SPARTA News July 2013

July 2013

SPARTA President’s Corner

Remembering Brad Carson

contributed by Ed Webb

I want to thank those SPARTA members who were able to attend Brad Carson’s funeral in Tarboro last month. I was surprised to learn that Sam Knutson, now Vice President of Product Management for CA Technologies, and a Director at SHARE, also was there for Brad. Regrettably I could not be there; I was at my Mother’s family reunion in Georgia.

Several times this past month I have thought “I need to talk to Brad about this”, only to remember a moment later that I can’t. It’s sad and frustrating to realize that his advice and counsel are not available at the other end of a phone call or e-mail.

At last month’s meeting, I took the opportunity to read the SHARE blog posting by Marna Walle (of IBM) about Brad’s passing. If you missed it, just take a look here.

Smitty (Paul Smith) and his team from IBM gave us a well-received presentation about the latest updates to Omegamon on z/OS. Check out the meeting notes later in this newsletter. We very much appreciated their efforts at a sad time for SPARTA.

One of our newest members, Elizabeth Stitt, has arranged for our speaker this month from GT Software. And we’ll have some BarBQ as well at our meeting on July 30th at LabCorp in RTP. See you there.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


July 30 Ivory Mainframe Integration and Data Access Tools by Don Spoerke of GT Software
Aug. 27 Durham Bulls at the DBAP
Sept. 24 SHARE August 2013 Report by Ed Webb of SAS, other 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.

2012-2013 SPARTA
Board of Directors

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

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
DTS Software 919-833-8426
4350 Lassiter at North Hills Ave, Suite 235
Raleigh, NC 27609

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.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute Inc. 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 Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.

April 2013 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V486 (dated April 2, 2013) are available from www.cbttape.org.

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

Minutes of the June 25, 2013 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Ron Pimblett, the Chapter Vice President.
•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.
•Nineteen (19) people were present of which eleven (11) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their tributes and memories of Brad Carson who passed away on June 19, 2013 at age 53.
•The minutes of the May 21, 2013 meeting were approved as published in the June 2013 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's Report. As of June 19, 2013, the balance is $939.03. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the June 2013 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.

•Ron Pimblett reminded everyone to leave the LabCorp conference room clean.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett (919-833-8426).

•The next monthly SPARTA meeting will be July 30 at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the July 2013 meeting will be BarBQ (Randy Springs will pick up our usual BBQ).

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to LabCorp (Tommy Thomas) for hosting the June meeting.

•Chris Blackshire will contact Yahoo to take over the SPARTA Listserv.

•Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA Listserv.

•Motion made, seconded, and passed to send $50 from SPARTA for research to Caring for Carcinoid Foundation in Brad Carson’s memory.

•For those job hunting, Tommy Thomas announced that LabCorp will soon open a position for Brad’s replacement. Tommy will send out more job information as it becomes available.

•The 2013 dues are due ($30). Please see Tommy Thomas.

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

PRESENTATION

•Presentation given by Paul Smith (Smitty), Sandeep Perumbuduri, Dean Butler, and Tom Howe of IBM with the latest Tivoli / Omegamon z/OS updates.

• Agenda
- Smitty Introduced The Omegamon History and Topics to be reviewed
- Problem Solving with Consolidated Logs by Sandeep Perumbuduri (7:50)
- OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks by Dean Butler (8:15)

Problem Solving with Consolidated Logs by Sandeep Perumbuduri

• Application and Infrastructure Problem Diagnosis
- Operators and subject matter experts are overwhelmed with volumes of data that they manually process to determine the cause, location and scope of a problem.
- Only 3% of the data generated is operations orientated metric data
- 97% is made up of the unstructured/semi structured data
- A large enterprise with 5,000 servers can generate over 1.3 TB of data per day
- Too much data - timely analysis and problem solving assistance is needed to resolve issues

• NetView for z/OS V6.1
- Problem Solving with Consolidated Logs (Canzlog)
- Browsing Logs Prior to NetView V6.1 = tedious
- Log Browse with NetView V6.1 and CANZLOG = much more useful
- CANZLOG = Consolidated Audit, NetView and z/OS LOG

