Classes of CMF data

There are three types, or "classes", of monitoring data that you can request CMF to collect: performance class, exception class, and transaction resource class data.

You can switch CICSĀ® monitoring on or off, and change the classes of data being collected, either at CICS initialization or dynamically while CICS is running. It is preferable to start all classes of monitoring data at CICS initialization. If you activate a class of monitoring data while CICS is running, the data for that class becomes available only for transactions that are started thereafter.

CICS PA analyzes three classes of CMF data:
  • Performance class data. Detailed transaction-level information, such as the processor and elapsed time for a transaction, or the time spent waiting for I/O. There is at least one performance record per transaction.
  • Exception class data. Information about exceptional conditions suffered by a transaction, such as queuing for file strings, or waiting for temporary storage. This data highlights possible problems in system operation. There is one exception record for each exception condition.
  • Transaction resource class data. Additional transaction-level information about individual Files and Temporary Storage Queues used by a transaction.