Specifying region-specific options: General

To specify general region-specific options, you use the Region Configuration Menu panel.

You can use the Region Configuration Menu in the following ways:
  • To specify CICS® IA general region-specific options for a particular CICS region, type action code 4 against the APPLID of the region on the Region Configuration Menu panel, CIU200 (shown in Collector Region Configuration Menu panel, CIU200). Press Enter. Type action code 1 on panel CIU290 and press Enter.
  • If more than one CICS region is listed on the Region Configuration Menu, to apply your choices to all the regions type action code 4 against ALL at the top of the list on panel CIU200 and press Enter. Type action code 1 on panel CIU290 and press Enter.
  • To set or change the default values for the general region-specific options, type action code 4 against DEFAULTS on the CIU200 panel and press Enter. Type action code 1 on panel CIU290 and press Enter.
The General Options panel, CIU260, shown in Figure 1, is displayed.
Note:
  1. If you specified ALL on the Region Configuration Menu, the initial values of the fields on the General Options panel are set to those values of the first "real" CICS region that is listed on the Region Configuration Menu; that is, the values are taken from the first region that is listed after the special ALL and DEFAULT APPLIDs. Both the CICS APPLID and the SYSID are shown as ALL.
  2. If you specified DEFAULTS on the Region Configuration Menu, the initial values of the fields on the General Options panel are the defaults, which are taken from the CICS IA control file, CIUCNTL. The CICS APPLID is shown as DEFAULTS and the SYSID as DFTS. Any changes that you make are saved in the control file and become the new default values.
Figure 1. Collector General Options panel, CIU260

Start of change
 CIU260        CICS Interdependency Analyzer for z/OS - V5R3M0        2015/05/06
                           General Options for                        02:14:23PM
           CICS Sysid   : Z53B     CICS Applid   : IYDZZ53B                     
                                                                                
 Modify the options and press Enter to update, or PF12 to Cancel.               
 Control options (Fields may be set to blanks for default)                 
   Data to Collect  . . . . . . : I    (A=Affinity, I=Interdependency, B=Both) 1 
   Perform periodic saves . . . : Y    (Y=Yes, N=No)                     2 
   Trigger for CINB start . . . : 5    (2 to 9999 thousand records)      3 
   Restore data on start  . . . : Y    (Y=Yes, N=No)                     4 
   Maintain usage counts  . . . : Y    (Y=Yes, N=No)                     5 
   Size of dataspace  . . . . . : 16   (10 to 2000 MB)               6 
   Transid prefix (optional). . : ____ (1 to 4 characters)               7 
   Program exclude list . . . . : CIUXPROG   (1 to 8 characters)         8 
   Transaction exclude list . . : CIUXTRAN (1 to 8 characters)           9 
   Command exclude list . . . . : CIUXCOMM (1 to 8 characters)           10 
   Resource compression list .  : CIUXRCOM (1 to 8 characters)  11 
   Dump HLQ . . . . . . . . . . : DUMP     (1 to 8 characters)  12 
   Dynamic call . . . . . . . . :   (Y=Yes, N=No)           13 
   Trigger for Task collection. : 7 (1 to 9999)             14 
   Collect Long Running Tasks . : N (Y=Yes, N=No)     15 
 CICS Sysid:  Z53B   CICS Applid:  IYDZZ53B   TermID:  TC68 
                                                                                
 F1=Help   16   F2=         F3=Exit      F4=        F5=          F6=        
 F7=          F8=           F9=          F10=         F11=         F12=Cancel   
End of change
 1  Data to Collect
This field is used to specify which type of data you want to collect: affinity data, interdependency data, or both. Use A for affinity, I for interdependency, or B for both affinity and interdependency data. Alternatively, you can use the default value in the CICS IA control file by leaving the field blank. When the control file is first created, the system default value is I for interdependency, but you might have modified it since.
  • You can choose to collect interdependency data on one region and affinity data on another.
  • You can change the type of data (interdependency or affinity) to be collected on a region while the Collector is running on that region, but changes do not take effect until the Collector is restarted.
The options that are specified for the Time and Date Options fields override the value that is specified for the Data to Collect field when they are set to a value other than Y.
 2  Perform periodic saves
This field is used to specify whether you want the collected interdependency data, affinity data, or both to be saved to the VSAM data files, if one of these conditions applies:
  • More than 300 seconds passed since the last save.
  • More than the number of table elements that are specified by the option Trigger for CINB start have changed since the last save.
  • You pause the Collector. (The autosave transaction, CINB, writes the collected data to the data VSAM data files automatically when you stop the Collector.)

