1. Cheryl Watson’s TUNING Letter 2000, No. 4 Summary
The 2000, No. 4 TUNING Letter issue has just being completed. Electronic subscribers should receive their TUNING Letter today. Printed issues should be mailed within a week or two.
BoxScore
Perhaps the most important item in this issue for managers is the announcement of our software product, BoxScore. If you want to confirm that you’ve got the machine speed that you’ve paid for, or if you want to know how much overhead is being incurred by a new software release or system modification, this product will help you. Please see page 20 for more information on this important product. (I designed and support this product myself, and I like to think that this is an added benefit.)
What’s New?
In our last issue I included a list of the new facilities coming on OS/390 R10. In this issue I provide a little more detail on JES2, DFSMS, RMF, C/C++, and LE. But most importantly, I cover the solutions that IBM has developed to remove what they call the “goal mode inhibitors” (those issues they feel are keeping people from migrating to goal mode). If you still have some reservations about goal mode, please see page 17.
SHARE Trip Report
Most of the presentations from SHARE in Boston will soon be on their Web site. But unless you have time to go through 1200 sessions to find the real gems, you’ll appreciate the summary and highlights in my trip report on page 25. I’ve included my session on “Hot Flashes”, a summary of important APARs and recommendations. One of them is my long-standing warning to NOT assign all CPs to every LPAR, a sentiment seconded by IBM. Why incur additional overhead when it’s not necessary? There is also a note that the end of support for COBOL II will be March 31, 2001. Have you migrated yet? The report also contains pointers to new R9 UNIX commands, important APARs for parallel sysplex, success with tuning DB2 Buffer Pools, APARs from WSC, and pointers to additional APARs, presentations, and Web sites. If you haven’t tried the new IBM Wizards for installation and planning, then be sure to try them out also.
UNIX and DFSMS Command
A command in OS/390 R7, confighfs, is an extremely useful tool for managing UNIX files. Peter Enrico’s HFS series continues on page 8 with some excellent tips on how to use this new tool.
Elsewhere in This Issue
Following the manual for setting your UNIX prompt can get you in trouble, as you’ll see on page 34 in our Q&A. In that same section, you’ll find instructions for determining the service unit rate on your machine and where to find our performance rules of thumb. In S/390 News starting on page 4, we cover SAS V8 problems with multi-volume files, high CPU times collecting cache data, a variety of APARs, a good experience installing Linux on S/390 in a day, a new white paper on migrating to WLM goal mode, and several new Web sites and manuals. Some handy CICS tips for CICS Signon by Bob Archambeault and new functions for LE parameters can be found on page 36.
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Stay tuned!