August, 2007
by Margaret Greenberg
Speakers and attendees gathered in the newly remodeled CNA lobby and were escorted past security to a spiffy room. It was set up with round tables and had a bountiful offering of coffee, tea, muffins and other breads, plus fruit. What a feast to start off the day.
We were educated by two of the very best speakers in CMG. Some attendees expected a rather staid set of presentations, but all 56 of us were treated to an entire day of entertainment, tips and tricks, and an amazing amount of visuals. There were many more helpful hints and useful sources than we expected. If you couldn't make it to the meeting, you missed one of the best EVER! We reduced our admission by half and got double the attendance. CNA is a centrally located and very public-transportation-accessible location. All the attendees were very pleased.
In the morning, Ray Wicks discussed platform neutral "Getting Started in Capacity Planning." He offered questions that we should be sure to ask, warned us about the limitations of modeling, and finished with some points to remember. There were a couple of new terms introduced. One of them concerned the mysteries of conceptual frameworks which he called GKWE. This is sure to hit hard if overlooked. The other, PLFF, is a very handy tool for checking the validity of graphical components.
Glenn Anderson began the afternoon with "A Large Systems Guy Discovers Enterprise Workload Manager (EWLM)." He explained the interrelationship between the [distributed] EWLM and z/OS Workload Manager. The EWLM can be managed by a non-z/OS OS. He described "loved one" handling and how to manage the topology. He reminded us that end to end monitoring is not always one to one.
After the break, Glenn started the "z/OS Tuning Boot Camp: Back to the Basics". He answered some of the zIIP and zAPP questions lingering among the attendees. Components of I/O response time were broken down. Page swapping was another important element. All this heady stuff was presented with graphs, reports and numerous other examples. As promised, this was a fun presentation for a boot camp. [Did you know that he is a stand up comic in his "other life"]
Some people who deserve MCMG's thanks are:
Our next meeting: Tentatively October 17. Check our website for details to be announced around Labor Day. We look forward to seeing you.