What's new in the CICS PA plug-in V5.2

Enhancements to CICS® PA V5.2 plug-in.

New function Description
Visualizing CICS program load activity
The following new views are provided that you can use to visualize CICS program load activity and analyze loader and storage statistics:
  • LDG Loader global view
  • LDG Storage DSA view
  • LDG Storage EDSA view

Each view uses a bar chart format to show the statistic details for the APPLID at the interval time of the record, and a few intervals before and after. You can access these views from CICS Loader statistical data in the sheet views, from loader alerts in the Statistics Alerts view, or from hyperlinks in these new statistical analysis views.

Visualizing storage
The following new views are provided that you can use to visualize storage and analyze storage statistics:
  • SMS Storage global view
  • SMS Storage DSA view
  • SMS Storage EDSA view
  • SMS Storage GDSA view
  • SMT Task subpools view

Each view uses a bar chart format to show the statistic details for the APPLID at the interval time of the record or storage alert, and a few intervals before and after. You can access these views from CICS Storage manager statistical data in the sheet views, from storage alerts in the Statistics Alerts view, or from hyperlinks in these new statistical analysis views.

Visualizing task dispatcher performance

A new DSG Dispatcher global view provides an overview of task dispatcher performance.

The view uses a graphical format to show the dispatcher statistic details for the APPLID at the interval time of the record or dispatcher alert, and a few intervals before and after. You can access this view from CICS Dispatcher statistical data in the sheet view or from dispatcher alerts in the Statistics Alerts view.

Visualizing transaction activity

A new MNG Monitoring global view provides an overview of transaction activity and related CICS Monitoring information.

The view uses a graphical format to show the monitoring statistic details for the APPLID at the interval time of the record, and a few intervals before and after. You can access this view from CICS Monitoring statistical data in the sheet view or from monitoring alerts in the Statistics Alerts view.

Viewing transaction performance alerts

A new Transaction Performance Alerts view provides details of performance alerts that CICS PA has captured and loaded into the host DB2® database. You can use this view to monitor and report significant transaction performance conditions that are based on predefined thresholds.

Visualizing transaction performance

A new Transaction performance detail view shows transaction performance conditions for a specified instance of a transaction in a graphical format. You can use it to see transaction performance conditions at the time that a transaction performance alert occurred. You can access this view from a performance list record in the sheet view or from alerts in the Transaction Performance Alerts view.

Logging SQL queries

You can now log all the SQL queries that are issued by the plug-in, and view details of those queries for debug purposes.

A new Database Retrieval Debug pane is provided in the Preferences window to start or stop logging the SQL queries that are issued by the plug-in, and to open the DB Retrieval Debug view.

A new DB Retrieval Debug view is provided to show details of the SQL queries that are issued by the plug-in. You can view the query text, the time when the query was issued, and the ID of the process thread that executed the query. You can use this view to start or stop logging the SQL queries, and to clear the table of entries in the view.

Enhancements to existing function Description
CICS SMF Records view
The name of the previous Records view is changed to the CICS SMF Records view. The view contains the following tabs:
  • The CICS SMF Tables tab shows the types of monitoring or statistics records, grouped by record categories.
  • The Selected records tab provides the filters to select the records that are displayed in the Sheet view.
Statistics Alerts view

The name of the previous Alerts view is changed to the Statistics Alerts view.

The Statistics Alerts view and the associated statistics visualizations are now available in the CICS Explorer® SM perspective as well as the CICS PA perspective. From the CICS Explorer SM perspective, if you are connected to the CICS PA database on the host, this view shows any statistical alerts in the CICS PA database for the currently selected APPLID.

Performance Analyzer date dialog

The Performance Analyzer date dialog now includes the option to specify a relative time period of the last day, week, month, quarter, or year.

Summary records and performance list records in the Sheet view

Predefined layouts are provided in the Sheet view to display the appropriate data for different analysis types, for example, CICS TCB usage for summary records and program activity analysis for performance list records.

Statistics records in the Sheet view

A default layout is provided for each type of statistics record in the Sheet view, so that relevant columns of data are displayed together.

Transaction detail view
This view now includes the following new pie charts:
  • Program Request
  • Temporary Storage Request
  • Transient Data Request

Existing charts in this view now include additional fields and enhanced presentation.

This view is now shown in the main section of the CICS PA perspective, rather than at the bottom.

XMG Transaction global view

This view now includes a "Transactions classes" table that lists the transaction class IDs and the number of attaches for each transaction class, and provides a hyperlink to the XMC Transaction class view.

XMG Transaction global, XMR Transaction class, and XMC Transaction resource views

A Show alternative statistic visualizations icon is provided on the toolbar of these views to access options to display the other new global statistics visualization views.

These views are now shown in the main section of the CICS PA perspective, rather than at the bottom.

Copying and pasting date data

When you copy and paste data into an Excel spreadsheet, a standard ISO date format is used.