• Highlights
- Browse consolidated log
- New, shared data space to capture messages

• Browsing the log: BROWSE command
- Command: BR <named filter> <additional filters>
- Browse using CANZLOG filter
- Command: BROWSE CANZLOG
- Browse using LOG filter
- Command: BROWSE LOG (PF5)
- Press ENTER with cursor on command line or type WHAT to get complete filter information
- Browse using a named filter
- SCommand: BROWSE MYMSGS FROM 06/19/13 10:40 (example)
- The filters specified in the named filter will be picked up along with additional filters specified

• CANZLOG panel
- Command: CANZLOG
- Various available sub-commands like UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, FIND, ALL etc
- Sub-command: DISPMSG
- Displays more details of a particular message
- Operator can navigate to next or previous message from here
- Sub-command: SHOWTEXT
- Displays complete text of a message
- Sub-command: FIND rxserve
- FIND in SHOWTEXT would find a specific line matching the find request
- Sub-command: FIND msgid=IEF
- Find helps to search for a single message which matches the filters specified
- Sub-command: ALL msgid=ief asid=32
- ALL displays all the messages in log that match the specified filter
- Sub-command: SAVE
- Filters can be saved either as TASK or COMMON
- Sub-command: LIST CZFILTER
- Displays all the available filters to that operator

• Summary
- CANZLOG brings together syslog, netlog and audit messages
- Very robust, flexible filtering
- Any message attribute or combination
- Scope
- Actions - Save, Replace, Delete
- Seamless archiving and retrieval
- Export to IBM Service Request

• What's Next - future enhancements related to CANZLOG that were requested by customers
- Relative time specification for CANZLOG Browse
- Record messages that are logged before NetView sub-system gets initialized
- Ability to perform a multi remote CANZLOG Browse

• More Information
- NetView website http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/netview-zos/
- NetView customer forum
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/NetView/
- NetView wiki
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/tivolidoccentral/Tivoli+NetView+for+zOS
- NetView media gallery
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/tivolimediagallery/Tivoli+NetView+for+zOS

OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks by Dean Butler

• OMEGAMON for Mainframe Networks, a key part of Integrated Service Management Ecosystem (VTAM and TCP/IP)
- Visibility: Problem Determination, Management and Resolution
- Automation: Application, network and system command and message automation
- Control: Commands, Management and Environmental Control

• NetView and OMEGAMON Components for Mainframe working together create single view of enterprise networks
- Network Availability
- Network Performance
- Common user interface
- Integration function provides customers with a consolidated TCP/IP workbench
- Smart IP tracing to learn connections that hamper application performance
- All the components work together to keep applications and services available

• Business Agility with improved IT visibility now available with OMEGAMON V5.1 family
- Increased System Availability with faster problem resolution
- Improved Productivity with simplified information
- Reduced Costs with decreased resource usage

• Enhanced 3270 user interface creates Enterprise wide view of information for improved availability (GUI on a green screen)
- Understand transactions across your enterprise
- Color coding to provide ability to find and resolve problems quickly
- Eliminates need to move between multiple screens and monitors

• Customer prioritized Problem Solving scenarios built into enhanced 3270 user interface
- Customized screens focused on customer defined problems
- Screen content based on high priority problems
- Includes Healthcheck and Bottleneck analysis
- Example Screen Shots Given

• OMEGAMON for Mainframe Networks V5.1 improves network diagnostics and management
- Increased system availability with faster problem resolution through built-in problem solving scenarios
- Improved diagnostics and decreased CPU utilization
- Support for zEnterprise mainframe server improves application availability
- Improved resource usage with more control over data collection
- Greater synergy with IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS
- Improved management through additional Take Action commands
- Improved troubleshooting of data collection problems

• Increased System Availability with faster problem resolution
- OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks delivers problem solving scenarios for your network
- Monitor application and TCP listener activity
- Monitor OSA and interface activity
- Monitor TN3270 server activity
- Monitor TCP/IP stacks activity
- Monitor FTP sessions and transfers activity
- Monitor Enterprise Extender (EE) and High Performance Routing (HPR) activity

