What's new in V5.5.0

Component enhancements - Application Trace Facility

Enhanced information experience

Find the explanation of error messages by using the IBM Doc Buddy app

IBM Doc Buddy is available for download in both Apple App Store and Google Play. Once you install IBM Doc Buddy on your smart phone or tablet, you can find the explanations for error messages issued by OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS within seconds. IBM Doc Buddy is helpful in environments from which the IBM OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS: Troubleshooting Guide on the Internet is not directly accessible.

You can obtain IBM Doc Buddy from Apple App Store or from Google Play. Learn more.

Get your planning and configuration work on the fast track

As product installer, you might want to have an overview of the tasks that are involved in planning and configuring the OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS product to get your work on the fast track. The planning and configuration roadmaps, which include a diagram for an at-a-glance view and tables for task description, guide you through the steps to plan and configure the OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS monitoring agent and OMEGAMON II for IMS component.

For more information, see Planning roadmap and Configuration roadmap.

Locate the information sections based on user roles

A user roadmap provides mapping of different user roles with their goals. By using the user roadmap, you can better understand the goals that you have and meanwhile gain quick access to the information section that you want.

In OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS, the user roadmap provides a description of key roles and typical responsibilities of the product users associated with each goal. For more information, see User roadmap.

Understand the monitoring resources on enhanced 3270 user interface and Tivoli Enterprise Portal interface

OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS provides monitoring resources in the z/OS-based OMEGAMON enhanced 3270 user interface (e3270UI) and the graphical Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP) interface, which is based on distributed platforms. The monitoring resources include workspaces, attributes, and situations.

You can view the topics that describe the monitoring resources on different user interfaces in the User's Guide of the documentation. You can also quickly locate a workspace for a specific attribute of OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS. For more information, see Monitoring resources on the enhanced 3270 user interface and Monitoring resources on the Tivoli Enterprise Portal.

IMS Commander

IMS Commander introduces a message repository that contains all of the IMS MTO/SMTO messages and z/OS console messages from IMS control and dependent regions. As subject matter experts, you can quickly review IMS MTO/SMTO messages and z/OS console messages from IMS control and dependent regions without switching tools, reducing the time to investigate issues.

IMS Commander workspace

All IMS commands (Type-1 and Type-2) are supported within the IMS Commander workspace. The IMS Messages attribute group is added to access the Message repository that consists of IMS console traffic, dependent region messages, commands, and the responses. You can use the IMS Messages attributes to view the messages from a certain period, origin, and string content to have an overall view of the application activity. For more information, see IMS Messages attributes.

Type-2 Automated Operator user exit

The Type-2 Automated Operator user exit (AOIE) is introduced for the IMS Commander feature. The new user exit is called for system messages that are destined for the master terminal, for type-1 commands that are entered from APPC or OTMA connections, and for the responses to those type-1 commands. The exit routine is also called for internal commands and commands from the ICMD call but not for their responses.

For more information about the new user exit, see Implementing IMS user exits. For information about configuring the new user exit by using one of the installation options, see Configuring the IMS Commander Type-2 Automated Operator user exit.

PARMGEN improvements

Configuration requirements for IMS V15.1 KCIJPSEC and KOISUPD

For existing runtime environments (RTEs) that already have KCIJPSEC and KOISUPD security imbeds for WCONFIG KI2$SSC1 and KI2$SSC2 members, before you rerun the KCIJPSEC job, you must take steps to enable the IMS V15.1-related modules. For more information, see Enabling the IMS version-related modules.

Removed features

Because PARMGEN improvements are introduced in V5.5.0, the following features or items are removed:

• IBM OMEGAMON II (CUA)
• IMS Console Facility (I/CF)
• XE Collector configuration
• Over a hundred parameters

For more information about the description of the removed features and the action to take, see Removed features.

Simplified configuration into basic and advanced parameters

Individual settings as a configuration choice for the XE collectors are removed to simplify configuration workload and increase Time to Value (TTV).

z/OS Discovery Library Adapter (DLA) integration

The autodiscovery function of z/OS Discovery Library Adapter (DLA) is integrated in the PARMGEN configuration method to simplify the configuration process. During the configuration phase of the OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS deployment, you can run the PARMGEN z/OS DLA jobs to automatically discover and fill in the values of some product parameters before you start to edit the configuration profiles.

For example, DLA now automatically discovers the IMS Connect load libraries because the KI5_X_ICT_IMS_CONNECT_FLAG parameter is enabled by default. As a result, you don't need to update the PARMGEN deck for that parameter. The data sets are concatenated in the OMEGAMON IMS Agent STC. You can also see the following IMS load library parameters in WCONFIG($GBL$USR), and the values of these parameters are concatenated in the STEPLIB DDNAME of the OMEGAMON for IMS Agent started task:

• GBL_DSN_IMS_SCEXLINK
• GBL_DSN_IMS_SFUNLINK

For more information about using the autodiscovery function of DLA, see Preparing the configuration profiles by running the KCIJPDLn jobs.

User interface

IMS System Health workspace

The monitoring of the Bottleneck Analysis status and IMS Commander status is supported in the IMS System Health workspace. For more information, see IMSplex Filter attributes.

IMS Commander workspace

All IMS commands (Type-1 and Type-2) are supported within the IMS Commander workspace. The IMS Messages attribute group is added to access the Message repository that consists of IMS console traffic, dependent region messages, commands, and the responses. You can use the IMS Messages attributes to view the messages from a certain period, origin, and string content to have an overall view of the application activity. For more information, see IMS Messages attributes.

Software requirements and interoperability with other products

Requirements to use OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS V5.5.0

Before you use OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS, ensure that the requirements for operating systems, IBM Tivoli® Monitoring, IMS, and Java are met.

For detailed information about the system requirements, including the supported operating systems, IBM Tivoli Monitoring as the prerequisite, and supported software, go to Software Product Compatibility Reports and select IBM OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS V5.5.0.

OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS

V5.5.0 of OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS can operate with the following products:

• IMS - versions 12.1, 13.1, 14.1, 15.1 and higher
• IMS Connect Extensions - versions 2.2, 3.1, and higher

This release also supports monitoring of specific CICS® TS regions and DB2® versions. For more information about supported hardware and software, see the IMS Release Planning document for each IMS version: IMS.

For installation instructions, see the Program Directory for the product.