SPARTA News July 2010

July 2010

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Well it’s summer in North Carolina and the dreaded triple H’s are upon us: The Hazy, Hot, and Humid days of July. How I long to be at the beach and working remotely, but I don’t think my management would like the sound of the surf in the background during conference calls.

Last month Mike Arnold of Softbase Systems came to talk to us about tuning DB2. For those of us running DB2, tuning is the ONLY way to make DB2 perform on any platform. Mike presented us with a good amount of useful information, which I’ve given to our DB2 SYSPROG for his information.

We have z/OS 1.11 running on our QAAD LPAR now and the development staff is working it over to shake things out. We are planning to move z/OS 1.11 to production during our August outage. So far we haven’t had any big issues, just some small ones involving IBM debug tool (configuration and logon procs), and FileManager/DB2 (new parms). Other than those it has been running very well for the last two weeks.

On the Unisys side we’ve been tuning things now that we’ve gotten the Q-Processors running well. The middleware group is very happy to see MQ V6 running for this platform now. They’ve been grumbling at us about our old MQ here, but we had to wait on Unisys to make an updated version available for this OS. So far we’ve recorded a 4% reduction in overall CPU usage with this new environment. Our developers will probably suck that back up with the next major release of our Lab Service code.

Over in z/VM land we are beginning the planning for installing z/VM V6. Once we complete the z/OS 1.11 work, we’ll start the installation here. I’m looking forward to building this environment out more. We’ve had some interest in hosting a few more servers from folks who don’t have their “Mainframe Bad” blinders on, and I am pursuing these. Should have some more in a month’s time.

This month Luis Gasca from Serena Software will be speaking to us about Change Management. I look forward to seeing you all on the 27th at LabCorp.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


July 27 Change Management by Luis Gasca of Serena Software
August 31 Durham Bulls at the DBAP
Sept. 28 SHARE Reports from SPARTA members

We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2010-2011 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
Dignus, LLC 919-676-0847
8354 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC 27615

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Tommy Thomas - Treasurer
LabCorp 336-436-4178
3060 S. Church St. 919-361-7267
Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive
Cary, NC 27513

Meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the last Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in December), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings usually are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Tommy Thomas. Tommy will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-L Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-L Group is maintained by Brad Carson; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Brad at 336-436-8294.

Late 2009 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V478 (dated December 27, 2009) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the June 29, 2010 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.

•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.

•Fifteen (15) people were present, of which thirteen (13) were members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job function.

•The minutes of the May 2010 meeting were accepted as published in the June 2010 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer gave the Treasurer's Report. As of June 16, 2010, the balance is $1,175.29. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the June 2010 newsletter.


OLD BUSINESS

•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don't really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

•The SPARTA Web page is available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

July 27, 2010: Serena Software, Security Compliance
Aug. 31, 2010: Durham Bulls at the DBAP
Sept. 28, 2010: SHARE Attendees, "Share Update" from Boston Aug.
Oct. 26, 2010: TBD
Nov. 30, 2010: Emmanuel Sauvion, Sysload Software, Performance Management Virtual Environment

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

•The July SPARTA meeting will be on the 27th at LabCorp in the RTP.

•Food for the July meeting will be BarBQ.

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to Tommy Thomas of LabCorp for hosting the meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:45 p.m.

•The speaker was Mike Arnold from Softbase Systems. Softbase has been in business since 1987 and is based in Asheville, NC (www.softbase.com). Softbase is focused on customer support. Many customers were listed. Mike spoke about the SoftBase Batch Analyzer & DeadLock Advisor software products.

Some of the topics presented:

•Batch Healthcare
- DeadLock Advisor
- Batch Analyzer
- Attach
- Checkpoint

•DeadLock Advisor
- Immediately Interpreted
- Localized to Application
- Simplified Presentation

•Batch Analyzer
- Focused on quick, easy navigation to problem areas
- Data available within a minute
- Extremely lightweight
- Typically left running 24x7
- No DB2 traces used
- No JCL changes
- Fast, easy installation

•Attach
- Call Attach
- Auto-Commit
- Variable Commit Frequency
- ENQ Serialization
- SQL Monitoring

•Checkpoint
- Provides Checkpoint/Restart services
- Automatically repositions sequential files & RRS resources on restart
- Flexible precompiler can convert most COBOL & PL/I programs
- Support for existing Quickstart, AR/CTL& AdvantageGen Applications

•Variable Commit Frequency
- Dynamically Varies Commit Frequency
- Based on Time or Frequency
- Executes via JCL or Operator command
- Can Save Significant CPU & Elapsed Time
- Without Source Code Changes

•ENQ Serialization (US Patent 5,369,704)
- Acts as traffic cop - controlling table access
- Prevents ABENDS due to -911 or –904
- Can be used with image copy
- Allows multi-threading of DB2 batch jobs

•Many Examples Given
- Deadlock, DB2 MSTR, HRDAILY, HRMNTHLY, Timeout, TSO Timeout, Stopped Database, Batch Analyzer View of Jobs

•Mike will send the presentation to Ron P. or Mike L. for posting on the SPARTA webpage

•Meeting ended at 8:30 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for July 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1112.36 as of July 18, 2010.

