One Minute MVS – tuning stack and heap pools

These days many applications use a stack and heap to manage storage used by an application. For C and Cobol programs on z/OS these use the C run time facilities. As Java uses the C run time facilities, it also uses the stack and heap.

If the stack and heap are not configured appropriately it can lead to an increase in CPU. With the introduction of 64 bit storage, tuning the heap pools and stack is no longer critical. You used to have to carefully manage the stack and heap pool sizes so you didn’t run out of storage.

The 5 second information on what to check, is the number of segments freed for the stack and heap should be zero. If the value is large then a lot of CPU is being used to manage the storage.

The topics are

Kinder garden background to stack.

When a C (main) program starts, it needs storage for the variables uses in the program. For example

int i;
for (ii=0;ii<3:ii++)
{}

char * p = malloc(1024);

The variables ii and p are variables within the function, and will be on the functions stack. p is a pointer.

The block of storage from the malloc(1024) will be obtained from the heap, and its address stored in p.

When the main program calls a function the function needs storage for the variables it uses. This can be done in several ways

  1. Each function uses a z/OS GETMAIN request on entry, to allocate storage, and a z/OS FREEMAIN request on exit. These storage requests are expensive.
  2. The main program has a block of storage which functions can use. For the main program uses bytes 0 to 1500 of this block, and the first function needs 500 bytes, so uses bytes 1501 to 2000. If this function calls another function, the lower level function uses storage from 2001 on wards. This is what usually happens, it is very efficient, and is known as a “stack”.

Intermediate level for stack

It starts to get interesting when initial block of storage allocated in the main program is not big enough.

There are several approaches to take when this occurs

  1. Each function does a storage GETMAIN on entry, and FREEMAIN on exit. This is expensive.
  2. Allocate another big block of storage, so successive functions now use this block, just like in the kinder garden case. When functions return to the one that caused a new block to be allocated,
    1. this new block is freed. This is not as expensive as the previous case.
    2. this block is retained, and stored for future requests. This is the cheapest case. However a large block has been allocated, and may never be used again.

How big a block should it allocate?

When using a stack, the size of the block to allocate is the larger of the user specified size, and the size required for the function. If the specified secondary size was 16KB, and a function needs 20KB of storage, then it will allocate at least 20KB.

How do I get the statistics?

For your C programs you can specify options in the #PRAGMA statement or, the easier way, is to specify it through JCL. You specify C run time options through //CEEOPTS … For example

//CEEOPTS DD *
STACK(2K,12K,ANYWHERE,FREE,2K,2K)
RPTSTG(ON)

Where

  • STACK(…) is the size of the stack
  • RPTSTG(ON) says collect and display statistics.

There is a small overhead in collecting the data.

The output is like:

STACK statistics:                                                
  Initial size:                                2048     
  Increment size:                             12288     
  Maximum used by all concurrent threads:  16218808     
  Largest used by any thread:              16218808     
  Number of segments allocated:                2004     
  Number of segments freed:                    2002     

Interpreting the stack statistics

From the above data

  • This shows the initial stack size was 2KB and an increment of 12KB.
  • The stack was extended 2004 times.
  • Because the statement had STACK(2K,12K,ANYWHERE,FREE,2K,2K), when the secondary extension became free it was FREEMAINed back to z/OS.

When KEEP was used instead of FREE, the storage was not returned back to z/OS.

The statistics looked like

STACK statistics:                                                
  Initial size:                               2048     
  Increment size:                            12288     
  Maximum used by all concurrent thread:  16218808     
  Largest used by any thread:             16218808     
  Number of segments allocated:               1003     
  Number of segments freed:                      0     

What to check for and what to set

For most systems, the key setting is KEEP, so that freed blocks are not released. You can see this a) from the definition b) Number of segments freed is 0.

If a request to allocate a new segment fails, then the C run time can try releasing segments that are not in use. If this happens the “”segments freed” will be incremented.

Check that the “segments freed” is zero, and if not, investigate why not.

When a program is running for a long time, a small number of “segments allocated” is not a problem.

Make the initial size larger, closer to the “Largest used of any thread” may improve the storage utilisation. With smaller segments there is likely to be unused space, which was too small for a functions request, causing the next segment to be used. So a better definition would be

STACK(16M,12K,ANYWHERE,KEEP,2K,2K)

Which gave

STACK statistics:                                                          
  Initial size:                                     16777216               
  Increment size:                                      12288               
  Maximum used by all concurrent threads:           16193752               
  Largest used by any thread:                       16193752               
  Number of segments allocated:                            1               
  Number of segments freed:                                0               

Which shows that just one segment was allocated.


Kinder garden background to heap

When there is a malloc() request in C, or a new … in Java, the storage may exist outside of the function. The storage is obtained from the heap.

The heap has blocks of storage which can be reused. The blocks may all be of the same size, or or different sizes. It uses CPU time to scan free blocks looking for the best one to reuse. With more blocks it can use increasing amounts of CPU.

There are heap pools which avoids the costs of searching for the “right” block. It uses a pools of blocks. For example:

  1. there is a heap pool with 1KB fixed size blocks
  2. there is another heap pool with 16KB blocks
  3. there is another heap pool with 256 KB blocks.

If there is a malloc request for 600 bytes, a block will be taken from the 1KB heap pool.

If there is a malloc request for 32KB, a block would be used from the 256KB pool.

If there is a malloc request for 512KB, it will issue a GETMAIN request.

Intermediate level for heap

If there is a request for a block of heap storage, and there is no free storage, a large segment of storage can be obtained, and divided up into blocks for the stack. If the heap has 1KB blocks, and a request for another block fails, it may issue a GETMAIN request for 100 * 1KB and then add 100 blocks of 1KB to the heap. As storage is freed, the blocks are added to the free list in the heap pool.

