Using the ABO Assistant

Overview of the ABO Assistant

The IBM® Automatic Binary Optimizer (ABO) Assistant is a suite of tools to automate the main parts of finding and optimizing your top CPU consuming COBOL applications.

Batch applications

Starting from your provided SMF data, the Batch SMF Analyzer component of the ABO Assistant will produce a prioritized report on the jobs and programs that consume the most CPU across all the jobs running on your system. Optionally, the JCL locations to run these programs will also be displayed.

For programs known to contain COBOL, these JCL locations can then be used as input to the second component of the ABO Assistant called the Program Analyzer and Optimizer. This component will automate all the individual steps required to efficiently optimize the top CPU consuming individual COBOL batch applications using ABO and to clearly report the CPU time savings from using ABO.

After inputting the JCL used to run each COBOL batch application, one at a time, to the Program Analyzer and Optimizer, it automatically does the following:

  • Rebinds the original program to enable an RTI Profile to be collected
  • Runs the rebound original program to report the CPU time taken by the program and to collect the RTI profile
  • Optimizes the top CPU consuming COBOL CSECTs as found in the RTI profile with ABO
  • Runs the ABO optimized program
  • Reports the CPU time of the optimized program, proportion of time spent in COBOL, and the percentage of the CPU reduction from using ABO

The JCL for the next top CPU consuming COBOL batch application can then be passed to the Program Analyzer and Optimizer component of the ABO Assistant to repeat the above process.

Note: Each target COBOL application must be re-runnable sequentially without cleanup or other steps needed that are not already present in the original JCL. As the application will be run twice, it is highly recommended that the Program Analyzer and Optimizer component of the ABO Assistant only be used on a test or development system. For more information on this and other restrictions, see Limitations and requirements on Program Analyzer and Optimizer.

CICS applications

Starting from your provided CICS® SMF data, gathered according to the instructions at Gathering SMF 110 data, the CICS SMF Analyzer component of the ABO Assistant will produce a prioritized report on the programs and transactions that consume the most CPU across all the programs running in your CICS region.

For the top CPU consuming programs known to contain COBOL, ABO can then be used to optimize these compiled programs to reduce the CPU time, reduce transaction time and improve response time.

To demonstrate these ABO improvements a second report, using SMF data gathered when using the ABO optimized modules, can be produced from the CICS SMF Analyzer.

Finally, the two reports from original and ABO optimized runs can be compared to produce a comparison report that shows the total CPU reduction from using ABO as well as the change in CPU time from each individual program.

Throughout this document:
  • Prioritized report denotes the report the CICS SMF Analyzer produces from the SMF data
  • Comparison report denotes the report the CICS SMF Analyzer produces from two already generated prioritized reports