You can specify Y or N, or use the default value in the CICS IA control file to specify a blank. When the control file is first created, the system default value is Y (Yes), but you might have modified it since.

 3  Trigger for CINB start
Enter the number of records to be updated to trigger a CINB save, in thousands. You can enter a value from 1 - 9999. A value of 1 indicates that no saves are triggered. The default is 5.
 4  Restore data on start
This field is used to specify whether you want data to be restored from the VSAM data files when the Collector is started, which enables newly collected data to be added to the data collected from previous runs of the Collector. If you are gathering data, use one of the following ways:
  • For one set of transaction identifiers at a time
  • For one set of commands at a time
  • For either interdependency data, affinity data, or both
  • If the Collector is being run, at varying times
Setting the option is also of particular value if the Collector stops unexpectedly because you do not have to start collecting data all over again; you can start from the last time data was saved.

You can specify Y or N, or, to use the default value in the CICS IA control file, specify a blank. When the control file is first created, the system default value is Y (Yes), but you might have modified it since.

 5  Maintain usage counts

This field is used to specify whether the Collector records the number of times an interdependency or affinity is detected. The usage count shows how often resources are used by different applications.

If usage data is not required, switch it off. When usage counts are not maintained, the Collector does not have to update an interdependency or affinity record each time it detects an interdependency or affinity that is already recorded. When the Collector has been running for some time, and it is detecting fewer and fewer new interdependencies or affinities, fewer and fewer records are saved to VSAM. Thus, you have a useful test for the completeness of the set of detected interdependencies or affinities.

You can specify Y or N, or, to use the default value in the CICS IA control file, specify a blank. When the control file is first created, the system default value is Y (Yes), but you might have modified it since.

 6  Size of data space

The size, in megabytes, that you specify for the data space to store the collected data. The size of the data space is fixed for a run of the Collector.

For information about calculating the size of the data space, refer to CICS IA space considerations.

If the data space becomes full while the Collector is running, the Collector stops with abend code IUXB. If the Collector was saving data at the time, a delay might occur from the time the data space becomes full until the time the Collector stops.

The default value is 16.

