1. Handling SMF and System Messages
Monitoring the z/OS System
55 minutes
Using System Commands and Consoles
45 minutes
Displaying Active Jobs, Tasks and Users
45 minutes
Displaying Device Status
45 minutes
Using Advanced Monitoring Facilities
PowerPoint
System Monitoring Practices and Procedures
40 minutes
Working with SMF
70 minutes
MPF and Message Suppression
Graphic: Insert your organization’s name in the above slide.
Audio: will need to cover the following:
Welcome to the “Handling SMF and System Messages” presentation. My name is _____, I work in the ___ department and have worked in our organization’s data center for ___ years (This should be expanded so the learner is confident that you have the right credentials to create this presentation).
This presentation follows on from the Datatrain “Working with SMF” and “MPF and Message Suppression” modules and expands on this content to explain how it relates to our mainframe practices. Any questions about the content of this presentation or the Datatrain modules mentioned above should be forwarded to _______ so they can be included in the Webinar, which appears at the end of this learning pathway.
PowerPoint
Handling SMF and System Messages
Handling SMF and System Messages
z/OS System Operation
60 minutes
Company Name
Webinar
Understanding System Monitoring Tasks and Roles
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

2. Presentation Topics How do we use SMF? Managing system messages
Audio: will need to cover the following:
The “Working with SMF” Datatrain module you have completed in this pathway described how SMF can be configured, and how to display its status and attributes. In this section you will see how SMF is used in our environment, how it is defined and real-life scenarios involving SMF.
You will also see how message suppression and message flooding is handled in our organization. This is linked to the “MPF and Message Suppression” Datatrain course you completed earlier.
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

3. Who uses SMF and how is it used?
What type of information do we capture using SMF?
Who needs to access SMF?
What is SMF data used for?
Audio: will need to cover the following:
You will need to explain how the organization uses SMF to capture information relating to the resources that are used on the system (i.e. how long jobs run for, resource usage at specific times, misuse of resources, changes to system configuration).
Explain how there are a number of people that need to access the SMF product itself and the data produced by it: - The general day-to-day operation/monitoring of the product is handled by operators SMF data may be used by: - Security personnel needing to identify unauthorized access to the system and resources - Systems Programmers needing to identify whether resource attributes need to be modified
- Production Schedulers to fine-tune the scheduling of jobs (so that they don’t run concurrently)
Describe any other tasks that your organization uses SMF data for (i.e. analyzed for billing purposes, performance monitoring, system fine tuning purposes).
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

4. How is SMF configured in our environment?
Do we use log data sets or log streams?
How is our SMF processing automated.??
Graphics: You may want to include a screen capture of the parmlib member that contains SMF defaults.
Audio: will need to cover the following:
You will need to describe where configuration data for SMF is stored (i.e. SMFPRMxx member of Parmlib). You may also want to go through some of the configuration statements (i.e. whether log data sets or log streams are used, the system where SMF is active, types of SMF records generated).
You will need to explain the aspects of SMF that are automated (i.e. when SMF data sets are full, automatic switching and dumping occurs). You will also need to explain if any manual actions are required and in what situations (i.e. if automation does not switch or dump).
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

5. SMF real-life problem scenarios
What types of SMF problems have we encountered?
Who is responsible for resolving problems with SMF?
Audio: will need to cover the following:
You will need to look back through your problem logs to identify problems that have occurred with SMF and then explain how the person was alerted to the problem, and what action was taken to resolve it.
You should also mention the people responsible for monitoring (i.e. operators) and managing/resolving problems (i.e. operators, system programmers).
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

6. Message suppression Do we suppress specific messages?
Which messages are suppressed and why?
Which products do we use for message suppression and who is responsible for them?
Scenarios.
Audio: will need to cover the following:
You will need to explain whether specific messages are suppressed in your environment, describing the scenarios that led to this action (i.e. to cut down on non-important messages being sent to operator console).
Describe which messages in particular are suppressed and possibly show how this has been coded into the tool responsible for message suppression.
Mention that the Datatrain courses discussed the use of MPFLSTxx in the logical parmlib, for message suppression. Describe the tools that you use for this purpose (i.e. it might be MPFLSTxx but could also be products such as CA-Opera or BMC Mainview for AutoOperator). You should also mention who is responsible for identifying problem messages (operator, system programmer) and for entering message suppression details into the product you use.
You may want to expand on scenarios that led to those messages needing to be suppressed (you may also have the opposite where some messages are not being produced that should be, which could be the result of the message suppression product).
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

7. How do we handle message flooding?
Have we had problems with message flooding?
Do we use message flood automation?
Audio: will need to cover the following:
You will need to explain whether message flooding has been a problem in your organization, describing the scenarios that occurred (i.e. one day message buffers became full which slowed/shut-down the system).
If you use message flood automation, describe whether it is always turned on and how it has been configured in your environment (maybe compare them to those discussed in the Datatrain courses).
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence

8. Monitoring the z/OS System
55 minutes
Using System Commands and Consoles
Summary
45 minutes
Displaying Active Jobs, Tasks and Users
How do we use SMF?
Managing system messages.
45 minutes
Displaying Device Status
45 minutes
Using Advanced Monitoring Facilities
PowerPoint
System Monitoring Practices and Procedures
40 minutes
Working with SMF
70 minutes
MPF and Message Suppression
Audio: will need to cover the following:
This first part of this presentation provided you with a number of real-life scenarios describing how SMF is used by our organization, how it is configured for operation and the people that interact with it. It also described problem scenarios associated with SMF and how they were resolved. The second part of this presentation described the types of system messages we receive and some of the problems they have caused. This was then expanded to describe the tools we use for message suppression and prevention of message flooding.
Your next training step involves you undertaking an assessment, which is followed by a Webinar. This Webinar will provide you with hands-on exercises and discussions on z/OS monitoring practices.
Thank you for attending.
PowerPoint
Handling SMF and System Messages
z/OS System Operation
60 minutes
Webinar
Understanding System Monitoring Tasks and Roles
Copyright © Interskill Learning Pty Ltd 2011 – Commercial in Confidence