Defining statistics alerts
To create a statistics alert definition:
- Select option 8 Resource Definitions from the CICS PA Primary Option Menu.
- Select option 5 Statistics Alerts from the Resource
Definitions Menu.
This displays the Statistics Alert Definitions panel:
Figure 1. Statistics Alert DefinitionsFile Options Help -------------------------------------------------------------–--–-------------- Statistics Alert Definitions Row 1 to 1 of 1 Command ===> ________________________________________________ Scroll ===> PAGE Select to edit a definition. Enter NEW command to create a new definition. / Name Description Changed ID _ SAMPLE Sample alert definition 2009/02/17 09:10 AXS ******************************* Bottom of data ********************************
- To define a new Alert Definition, enter NEW on the command
line, and then enter a name for the Alert Definition in the pop-up
window. To populate the new Alert Definition with sample Conditions,
select the option Initialize with sample scenarios. These samples
demonstrate a variety of typical Conditions that you might want in
an Alert Definition for general performance reporting.
Alternatively, you can create a new Alert Definition modeled on an existing one. Enter line action C next to the definition you want to copy. In the pop-up window, enter the name of the new definition and destination repository. If a definition of the same name already exists in the destination repository, it will not be overwritten unless you select the option Replace Alert Definition if it exists.
An Alert Definition name consists of 1-8 characters. The first character must be an alphabetic character (A-Z) or a national character (@, #, or $). The remaining characters can be alphabetic, national, or numeric (0-9) characters.
- To edit an existing Alert Definition, enter line action S next
to the Alert Definition. If you do not want to make
and save changes, enter line action V to view the Alert Definition.
The Alert Definition edit panel has two views: expanded and compressed. The following figure shows the expanded view. The compressed view is similar, but shows only the alert text that describes each condition. To switch between views, press Left (F10) or Right (F11).
Figure 2. Alert Definition edit panel - expanded viewFile Edit Lists Options Help -------------------------------------------------------------–--–------------- EDIT Statistics Alert Definition - SAMPLE Row 1 of 226 More: > Command ===> ________________________________________________ Scroll ===> PAGE Description . . . CICS TS Sample Alerts_______________ Specify the Conditions for this Alert Definition. _ Alert Transaction dumpcode taken________________________ Formula TDRTTKN_____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ + Critical ______________ Warning >0____________ Info _____________ _ Res ____________________________________________ List ________ + _ APPLID ________ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alert Transaction dumps requested_______________________ Formula TRANS_DUMP_TAKEN____________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ + Critical ______________ Warning >0____________ Info _____________ _ Res ____________________________________________ List ________ + _ APPLID ________ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The details for an Alert Definition consist of a description, and a list of Conditions:
- Description
- Free-format text of up to 36 characters describing the definition. This description appears on the Statistics Alert Definitions panel to help identify each definition, but it does not appear in reports.
The details for each Condition are:
- Alert
- Free-format text of up to 50 characters describing the Condition. This text appears in Statistics Alert reports when the Condition occurs (that is, when the Formula value meets a Critical, Warning, or Info threshold).
- Formula
- The expression that you want CICS PA to evaluate
and compare with the thresholds (Critical, Warning, and Info).
This expression can be:
- A statistics field name, such as XMGTAMXT
- A combination of statistics field names, numeric values (decimal points allowed), ( ) (parentheses), and the operators + (add), - (subtract), * (multiply), and / (divide)
For example, the following expression calculates peak in-use IP connection receive sessions as a percentage of the maximum limit:
ISR_PEAK_RECEIVE_SESSIONS / ISR_RECEIVE_SESSIONS * 100
All field names in an expression must be from the same statistics report. You can either type field names directly into the expression, or press Prompt (F4) to select from a list of fields; selecting a field name appends it to the expression.
If you press Prompt (F4) in a Formula field that does not yet contain any field names, CICS PA displays a hierarchical list of CICS® Transaction Server and CICS Transaction Gateway statistics reports. Enter line action S next to the statistics report containing the fields you want to use; this displays the list of fields in the statistics report.
Tip: If you are editing an existing Formula and you are not familiar with the statistics field names it contains, press Prompt (F4). This displays a list of field names and short descriptions. To see a longer description for a particular field, move your cursor to the line action field for that field, and then press Help (F1). - Critical, Warning, Info
- Specify one to three thresholds for Formula values that will trigger
an Alert.
Each threshold represents a different severity level:
- Critical
- A problem has occurred that needs immediate attention
- Warning
- A problem might occur unless action is taken
- Info
- Not a problem: reported for reference only
CICS PA reports only the highest matching severity level.
A threshold consists of a numeric value optionally preceded by one of the following comparison operators:
- >
- Greater than (default)
- =
- Equal to
- <
- Less than
- <=
- Less than or equal to
- >=
- Greater than or equal to
- <>
- Not equal to
- ¬=
- Not equal to (alternative form)
- !=
- Not equal to (alternative form)
To specify large values, append one of the following unit symbols: K (kilo), M (mega), G (giga), T (tera), or P (peta); where, for example, 1K = 1024 and 2.5M = 2.5 * 1024 * 1024.
