6. DATA SOURCES › 6.1 Data Source Descriptions › 6.1.1 CICS Monitoring Facility (CMF)

6.1.1 CICS Monitoring Facility (CMF)

 
The CICS Monitoring Facility (CMF) collects performance data
at the system and transaction levels during online processing
and produces records for later batch analysis.
 
CMF at CTS 1.3 and Higher Releases
----------------------------------
 
CMF collects three classes of data:  dictionary, performance,
and exception, all of which are stored in type 110 subtype 1
records and subsequently processed by the CA MICS Analyzer
Option for CICS. Each of the three classes is discussed as
follows:
 
Dictionary Class
----------------
The dictionary class record (class 1) describes the format
and length of each field contained in the performance class
records.  It is written when the performance class data is
activated, either at CICS startup or while CICS is running.
The dictionary record contains the definitions for all of the
CMF-supplied fields, whether or not you have excluded fields.
It also includes definitions for all user-defined fields,
such as clocks, counters, and user areas, that you have added
through EMPs.
 
The dictionary record is required by the CA MICS Analyzer
Option for CICS to process the input data in the performance
class records only.  Dictionary records are not used in
reading exception class records or in reading statistics
(subtype 2) records.  They are read and stored in the CICS
Dictionary (CICCDC) file at the DETAIL timespan only.
 
The CICCDC file retains the last copy of the dictionary
record read for each region, so that CA MICS can continue
processing even when the dictionary record is absent in the
next day's input.  Actually, the lack of a dictionary record
in input is a normal condition for CICS systems that are not
shut down each day.
 
If the dictionary record is not present in your input, you
can generate one using the IBM utility program DFHMNDUP.  You
can concatenate this generated file in front of the SMF input
for the first DAILY run.  This will avoid data rejection
errors in CA MICS caused by the lack of dictionary records.
The DFHMNDUP utility is described in the IBM CICS Operations
and Utilities Guide.
 
Performance Class
-----------------
Performance class data (class 3) provides detailed resource
usage information on the execution of each transaction.  Each
record is written when the transaction terminates.  For
conversational transactions, one transaction record is
written for each segment of the conversation (a pair of
terminal I/Os) when CONV=YES is specified in the DFHMCT
TYPE=INITIAL macro, or when MNCONV=YES is specified in the
SIT (CTS 1.3 and higher).  Otherwise, CMF writes one
transaction record for each conversational transaction.
 
CMF allows a user application program to add data to the
transaction record through EMPs.  These data fields are known
as user clocks, user counters, and user areas.  The CA MICS
Analyzer Option for CICS uses the dictionary record to
process the transaction records, including the user clocks,
user counters, and one user area.  The information is then
saved in the CICS User Application Count (CICCAC) file, the
CICS Application Unit Activity (CICCAU) file, and the CICS
User Activity (CICCSU) file.
 
Beginning with CTS 3.2, CICS can perform data compression on
the SMF 110 monitoring records output by the CICS monitoring
facility (CMF).  When data compression is active, CICS uses
the standard z/OS Data Compression and Expansion Services
(CSRCESRV) to compress the CICS data section of each
monitoring record before writing it to SMF.  The
CICS-supplied monitoring sample program DFH$MOLS can be used
to copy the compressed monitoring records to an output data
set in their expanded format, along with the records that
were never compressed.  The CA MICS DAILY or incremental
update job determines whether input records have been
compressed and will expand (decompress) them automatically
before processing their fields.
 
Exception Class
---------------
The exception class data (class 4) is written when an
exception condition occurs during execution of a transaction,
such as waiting for a VSAM string.  A separate record is
produced for each exception encountered by the transaction.
The following exceptions are recorded:
 
  o Wait for storage in DSA
  o Wait for storage in EDSA
  o Wait for storage in CDSA
  o Wait for storage in UDSA
  o Wait for storage in ECDSA
  o Wait for storage in EUDSA
  o Wait for storage in ERDSA
  o Wait for Temporary storage
  o Wait for file string
  o Wait for LSRPOOL buffer
  o Wait for LSRPOOL string
 
No data dictionary records are produced for the exception
class.  The CA MICS Analyzer Option for CICS reads the
exception records and stores the exception conditions, one
per observation, in the CICS Incident (CICCIN) file.
 
CICS Statistics
---------------
Beginning with CICS/ESA 3.1.1, IBM realigned CMF and CICS
statistics to make it easier for users to relate monitoring
and statistics data.  CMF, which no longer produces system
global records on an interval basis, provides monitoring at
the transaction level only.  CICS statistics, enhanced to
record to SMF on an interval basis, provide monitoring at the
system and resource levels.  Together, the two data sources
provide a complete picture of CICS activities, and can be
used to do more effective capacity planning and performance
tuning.  Given these changes in CMF and CICS statistics, the
CA MICS Analyzer Option for CICS processes selected CICS
global statistics to provide the system-wide data that was
previously obtained from CMF.  The CICS statistics data is
reported in type 110 subtype 2 records, which in turn have
several different types of statistics.  These statistics
types have numbers of their own.  Although CA MICS does not
process all of these statistics types, it does process the
following, where the type numbers for a given statistic type
vary from one release of CICS to another:
 
  o Dispatcher statistics (type 60, 57, 56, or 55)
  o Loader statistics (type 30)
  o Temporary storage statistics (type 48)
  o Transaction manager (type 10)
  o Transient data statistics (type 45)
  o Storage manager task subpool (type 8 or 6)
  o Storage manager DSA statistics (type 14, 9 or 2)
 
All the above records are processed and stored in the CICS
System Activity (CICCSY) file.
 
The CICS statistics are written to SMF on an interval basis;
the default is 3 hours.  Because the CA MICS Analyzer Option
for CICS performs a merge, based on hour, between user
activity data and system data, the 3-hour interval causes
invalid data in the CICCSY file at the DAYS and higher
timespans.  Therefore, we recommend that you reset the
statistics interval to one hour or less by using the EXEC
CICS SET STATISTICS INTERVALHRS(01) command.  For more
information on this command, see section 2.151 of the IBM
CICS Systems Programming Reference guide.