Console Enhancements

z/OS provides systems management functions and fea- tures to manage not only host resources, but also distrib- uted systems resources. These capabilities have a long, successful history of usage by S/390 customers. z/OS has enhanced many of these systems management functions and features to provide more robust control and automa- tion of the basic processes of z/OS.

•z/OS 1.5 includes console enhancements which are designed to improve system availability by enhancing the capacity and reliability of message delivery. Major changes to the message production and consumption

ﬂ ow can help reduce the possibility of bottlenecks which can cause a backlog of undelivered messages. These enhancements are available with z/OS 1.4 as an optional no-charge Console Enhancements Feature. msys for Setup has been enhanced in z/OS 1.4 to allow multiple users to log on and work concurrently from different workstations. Furthermore, as part of the user enroll- ment process, the msys for Setup user administrator can control which msys for Setup workplace functions a user can access. The graphical user interface (msys for Setup workplace) has been redesigned and is now easier to learn and use. These valuable ease-of-use enhance- ments make working with msys for Setup more intuitive.

z/OS msys for Operations is a base element in z/OS 1.2 that incorporates automation technology into z/OS. It pro- vides self-healing attributes for some critical system and sysplex resources and can simplify the day-to-day opera- tion of a single z/OS image or of a Parallel Sysplex cluster.

•msys for Operations enhancements in z/OS 1.3 include automation to handle enqueue contention and auxiliary storage shortages. msys for Operations can also inter- face with the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to provide hardware functions such as deactivating LPARs.

RMF

RMF is IBM’s strategic product for z/OS performance mea- surement and management. It is the base product to col- lect performance data for z/OS and sysplex environments to monitor systems’ performance behavior and allows customers to optimally tune and conﬁ gure their system according to business needs. RMF provides its beneﬁ ts through the operation of Postprocessing and Online Monitoring functions. They are based on a set of data gatherers and data services which enables access to all performance relevant data in a z/OS environment. The four components are RMF Data Gatherer, RMF Sysplex Data Services, Historical Data Reporting and Online Monitoring with RMF.

Enhancements

•RMF can show the contention for Cryptographic Copro- cessors, including a description of which workloads are using or are delayed in access to the cryptographic coprocessors

•Application State Recording, a new feature of z/OS 1.4 provides more granular performance reporting for mid- dleware such as WebSphere

•In z/OS 1.5, RMF Monitor II and Monitor III performance data is now RACF protected

SMP/E

SMP/E provides the ability to install software products and service either from DASD or tape, or directly from a network source, such as the Internet. By installing directly from a network source, SMP/E is enabling a more seamless integration of electronic software delivery and installation.