Financial Report
3/01/2010 through 7/18/2010

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

July 27 - BarBQ
Aug. 31 - Buy Your Own Food at the DBAP
Sept. 28 - Pizza
Oct. 26 - Chicken
Nov. 30 - Subs
Dec. 28 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


Did A Mainframe Glitch Trigger DBS Bank Outage?

contributed by Ed Webb

“(SINGAPORE) A malfunction at the very heart of the bank's technology infrastructure may have triggered the unprecedented systems failure that DBS Bank suffered early this week, sources said.

BT understands the bank appears to have been hit by a mainframe glitch on Monday morning and this could have sparked the seven-hour hit to the bank's online banking, automated teller, credit card and Nets payment services. When contacted, a DBS spokeswoman said the bank will ‘provide an explanation for the incident soon’ as it is waiting for the interim investigation report to be completed.”

Read the rest of this July 11 Business Times AsiaOne article here: http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Story/A1Story20100709-226140.html


zEnterprise System is Here!

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM has announced its newest z machine: the IBM zEnterprise System. You’ve probably seen the announcements so here’s some more info you might find helpful.

•The IBM zEnterprise System -- A new dimension in computing

http://www-01.ibm.com/cgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&htmlfid=897/ENUS110-170&appname=isource&language=enus

•Draft Redbooks about zEnterprise

IBM zEnterprise System Technical Introduction

IBM zEnterprise System Technical Guide

zEnterprise Hardware Presentation


z/OS V1R12 Announcement Updates

contributed by Ed Webb

In addition to the zEnterprise Announcement this week, IBM also made its final Announcement about z/OS V1R12. Here’s a Technical Presentation that you’ll find informative:

A Smarter operating system for a Smarter Planet: z/OS V1.12, z/OS Management Facility V1.12


3480 and 3490E Tape is Dead

contributed by Ed Webb

Buried in the avalanche of zEnterprise and z/OS announcements this week was the official end of 3480 and 3490E tape cartridges from IBM. Announcement Letter US910-136 was concise and to the point:

“Effective February 22, 2011, IBM® will withdraw the following tape media types for IBM programs:
• 3480 Tape Cartridge - compressed format
• 3480 Tape Cartridge - uncompressed format
• 3490E Tape Cartridge
After the effective date of withdrawal, you can no longer order IBM products or service on the withdrawn media.”

This media withdrawal was hinted at for some time. The availability of z/OS V1.12 on DVD is one way IBM will provide non-3592 and non-Internet product distribution.


IBM's zPDT offers developers z/OS on the desktop

contributed by Ed Webb

Here’s a good article that provides a summary of the zPDT (z on a PC) that IBM offers z Product Vendors:

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid80_gci1517015,00.html?track=NL-576&ad=775770&asrc=EM_NLN_12060942&uid=567195


Quiz


Tough Questions

contributed by Ron Pimblett

Hey Ed,  how about a test.  I think these are mainframe interview questions.

The highlighted answer is supposed to be the correct one.

Cheers Ron


1) What is the function of DD DISP parameter? - JCL

(1) Tells the system what to do with the dataset following normal termination of the step

(2) Describes the status of the dataset

(3) Tells the system what to do with the dataset following abnormal termination of the step

(4) All of the above

2) How is the record format of an output dataset specified?

(1) RECORG parameter

(2) STORCLAS parameter

(3) RECFM parameter

(4) None of the above

3) What is the purpose of DD * statement in JCL?

(1) Begins an input data prompt at the system console

(2) Begins an in-stream dataset

(3) Marks the end of a command stream

(4) Includes all datasets within a naming pattern

4) A DD statement has 2 types of parameters. Name them ?

(1) Positional, Keyword

(2) Keyword, Control

(3) Dynamic, Static

(4) Named, Dynamic

5) What is the function of JOB statement in JCL ?

(1) Marks the end of a job

(2) Marks the beginning of an instream procedure

(3) Marks the beginning of a job & assigns a name to the job

(4) Assigns an execution priority to a job

6) How can a job send a status message to a TSO user at the completion of a job ?

(1) STATUS

(2) NOTIFY

(3) ENDMSG

(4) USER

7) What is the function of a DD statement ?

(1) Identifies & describes a dataset

(2) Delimits a DO loop

(3) Marks the start of a declarative section

(4) Delimits the start of an inline include section

8) When output dataset space is required, what quantity categories are used ?

(1) Primary, Secondary, Directory

(2) Address, Units, CONTIG or ALS

(3) Displacement and length

(4) Megabytes, Kilobytes and Bytes

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
7 p.m.

LabCorp in the RTP

Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Tommy Thomas. Tommy will escort you to the conference room.

Free Food: BarBQ, Drink, Dessert

Program:

A Day in the Life of a System Change

Speaker:

Luis Gasca of Serena

SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

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