Defining statistics alerts

To create a statistics alert definition:

  1. Select option 6 Statistics from the CICS PA Primary Option Menu.
  2. Select option 5 Alerts from the CICS® Statistics Reporting Menu.

    This displays the Statistics Alert Definitions panel:

    Figure 1. Statistics Alert Definitions
       File  Options  Help
     -------------------------------------------------------------–--–--------------
                             Statistics Alert Definitions           Row 1 to 1 of 1 
     Command ===> ________________________________________________ Scroll ===> PAGE 
                                                                                    
     Select to edit a definition. Enter NEW command to create a new definition.
                                                                              
     /  Name                Description                  Changed        ID     
     _ SAMPLE   Sample alert definition              2009/02/17 09:10 AXS      
     ******************************* Bottom of data ********************************
  3. To define a new Alert Definition, enter NEW on the command line, and then enter a name for the Alert Definition in the pop-up window. To populate the new Alert Definition with sample Conditions, select the option Initialize with sample scenarios. These samples demonstrate a variety of typical Conditions that you might want in an Alert Definition for general performance reporting.
  4. To edit an existing Alert Definition, enter line action S next to the Alert Definition. If you do not want to make and save changes, enter line action V to view the Alert Definition.

    The Alert Definition edit panel has two views: expanded and compressed. The following figure shows the expanded view. The compressed view is similar, but shows only the alert text that describes each condition. To switch between views, press Left (F10) or Right (F11).

    Figure 2. Alert Definition edit panel - expanded view
       File  Edit  Lists  Options  Help
     -------------------------------------------------------------–--–------------- 
                    EDIT Statistics Alert Definition - SAMPLE  Row 1 of 197 More: > 
     Command ===> ________________________________________________ Scroll ===> PAGE 
                                                                                    
     Description  . . . Sample Alert________________________                        
                                                                                    
     Specify the Conditions for this Alert Definition.                              
                                                                                    
     _ Alert     Transaction dumpcode taken________________________                 
       Formula   TDRTTKN_____________________________________________________       
                 ____________________________________________________________ +     
       Critical  ______________  Warning  >0____________  Info  _____________       
       Resource  ____________________________________________  List  ________ +     
       APPLID    ________                                                           
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
       Alert     Transaction dumps requested_______________________                 
       Formula   TRANS_DUMP_TAKEN____________________________________________       
                 ____________________________________________________________ +     
       Critical  ______________  Warning  >0____________  Info  _____________       
       Resource  ____________________________________________  List  ________ +     
       APPLID    ________                                                           
     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------  

    The details for an Alert Definition consist of a description, and a list of Conditions:

    Description
    Free-format text of up to 36 characters describing the definition. This description appears on the Statistics Alert Definitions panel to help identify each definition, but it does not appear in reports.

    The details for each Condition are:

    Alert
    Free-format text of up to 50 characters describing the Condition. This text appears in Statistics Alert reports when the Condition occurs (that is, when the Formula value meets a Critical, Warning, or Info threshold).
    Formula
    The expression that you want CICS PA to evaluate and compare with the thresholds (Critical, Warning, and Info).

    This expression can be:

    • A statistics field name, such as XMGTAMXT
    • A combination of statistics field names, numeric values (decimal points allowed), ( ) (parentheses), and the operators + (add), - (subtract), * (multiply), and / (divide)

    For example, the following expression calculates peak in-use IP connection receive sessions as a percentage of the maximum limit:

    ISR_PEAK_RECEIVE_SESSIONS / ISR_RECEIVE_SESSIONS * 100

    All field names in an expression must be from the same statistics report. You can either type field names directly into the expression, or press Prompt (F4) to select from a list of fields; selecting a field name appends it to the expression.

    If you press Prompt (F4) in a Formula field that does not yet contain any field names, CICS PA displays a hierarchical list of CICS Transaction Server and CICS Transaction Gateway statistics reports. Enter line action S next to the statistics report containing the fields you want to use; this displays the list of fields in the statistics report.

    Tip: If you are editing an existing Formula and you are not familiar with the statistics field names it contains, press Prompt (F4). This displays a list of field names and short descriptions. To see a longer description for a particular field, move your cursor to the line action field for that field, and then press Help (F1).
    Critical, Warning, Info
    Specify one to three thresholds for Formula values that will trigger an Alert.

    Each threshold represents a different severity level:

    Critical
    A problem has occurred that needs immediate attention
    Warning
    A problem might occur unless action is taken
    Info
    Not a problem: reported for reference only

    CICS PA reports only the highest matching severity level.

