Preparing to monitor distributed connections

Before you can use Db2® AI for z/OS® to monitor and control your connection and thread workloads, you need to collect statistics, review several subsystem parameter settings, and, optionally, prioritize IP addresses, user IDs, or application names.

Before you begin

Make sure that you added all of the target connections for which you want to monitor inbound distributed connection requests.

Db2ZAI relies on the following statistics to generate recommended thread- and connection-related thresholds and to generate alerts:
IFCID 365 statistics
IFCID 365 records detailed statistics about the remote locations that a Db2 subsystem communicates with using the DRDA protocol. Db2ZAI uses these statistics as input to the training process, the results of which are used to generate warning and exception profiles for connections and threads.
IFCID 402 records
IFCID 402 records information about any profile warnings or exception conditions that occurred during a statistics interval. Db2ZAI uses these records to generate alerts when thresholds are exceeded.
Note: Modifying profile warning or exceptions thresholds for existing profiles and issuing a START PROFILE command may result in unexpected or false exception alerts can be resolved using the RESET_IFCID402 option for the Db2 DDF_COMPATIBILITY subsystem parameter.. For more information, see DDF_COMPATIBILITY in macro DSN6FAC.
IFCID 411 records
IFCID 411 records thread-related information about client application names that access Db2. Db2ZAI uses these records for training.
Important: Monitoring of applications with 411 is limited to 6000 unique user ID values. If this limit is exceeded, Db2 issues DSNL030I with reason code 00D3105D and stops collecting the statistics for any new application names until DDF is restarted.
IFCID 412 records
IFCID 412 records thread-related information about client user IDs that access Db2. Db2ZAI uses these records for training.
Important: Monitoring of applications with 412 is limited to 6000 unique user ID values. If this limit is exceeded, Db2 issues DSNL030I with reason code 00D3105D and stops collecting the statistics for any new application names until DDF is restarted.
Note: To ensure that Db2ZAI collects enough statistical data to generate accurate recommendations, set the Db2 STATIME_MAIN subsystem parameter to the smallest interval that is acceptable for your site for the duration of the collection period. Because setting STATIME_MAIN to a short interval increases the amount of SMF records that are collected, you might need to adjust this setting based on available storage or tooling constraints.

Switching between recording client user IDs and client application names

You can activate client traces that record thread-related information about client user IDs or application names that access Db2. IFCID 412 is activated by default and will be deactivated if you activated IFCID 411.

Procedure

  1. Ensure that you have privileges to start traces and update the SYSML.DSN_CONFIG table.
  2. From the Settings page, open the DCC settings tab.
  3. Select the trace you want to activate.
    There are two options you can select:
    • Client application name: activates IFCID 411 and enables data collection by client application name.
    • Client user ID: activates IFCID 412 and enables data collection by client user ID.
  4. Click Save.

Starting data collection for DCC

IFCID 365, 402, and 411 or 412 are started when System assessment or Distributed connections control are started. Db2ZAI uses IFCID 365 to obtain connection- and thread-related statistics and IFCID 402 to record information about any profile warnings or exception conditions that occurred during a statistics interval. Db2ZAI uses IFCID 411 to obtain thread-related statistics about client application names and IFCID 412 to obtain thread-related information about client user IDs. Whether IFCID 411 or 412 is started is determined by the client application or client user ID setting for DCC and the default is IFCID 412.

Generate accurate recommendations

Db2ZAI uses location statistics from IFCID 365 tracing to obtain the connection- and thread-related statistics for each IP address, IFCID 411 tracing to obtain thread-related statistics for each client application name, and IFCID 412 tracing to obtain the thread-related statistics for each client user ID. These statistics are used as input to the training process, the output of which are the warning and exception profiles that you use to monitor and control connection and thread usage. The statistics from the activated IFCID 411 or 412 are used as input for the training process.

About this task

When IFCID 411 or 412 data is present during training, Db2ZAI only generates location recommendations for connections, except for the MONITOR ALL thread profiles. Thread recommendations are generated for either client user ID or client application names, depending on which trace is active.
Important: Monitoring of applications with IFCID 411 or 412 is limited to 6000 unique user ID values. If this limit is exceeded, Db2 issues DSNL030I with reason code 00D3105D and stops collecting the statistics for any new application names until DDF is restarted.

Set up email notifications

You can configure Db2ZAI to send emails to designated recipients when an alert is generated. See Configuring alerts for instructions.

About this task

Note: Changing the alert notification settings requires the Db2ZAI metadata administrator privilege.