1. SHARE MVS Program Survey
2. SHARE in Anaheim
3. New eBook and More from NewEra Software
4. IBM Education Assistant
5. Typo in last Tuning Letter
1. SHARE MVS Program Survey We extended the SHARE MVS Program Survey for another week, and it will remain open until this Friday, August 17th. We described the survey and the benefits of taking it in our last Cheryl’s List #160. If you have time, please join the MVS Program and take our survey. We’ll summarize the results and will notify everyone who has joined the MVS Program.
2. SHARE in Anaheim
It was another busy week at the SHARE conference. Even though z/OS 2.1 won’t be available until the second half of 2013 and there was no information in the presentations, there was still plenty of information and education during the week. Because the sessions weren’t dominated by new announcements, the conference schedulers were able to schedule many first-time, but very valuable, sessions. Here are just a few from the MVSE (MVS Core Technologies) project:
- 11786 – Everything You Always Needed to Know About zEnterprise Server Firmware Support and Maintenance
- 11756 – JES2 Performance Considerations
- 11806 – Recent z/OS Enhancements You Can Use to Reduce Down Time
- 11788/11790 – zFS Diagnosis: Parts I & II
- 11713 – BCPii Programming Beyond the Basics for the z/OS Sysprog
- 11408 – Saving Your Caller’s Registers – Not Your Father’s Save Area
- 11559 – An Experienced ISPF User Shares His Secrets
- 11794 – z/OS Debugging: Everything You Need to Know to Shoot an 0C4 – P.S. – I missed this, but heard rave reviews about it.
- 11773 – The What and Why of System z Millicode
You can find these presentations on the SHARE website at www.share.org.
You can find my three sessions on both the SHARE website and on our own website (www.watsonwalker.com) under ‘Presentations’:
- 11310 – Cheryl’s Last Hot Flashes #28
- 11309 – The Many CPU Fields of SMF
- 11264 – SMF 101 – Everything You Should Know and More
Yes, that’s “Last” Hot Flashes! After 14 years of Cheryl’s Hot Flashes (an opportunity at each SHARE to comment on a variety of my favorite topics), I’ve given the last presentation. I’ll still be presenting at SHARE each time, but I was spending so much time during the conference thinking about what to present on Friday that I wasn’t able to attend all the sessions I wanted. You can find all of my 28 “Hot Flashes” presentations since 1998 on our website (all are unique).
I’ll be expanding the first two presentations in one or more upcoming Tuning Letters. The SMF 101 information has been covered in much more detail in our multi-part SMF series in 2008 and 2009.
3. New eBook and More from NewEra Software
NewEra Software, which we mentioned in previous Tuning Letters because of their popular Image Control Environment product, provides some extremely useful publications and free tools on their website at www.newera-info.com under “Links.” I’m flattered to be the subject of their latest eBook called “Cheryl Watson – Ahead of the Performance Curve.” It includes a bio of me (I’m still blushing at author Julie-Ann Williams‘ comments), excerpts from our very first Tuning Letter, and an article on z/OSMF that I wrote especially for this eBook. They also have a great eBook on “zAuditing Essentials – Vol. 1.” Although it’s subtitled “zEnterprise Hardware – An Introduction for Auditors,” it should be understood by every system programmer. (Registration is required for the paper, but there is no charge.) Sysprogs will also appreciate the white paper called “What’s New in z/OS V1R12 & V1R13,” as well as three papers that were presented at SHARE. The session by NewEra CEO Paul Robichaux called “zCurrency is Your Currency” is especially good (and would be appreciated by your management). The other two presentations, “How to Detect Mainframe Intrusion Attempts” and “HMC – Fantastic yes, Secure?” should also be of interest.
One of their products, IPLCheck, is free and can help you determine whether you have errors that would cause problems with your next IPL.
4. IBM Education Assistant
We’ve long considered our Tuning Letter, CPU Charts, and comprehensive DVD to be one of the best education values in the mainframe world. The SHARE conference is next on our list of providing the best education for the money. But nothing beats FREE!
The IBM Education Assistant (IEA) is just that. IBM’s IEA website at www.ibm.com/software/info/education/assistant/index.shtml provides no-charge presentations, demos, tutorials and links. The main categories are: Information Management, Lotus software, Rational software, Security software, Tivoli software, WebSphere software, and Systems and Servers (and related software). The last category of Systems and Servers includes z/OS, z/OSMF, CICS, and Communications Services. While z/OS 1.12 had only six presentations (four with audio), z/OS 1.14 already has over 120 presentations (three with audio) and is still growing. The presentations usually cover a single subject, so they are often much more useful than trying to search manuals. Here are just a few of the z/OS 1.13 topics:
RMF response time distribution execution velocity goals
ISPF z/OS UNIX directory list enhancements
BCP SMF IFASMFDL stop reading before end of logstream
DFSMS PDSE refresh command
IBM Health Checker new and updated health checks
And don’t ignore the older releases and articles. For example, under the ‘General’ category, you can find a 44-page presentation on “Hints for a successful HFS to zFS migration.”
5. Typo in last Tuning Letter
Our thanks go to Mark Cohen from EPV Technologies for pointing out a typo in Tuning Letter 2012 No. 3. On page 22, the Figure 12 caption should be exchanged with the Figure 13 caption. Figure 12 shows a definition of long CICS transactions and Figure 13 shows a definition of short CICS transactions. This will be corrected in the 2012 DVD.
Stay Tuned!