Example of quickly finding and fixing z/OS problem reviewed

• Requirements Being Considered…
- List of Workspaces in Networks Extended
- IP stacks Summary all LPARS
- Prototype: Enterprise Connections Find
- The Enterprise Connections Find workspace displays performance metrics for connections
matching search criteria specified by the end user.
- Data Versus Information: better network problem resolution

• Contact Information
- Paul Smith - 919-224-1806
- Sandeep Perumbuduri - 919-224-2116
- Dean Butler 919-224-1819 butlerde@us.ibm.com
- Tom Howe - 919-224-1872

• The presentation and discussions ended about 9:00 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for July 2013

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $842.09 as of June 16, 2013.

Financial Report
3/01/2013 through 07/16/2013

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2013

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

July 30 - BarBQ
Aug. 27 - DBAP Buy Your Own
Sept. 24 - Pizza
Oct. 29 - Chicken
Nov. 19 - Subs
Dec. 31 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays


It’s Official - z/OS V2R1 and z/OSMF V2R1 Are Coming in September

contributed by Ed Webb

On Tuesday, July 23, IBM announced that z/OS V2R1 and z/OSMF V2R1 will be available starting September 30, 2013. As the first release of a new two-year cycle for z/OS, V2R1 means V2R2 will not be available until September 2015.

The z/OS 2.1 announcement letter is a detailed overview. z/OSMF 2.1 Announcement Letter is here.

Important z/OS 2.1 documentation is now available for review online:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/bkserv/

Just look at What’s New near the top of the page.


Session Schedule Updated For New Hardware and Software for SHARE

contributed by Ed Webb

With IBM’s announcements this week of a new entry-level z Server, the zBC12, enhancements to the zEC12, and the new versions of z/OS and z/OSMF, SHARE has updated its schedule for the upcoming Boston meeting August 11-16, 2013. Here’s some session highlights:

Updated Sessions include:

• What’s New in z/OS - Beantown edition
• Migrating to z/OS 2.1 - 2 sessions
• z/OS 2.1 User Experiences
• The New and Improved z/OSMF 2.1
• Health Checker for z/OS 2.1 Update
• zEC12 Hardware sessions

Browse the full schedule here . Or review it by Areas of Interest (tracks) this way.

It’s not too late to register. Just click here for the best education a z/OS expert or novice can get!

And make your room reservations for SHARE now. Spread across two hotels, the Sheraton and the Marriott, near the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay district of Boston, you can Book now before the rooms at Conference rates are all taken.


Humor


Car Buff’s Old Car Trivia

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Q: What was the first official White House car?
A: A 1909 White Steamer, ordered by President Taft
 
Q: Who opened the first drive-in gas station?
A: Gulf opened up the first station in Pittsburgh in 1913.
 
Q: What city was the first to use parking meters?
A: Oklahoma City, on July 16, 1935
 
Q: Where was the first drive-in restaurant?
A: Royce Hailey's Pig Stand opened in Dallas in 1921
 
Q: True or False?
The 1953 Corvette came in white, red, and black.
A: False.
 
The 1953 'Vetted' were available in one color, Polo White.
 
Q: What was Ford's answer to the Chevy Corvette, and other legal street racers of the 1960's?
A: Carroll Shelby's Mustang GT350.
 
Q: What was the first car fitted with an alternator, rather than a direct current dynamo?
A: The 1960 Plymouth Valiant
 
Q: What was the first car fitted with a replaceable cartridge oil filter?
A: The 1924 Chrysler.
 
Q: What was the first car to be offered with a "perpetual guarantee"?
A: The 1904 Acme, from Reading, PA. Perpetuity was disturbing in this case, as Acme closed down in 1911.
 
Q: What American luxury automaker began by making cages for birds and squirrels?
A: The George N. Pierce Co. of Buffalo, who made the Pierce Arrow, also made iceboxes.
 
Q: What car first referred to itself as a convertible?
A: The 1904 Thomas Flyer, which had a removable hard top.
 
Q: What car was the first to have its radio antenna embedded in the windshield?
A: The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix.
 