For example, to trigger an Alert when the Formula value is greater than or equal to 32768, specify >=32K
Specify times in seconds, even for fields stored as milliseconds:
- For a threshold of 500 milliseconds, specify 0.5
- For a threshold of 2 minutes 15 seconds, specify 135
If you specify thresholds with unit symbols, then Statistics Alert reports show actual Formula values with the same unit symbols.
For Info thresholds only: to trigger an Alert regardless of the Formula value, specify a threshold of *. This information Alert is reported only if neither the critical nor the warning threshold is triggered.
- Res or List
- Optional. Limits the reporting of this Condition to specific CICS resources. CICS PA reports
the Condition only if the Res (Resource value),
or a value in the selected Resource List, matches the value of an "identification
field" (key fields and other record identification fields) in the
Statistics report identified by the Formula.
You can specify either a Resource value or a Resource List, but not both. (A Resource List is a set of Resource values that you can refer to by name.)
Masking characters % (exactly one character) and * (zero or more characters) are allowed in a Resource value.
For example, suppose the Formula contains fields from the Dispatcher TCB Modes report. To report the Condition only for TCB mode names that begin with the letter L, enter L* in the Resource field. To report the Condition for TCB mode names that begin with either the letter L or the letter J, in the List field you need to specify the name of a Resource List, that you have previously defined, that contains the values L* and J*. To define a Resource List, select Lists in the action bar. For more details, see Resource Lists.
You can specify a Resource or a Resource List only when the Formula refers to a tabular (multi-record) Statistics report, such as Dispatcher TCB Modes (one record per TCB mode). You cannot specify them for label-based (single-record) reports.
Enter line action I to indicate that only records that have a resource field value that matches the specified value or values in the specified Resource List are to be assessed by this Alert. Enter line action X to indicate that records that have resource field values that match the specified value or values in the specified Resource List are not to be assessed by this Alert. I is the default.
Important: The resource selection will affect all selection criteria for that record (STID). This means that you cannot establish different selection criteria for different resource values for the same record.Note:- Resource Lists and Alert Definitions are both stored in a repository. An Alert Definition can only refer to Resource Lists that are stored in the same repository as the Alert Definition.
- Alert Definitions cannot refer to Object Lists. Object Lists are stored in the Control Data Set specified in your CICS PA Profile. For details, see Object lists versus resource lists
- APPLID
- Optional. Enter an APPLID to limit the reporting of this Condition
to a particular CICS system
or systems. Masking characters % (exactly one character) and * (zero
or more characters) are allowed. For example, enter CICS%T to limit
the reporting of this Condition to CICS systems
with APPLID CICSAT, CICS1T, CICSBT, CICS2T, etc.
CICS PA uses this field to filter statistics records from a Statistics Alert report; it does not use this field to select which SMF files to use as input for the report. This is different to specifying an APPLID in a shared or personal CICS system definition. When you request a Statistics Alert report in a Report Set (that is, using data in SMF files), CICS PA selects SMF files based on the (personal or shared) system definitions that you have specified, including the APPLID of any CICS system definitions. Consequently, any APPLID that you specify in an Alert Definition might already have been filtered out by file selection.
Enter line action I to indicate that only records that have an APPLID that matches the specified value are to be assessed by this Alert. Enter line action X to indicate that records that have an APPLID that matches the specified value are not to be assessed by this Alert. I is the default.
An Alert Definition can contain many Conditions. To find a particular Condition in an Alert Definition, enter the command FIND string, where string is a character string that appears in one of the Condition field values. If you enter the FIND command on the compressed view of the panel, the command searches only the fields displayed on the compressed view.
Each Condition can be either active (the default state) or inactive. When you request a Statistics Alert report, CICS PA ignores any inactive Conditions. If you want to temporarily exclude a Condition from reporting, then rather than deleting it, make it inactive. This allows you to reinstate the Condition later, rather than having to enter its details again. To switch a Condition between active and inactive states, enter line action X next to the Condition.
If you request a report sorted by Alert, CICS PA sorts the Alerts in the report according to the order of the Conditions on this panel. Otherwise, the order of the Conditions on this panel is not significant. You can use line actions, that are described here, to move Conditions into the order that you prefer.
Line Actions
- /
- Display the menu of line actions.
- S or E
- Switch to expanded view, and then scroll the display to this Condition, ready for editing.
- I
- Insert a new Condition.
- R
- Repeat this Condition.
- C
- Copy this Condition.
- M
- Move this Condition.
- A
- Copy/Move after this Condition.
- B
- Copy/Move before this Condition.
- D
- Delete this Condition.
- X
- Switch this Condition between active and inactive states.