 7  Transid prefix
The 1- 4 character prefix of the CICS transactions for which you want to gather interdependency or affinity data. If you do not specify any characters, data is collected for all transactions. If you specify a valid prefix (for example, ABC), data is collected only for those transactions with identifiers that start with the prefix. If you specify a blank, the default transid prefix in the CICS IA control file is used.
 8  Program exclude list
The 1 - 8 character name of a table that contains a list of 1 - 8 character program prefixes. Data is not collected for any program with a name beginning with any of the prefixes. If you specify a blank, the default table name in the CICS IA control file is used. The system default name is CIUXPROG, which is the name of an exclude list that is supplied with CICS IA. For information about how to create your own program exclude lists, see Creating your own program exclude, transaction exclude, command exclude, and resource compression list.
 9  Transaction exclude list
The 1 - 8 character name of a table that contains a list of 1 - 4 character transaction prefixes. Data is not collected for any transaction with the name beginning with any of the prefixes. If you specify a blank, the default table name in the CICS IA control file is used. The system default name is CIUXTRAN, which is the name of an exclude list that is supplied with CICS IA. For information about how to create your own transaction exclude lists, see Creating your own program exclude, transaction exclude, command exclude, and resource compression list.
Start of changeStart of change 10  Command exclude listEnd of changeEnd of change
Start of changeStart of changeThe 1 - 8 character name of a table that contains a list of 2 character command prefixes. If you specify a blank, the default table name in the CICS IA control file is used. The system default name is CIUXCOMM, which is the name of an command exclude list that is supplied with CICS IA. For information about how to create your own command exclude lists, see Creating your own program exclude, transaction exclude, command exclude, and resource compression list.End of changeEnd of change
Start of change 11  Resource compression listEnd of change
The 1 - 8 character name of a table that contains a list of resource compression rules. These rules always include 1 - 32 character resource prefixes. The resource name key is compared to a part of a resource name at the moment it is collected. If a match is found, the other part of the resource name is replaced by "+"s. For example, if your application program uses a TSQueue, which consists of a three character prefix "DFH" and a generated five character numerical value, and if you do not have a rule in the resource compression list for "DFH", CICS IA records all entries for the EXEC CICS commands with all the possible TSQueue resource names: DFH00001, DFH00002, DFH00003... DFHnnnnn. This redundancy might lead to many thousands of entries for the same EXEC CICS command. When the "DFH" key is added to the list, CICS IA can report only one entry for the EXEC CICS command with a resource name of DFH+++++. The system default name CIUXRCOM is the name of a resource compression list that is supplied with CICS IA. For information about how to create your own resource compression lists, see Creating your own program exclude, transaction exclude, command exclude, and resource compression list. See also ENQ/DEQ and TS commands to learn about these resources.
 12  Dump HLQ
This field is used to define the high-level qualifier for CICS IA dump data set that are produced.
Start of change 13  Dynamic callEnd of change
This field is used to specify whether you want the dynamic calls to be detected. Specify Y (Yes) or N (No). The default value is Y. Specifying Y (Yes) might result in an increase in the performance cost while data is collected. If you are aware that your environment or your application does not perform dynamic program calls, specify N (No). The "Y" value instructs the collector to use a special CICS TS XPI, IDENTIFY_PROGRAM, to identify the program name. If a detected command belongs to a program that is not known to CICS TS, CICS TS returns a name of the top-level program instead. In this case, the CICS IA collector records a top-level program name and marks the record with ‘-1’ (X’FFFFFFFF’) as a command offset.
 14  Trigger for Task collection
This field is only for dependency collection. The default value is 1. The value is used to reduce the CICS IA Dependency collector performance overhead on the CICS region. When the Trigger for Task collection field is 1, all CICS tasks are permitted for collection, the CICS tasks still might not be collected because of other options, including the program exclude list. If you assume that the Trigger for Task collection is N and greater than 1, only every Nth task is permitted for collection, beginning from the first CICS task start after the start of CICS IA Dependency collector. The transaction exclude list is applied to CICS tasks before this option is applied.
Note:

This option is task associated. When a CICS task starts, further changes of this option and collector restart does not take effect on collection rules for this task.

If these conditions are true:
  • The Collect Long Running Tasks field is set to N.
  • The Trigger for Task collection field is greater than 1.
  • The Dependency collector is already running.
The long running tasks that were already started before the Dependency collector are not collected. If the Collect Long Running Tasks field is set to Y then the long running tasks that are started after the Dependency collector are collected.
 15  Collect Long Running Tasks
This field is only for dependency collection and can be used to enable the collection of all long running CICS tasks, disregarding the value set in the Trigger for Task collection field. The default value of this option is N.
When the current setting of the Trigger for Task collection field is 1, this option does not affect the data collection because all Long Running CICS Tasks are already permitted for collection.
When the current setting of Trigger for Task collection field is greater than 1, and this option is set to N, all CICS Tasks that are not permitted for collection by the Trigger for Task collection option, are never collected.
When the current setting of the Trigger for Task collection field is greater than 1, and this option is set to Y, the following CICS Tasks become collection-enabled:
  1. CICS Tasks that were started when the Dependency Collector was inactive.
  2. CICS Tasks that were started after the Dependency Collector was started and the Trigger for Task collection was set to 1.
  3. CICS Tasks that were started after the Dependency Collector was started and that were not permitted for collection by the Trigger for Task collection option, when the runtime of these CICS Tasks is more than 30 minutes.
 16  Help
Pressing F1 for help does not save any changes that are made; you must press the Enter key to save changes.