Q: What car used the first successful series-production hydraulic valve lifters?
A: The 1930 Cadillac 452, the first production V16
 
Q: Where was the World's first three-color traffic lights installed?
A: Detroit, Michigan in 1919. Two years later they experimented with synchronized lights.
 
Q: What type of car had the distinction of being GM's 100 millionth car built in the U.S.?
A: March 16, 1966 saw an Olds Tornado roll out of Lansing, Michigan with that honor.
 
Q: Where was the first drive-in movie theater opened, and when?
A: Camden, NJ in 1933
 
Q: What autos were the first to use a standardized production key-start system?
A: The 1949 Chryslers
 
Q: What did the Olds designation 4-4-2 stand for?
A: 4 barrel carburetor, 4 speed transmission, and dual exhaust.
 
Q: What car was the first to place the horn button in the center of the steering wheel?
A: The 1915 Scripps-Booth Model C. The car also was the first with electric door latches.
 
Q: What U.S. production car has the quickest 0-60 mph time?
A: The 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409. Did it in 4.0 seconds.
 
Q: What's the only car to appear simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek?
A: The Mustang
 
Q: What was the lowest priced mass produced American car?
A: The 1925 Ford Model T Runabout. Cost $260, $5 less than 1924.
 
Q: What is the fastest internal-combustion American production car?
A: The 1998 Dodge Viper GETS-R, tested by Motor Trend magazine at 192.6 mph.
 
Q: What automaker's first logo incorporated the Star of David?
A: The Dodge Brothers.
 
Q: Who wrote to Henry Ford, "I have drove fords exclusively when I could get away with one. It has got every other car skinned, and even if my business hasn't been strictly legal it don't hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8"?
A: Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) in 1934.
 
Q: What car was the first production V12, as well as the first production car with aluminum pistons?
A: The 1915 Packard Twin-Six. Used during WWI in Italy, these motors inspired Enzi Ferrari to adopt the V12 himself in 1948.
 
Q: What was the first car to use power operated seats?
A: They were first used on the 1947 Packard line.
 
Q: Which of the Chrysler "letter cars" sold the fewest amount?
A: Only 400, 1963, 300J's were sold (they skipped" "I" because it looked like a number 1)
 
Q: What car company was originally known as Swallow Sidecars (aka SS)?
A: Jaguar, which was an SS model first in 1935, and ultimately the whole company by 1945.
 
Q: What car delivered the first production V12 engine?
A: The cylinder wars were kicked off in 1915 after Packard's chief engineer, Col. Jesse Vincent, introduced its Twin-Sis.
 
Q: When were seat belts first fitted to a motor vehicle?
A: In 1902, in a Baker Electric streamliner racer which crashed at 100 mph. on Staten Island!
 
Q: In January 1930, Cadillac debuted it's V16 in a car named for a theatrical version of a 1920's film seen by Harley Earl while designing the body, What's that name?
A: The "Madam X", a custom coach designed by Earl and built by Fleetwood. The sedan featured a retractable landau top above the rear seat.
 
Q: Which car company started out German, yet became French after WWI?
A: Bugati, founded in Molsheim in 1909, became French when Alsace returned to French rule.
 
Q: In what model year did Cadillac introduce the first electric sunroof?
A: 1969
 
Q: What U.S. production car had the largest 4 cylinder engine?
A: The 1907 Thomas sported a 571 cu. in. (9.2 liter) engine.
 
Q: What car was reportedly designed on the back of a Northwest Airlines airsickness bag and released on April Fool's Day, 1970?
A: 1970 Gremlin, (AMC)
 
Q: What is the Spirit of Ecstasy?
A: The official name of the mascot of Rolls Royce, she is the lady on top of their radiators.
 
Q: What was the inspiration for MG's famed octagon-shaped badge?
A: The shape of founder Cecil Kimber's dining table. MG stands for Morris Garages.
 
Q: In what year did the "double-R" Rolls Royce badge change from red to black?
A: 1933

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

7 p.m.

LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: BarBQ, Drink, Dessert

Program:

Ivory Mainframe Integration and Data Access Tools

Speaker:

Don Spoerke of GT Software

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

First Class Postage

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