    A threshold consists of a numeric value optionally preceded by one of the following comparison operators:

    >
    Greater than (default)
    =
    Equal to
    <
    Less than
    <=
    Less than or equal to
    >=
    Greater than or equal to
    <>
    Not equal to
    ¬=
    Not equal to (alternative form)
    !=
    Not equal to (alternative form)

    To specify large values, append one of the following unit symbols: K (kilo), M (mega), G (giga), T (tera), or P (peta); where, for example, 1K = 1024 and 2.5M = 2.5 * 1024 * 1024.

    For example, to trigger an Alert when the Formula value is greater than or equal to 32768, specify >=32K

    Specify times in seconds, even for fields stored as milliseconds:

    • For a threshold of 500 milliseconds, specify 0.5
    • For a threshold of 2 minutes 15 seconds, specify 135

    If you specify thresholds with unit symbols, then Statistics Alert reports show actual Formula values with the same unit symbols.

    For Info thresholds only: to trigger an Alert regardless of the Formula value, specify a threshold of *. This information Alert is reported only if neither the critical nor the warning threshold is triggered.

    Resource or List
    Optional. Limits the reporting of this Condition to specific CICS resources. CICS PA reports the Condition only if the Resource value, or a value in the selected Resource List, matches the value of an "identification field" (key fields and other record identification fields) in the Statistics report identified by the Formula.

    You can specify either a Resource value or a Resource List, but not both. (A Resource List is a set of Resource values that you can refer to by name.)

    Masking characters % (exactly one character) and * (zero or more characters) are allowed in a Resource value.

    For example, suppose the Formula contains fields from the Dispatcher TCB Modes report. To report the Condition only for TCB mode names that begin with the letter L, enter L* in the Resource field. To report the Condition for TCB mode names that begin with either the letter L or the letter J, in the List field you need to specify the name of a Resource List, that you have previously defined, that contains the values L* and J*. To define a Resource List, select Lists in the action bar. For more details, see Resource Lists.

    You can specify a Resource or a Resource List only when the Formula refers to a tabular (multi-record) Statistics report, such as Dispatcher TCB Modes (one record per TCB mode). You cannot specify them for label-based (single-record) reports.

    Note:
    1. Resource Lists and Alert Definitions are both stored in a repository. An Alert Definition can only refer to Resource Lists that are stored in the same repository as the Alert Definition.
    2. Alert Definitions cannot refer to Object Lists. Object Lists are stored in the Control Data Set specified in your CICS PA Profile. For details, see Object Lists versus Resource Lists
    APPLID
    Optional. Enter an APPLID to limit the reporting of this Condition to a particular CICS system or systems. Masking characters % (exactly one character) and * (zero or more characters) are allowed. For example, enter CICS%T to limit the reporting of this Condition to CICS systems with APPLID CICSAT, CICS1T, CICSBT, CICS2T, etc.

    CICS PA uses this field to filter statistics records from a Statistics Alert report; it does not use this field to select which SMF files to use as input for the report. This is different to specifying an APPLID in a shared or personal CICS system definition. When you request a Statistics Alert report in a Report Set (that is, using data in SMF files), CICS PA selects SMF files based on the (personal or shared) system definitions that you have specified, including the APPLID of any CICS system definitions. Consequently, any APPLID that you specify in an Alert Definition might already have been filtered out by file selection.

An Alert Definition can contain many Conditions. To find a particular Condition in an Alert Definition, enter the command FIND string, where string is a character string that appears in one of the Condition field values. If you enter the FIND command on the compressed view of the panel, the command searches only the fields displayed on the compressed view.

Each Condition can be either active (the default state) or inactive. When you request a Statistics Alert report, CICS PA ignores any inactive Conditions. If you want to temporarily exclude a Condition from reporting, then rather than deleting it, make it inactive. This allows you to reinstate the Condition later, rather than having to enter its details again. To switch a Condition between active and inactive states, enter line action X next to the Condition.

If you request a report sorted by Alert, CICS PA sorts the Alerts in the report according to the order of the Conditions on this panel. Otherwise, the order of the Conditions on this panel is not significant. You can use line actions (described below) to move Conditions into the order that you prefer.

Line Actions

The following line actions can be entered against a Condition:
/
Display the menu of line actions.
S or E
Switch to expanded view, and then scroll the display to this Condition, ready for editing.
I
Insert a new Condition.
R
Repeat this Condition.
C
Copy this Condition.
M
Move this Condition.
A
Copy/Move after this Condition.
B
Copy/Move before this Condition.
D
Delete this Condition.
X
Switch this Condition between active and inactive states.

Information Information

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Timestamp icon Last updated: Thursday, 7 November 2013


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