. 2.6.3 Achieving maximum benefit from IBM zAware
    7. 2.7 Message analysis with the various functions and products
      1. 2.7.1 Runtime Diagnostics critical message analysis
      2. 2.7.2 PFA message arrival rate check
      3. 2.7.3 IBM zAware message analysis
      4. 2.7.4 Comparison summary
    8. 2.8 Additional tips to achieve high availability
    9. 2.9 Sample scenarios
      1. 2.9.1 The system is unresponsive
      2. 2.9.2 A sysplex problem exists in which all LPARs are affected
      3. 2.9.3 Software changes have been made to your system
      4. 2.9.4 IBM zAware detects an anomaly
      5. 2.9.5 PFA message arrival rate check exception issued for a high rate
      6. 2.9.6 PFA exception issued for a low rate
      7. 2.9.7 PFA exception issued for a high SMF arrival or high ENQ request rate
      8. 2.9.8 Runtime Diagnostics message event detected
      9. 2.9.9 PFA and Runtime Diagnostics examples
  7. Chapter 3. Planning for an IBM zAware implementation
    1. 3.1 Planning overview
    2. 3.2 Selecting which systems to monitor with IBM zAware
    3. 3.3 Hardware resources
      1. 3.3.1 CPU capacity
      2. 3.3.2 Network connectivity
      3. 3.3.3 DASD storage
      4. 3.3.4 z/OS requirements
    4. 3.4 Technical resources
      1. 3.4.1 Hardware Management Console
      2. 3.4.2 z/OS MVS
      3. 3.4.3 Network
      4. 3.4.4 Security
    5. 3.5 Using IBM zAware
    6. 3.6 Monitoring IBM zAware availability
    7. 3.7 Accessing the IBM zAware GUI
  8. Chapter 4. IBM zAware installation
    1. 4.1 Overview of the IBM zAware installation process
    2. 4.2 IBM zAware LPAR
    3. 4.3 Network
    4. 4.4 Security considerations
      1. 4.4.1 RACF definition on the monitored systems
      2. 4.4.2 User authentication to use the IBM zAware GUI
      3. 4.4.3 LDAP setup
    5. 4.5 Prepare System Logger
    6. 4.6 Connecting to IBM zAware
    7. 4.7 Bulk Data Load Utility
  9. Chapter 5. Maintaining and managing IBM zAware
    1. 5.1 Managing IBM zAware components
    2. 5.2 Starting and stopping the IBM zAware application
      1. 5.2.1 Starting and stopping the IBM zAware Analytics Engine
      2. 5.2.2 IBM zAware LPAR automation considerations
      3. 5.2.3 IBM zAware support for dynamic configuration changes
    3. 5.3 Managing IBM zAware disks
      1. 5.3.1 User ID authority requirements
      2. 5.3.2 Adding disks to the IBM zAware configuration
      3. 5.3.3 Removing disks from the IBM zAware configuration
      4. 5.3.4 Backing up the IBM zAware file system
      5. 5.3.5 Sharing disks between IBM zAware LPARs
      6. 5.3.6 Backup IBM zAware LPARs
    4. 5.4 Managing connections from monitored clients
    5. 5.5 Maintaining IBM zAware data
      1. 5.5.1 Bulk Data Load Utility
      2. 5.5.2 Creating and updating the system model
      3. 5.5.3 Moving systems between sysplexes in IBM zAware
      4. 5.5.4 Data management granularity
    6. 5.6 Managing IBM zAware firmware
    7. 5.7 Disaster recovery considerations
    8. 5.8 Daily and weekly management tasks
      1. 5.8.1 Daily management tasks
      2. 5.8.2 Weekly management tasks
    9. 5.9 Checklist for adding a monitored client
    10. 5.10 System Logger commands for IBM zAware support
      1. 5.10.1 IBM zAware messages
    11. 5.11 Problem determination for IBM zAware
      1. 5.11.1 Problems during IBM zAware initial setup
      2. 5.11.2 Confirming connectivity to IBM zAware
      3. 5.11.3 Checking for problem notifications on the IBM zAware GUI
      4. 5.11.4 Sending diagnostic information to IBM
  10. Chapter 6. Integrating IBM zAware with other IBM products
    1. 6.1 Introduction
    2. 6.2 z/OSMF
    3. 6.3 IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS
      1. 6.3.1 Using the ZAI sample programs
      2. 6.3.2 Using the information retrieved from the IBM zAware API
    4. 6.4 IBM zAware Application Programming Interface
  11. Appendix A. Syslog Message Analysis Program
    1. Message Analysis Program
    2. Capacity planning
    3. Determining ability to build a model
  12. Appendix B. Activating TCP/IP AT-TLS
    1. Impact of AT-TLS on TCP/IP startup
    2. AT-TLS policy for IBM zAware certificate
    3. Adding the IBM zAware certificate to the RACF SITE keyring
    4. Creating the client certificate for the system
    5. AT-TLS policy file details
  13. Appendix C. Using automation to monitor IBM zAware connections
    1. Querying the status of connections to IBM zAware
  14. Appendix D. Problem determination sample
    1. Diagnosing System Logger connection errors
  15. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. Help from IBM
  16. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: Extending z/OS System Management Functions with IBM zAware
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: March 2013
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None