1. OVERVIEW › 1.1 Primary Areas of Application

1.1 Primary Areas of Application

The CA MICS Analyzer Option for CICS provides analysis and
reporting capabilities that aid in CICS management in the
following areas:
 
o  Performance Management - The CA MICS Analyzer Option for
   CICS provides multiple files that you can use to track all
   aspects of performance activity under CICS control.  These
   files include information on the activity of a single
   transaction, multiple transactions that belong to a
   specific grouping (e.g., Payroll), a single CICS region,
   or multiple CICS regions on multiple system images.  Using
   these files, a performance analyst can identify and
   correct specific problems, resulting in significant
   improvement in system performance.
 
o  Service Levels - The I/S manager can use CA MICS Analyzer
   Option for CICS data to group application response times
   in user-specified categories, either to assist in
   developing new service levels or to report on those
   already in place.  This information is particularly useful
   in an MRO environment where overall service levels can be
   tracked across multiple CICS regions.
 
o  Capacity Planning - The CA MICS Analyzer Option for CICS
   provides a historical database that a capacity planner can
   use to predict long-term trends and to perform CICS
   consumption analyses.  The data covers every aspect of
   CICS capacity planning from CPU consumption within
   transaction groups to analysis of multi-engine CPU
   requirements.  Using this information, the analyst can
   make judgements concerning the need for capacity
   increases, multiple CICS regions for CPU and virtual
   storage constraint relief, or additional peripheral
   devices to support increased I/O rates.
 
o  Management Reporting - After establishing system and user
   service objectives such as response time and availability,
   management can use CA MICS Analyzer Option for CICS
   reports to compare actual service against these
   objectives.  You can obtain this information on single-
   page management summaries that display the data by system,
   application unit, users, or groups of users.
 
o  CICS Network Management - The CA MICS Analyzer Option for
   CICS provides information on general CICS network activity
   and specific terminal usage through user-defined account
   codes.  You can use this information to track network
   operation, identify problems, evaluate performance, and
   plan for future requirements.
 
For CICS Transaction Gateway (CTG), the CA MICS Analyzer
Option for CICS provides analysis and reporting capabilities
that aid in CTG management in the following areas:
 
o  Performance Management - The CICS Transaction Gateway
   information area provides the Gateway Server Activity
   (CTGGSA) file that you can use to track the performance
   and response times for both the Gateway daemon and CICS as
   transactions flow through the CTG.  Numerous metrics are
   available to help identify where specified configuration
   limits may be contributing to throughput degradation.
 
o  Capacity Planning - The CTGGSA file provides numerous
   metrics that a capacity planner can use to monitor trends
   in transaction rates, response times, and error
   conditions. The CTG is highly configurable, and by
   monitoring trends in key performance indicators, action
   can be taken to prevent service degradation.
 
o  Management Reporting - After establishing system
   objectives such as response time and availability,
   management can use reports to compare actual service
   against these objectives.