There is the same logic as for the stack, about returning storage.

  1. If KEEP is specified, then any storage that is released, stays in the thread pool. This is the cheapest solution.
  2. If FREE is specified, then when all the blocks in an additional segment have been freed, then free the segment back to the z/OS. This is more expensive than KEEP, as you may get frequent GETMAIN and FREEMAIN requests.

How many heap pools do I need and of what size blocks?

There is usually a range of block sizes used in a heap. The C run time supports up to 12 cell sizes. Using a Liberty Web server, there was a range of storage requests, from under 8 bytes to 64KB.

With most requests there will frequently be space wasted. If you want a block which is 16 bytes long, but the pool with the smallest block size is 1KB – most of the storage is wasted.
The C run time gives you suggestions on the configuration of the heap pools, the initial size of the pool and the size of the blocks in the pool.

Defining a heap pool

How to define a heap pool is defined here.

You specify the size of overall size of storage in the heap using the HEAP statement. For example for a 16MB total heap size.

HEAP(16M,32768,ANYWHERE,FREE,8192,4096)

You then specify the pool sizes


HEAPPOOL(ON,32,1,64,2,128,4,256,1,1024,7,4096,1,0)

The figures in bold are the size of the blocks in the pool.

  • 32,1 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 32 bytes, allocate 1% of the heap size to this pool
  • 64,2 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 64 bytes, allocate 2% of the heap size to this pool
  • 128,4 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 128 bytes, allocate 4% of the heap size to this pool
  • 256,1 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 256 bytes, allocate 1% of the heap size to this pool
  • 1024,7 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 1024 bytes, allocate 7% of the heap size to this pool
  • 4096,1 says maximum size of blocks in the pool is 4096 bytes, allocate 1% of the heap size to this pool
  • 0 says end of definition.

Note, the percentages do not have to add up to 100%.

For example, with the CEEOPTS

HEAP(16M,32768,ANYWHERE,FREE,8192,4096)
HEAPPOOLS(ON,32,50,64,1,128,1,256,1,1024,7,4096,1,0)

After running my application, the data in //SYSOUT is


HEAPPOOLS Summary:                                                         
  Specified Element   Extent   Cells Per  Extents    Maximum      Cells In 
  Cell Size Size      Percent  Extent     Allocated  Cells Used   Use      
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
       32        40    50      209715           0           0           0 
       64        72      1        2330           1        1002           2 
      128       136      1        1233           0           0           0 
      256       264      1         635           0           0           0 
     1024      1032      7        1137           1           2           0 
     4096      4104      1          40           1           1           1 
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

For the cell size of 32, 50% of the pool was allocated to it,

Each block has a header, and the total size of the 32 byte block is 40 bytes. The number of 40 bytes units in 50% of 16 MB is 8MB/40 = 209715, so these figures match up.

(Note with 64 bit heap pools, you just specify the absolute number you want – not a percentage of anything).

Within the program there was a loop doing malloc(50). This uses cell pool with size 64 bytes. 1002 blocks(cells) were used.

The output also has

Suggested Percentages for current Cell Sizes:
HEAPP(ON,32,1,64,1,128,1,256,1,1024,1,4096,1,0)


Suggested Cell Sizes:
HEAPP(ON,56,,280,,848,,2080,,4096,,0)

I found this confusing and not well documented. It is another of the topics that once you understand it it make sense.

Suggested Percentages for current Cell Sizes

The first “suggested… ” values are the suggestions for the size of the pools if you do not change the size of the cells.

I had specified 50% for the 32 byte cell pool. As this cell pool was not used ( 0 allocated cells) then it suggests making this as 1%, so the suggestion is HEAPP(ON,32,1

You could cut and paste this into you //CEEOPTS statement.

Suggested Cell Sizes

The C run times has a profile of all the sizes of blocks used, and has suggested some better cell sizes. For example as I had no requests for storage less than 32 bytes, making it bigger makes sense. For optimum storage usage, it suggests of using sizes of 56, 280,848,2080,4096 bytes.

Note it does not give suggested number of blocks. I think this is poor design. Because it knows the profile it could have an attempt at specifying the numbers.

If you want to try this definition, you need to add some values such as

HEAPP(ON,56,1,280,1,848,1,2080,1,4096,1,0)

Then rerun your program, and see what percentage figures it recommends, update the figures, and test again. Not the easiest way of working.

What to check for and what to set

There can be two heap pools. One for 64 bit storage ( HEAPPOOL64) the other for 31 bit storage (HEAPPOOL).

The default configuration should be “KEEP”, so any storage obtained is kept and not freed. This saves the cost of expensive GETMAINS and FREEMAINs.

If the address space is constrained for storage, the C run time can go round each heap pool and free up segments which are in use.

The value “Number of segments freed” for each heap should be 0. If not, find out why (has the pool been specified incorrectly, or was there a storage shortage).

You can specify how big each pool is

  • for HEAPPOOL the HEAP size, and the percentage to be allocated to each pool – so two numbers to change
  • for HEAPPOOL64 you specify the size of each pool directly.

The sizes you specify are not that sensitive, as the pools will grow to meet the demand. Allocating one large block is cheaper that allocating 50 smaller blocks – but for a server, this different can be ignored.

With a 4MB heap specified

HEAP(4M,32768,ANYWHERE,FREE,8192,4096)
HEAPP(ON,56,1,280,1,848,1,2080,1,4096,1,0)

the heap report was

 HEAPPOOLS Summary: 
   Specified Element   Extent   Cells Per  Extents    Maximum      Cells In 
   Cell Size Size      Percent  Extent     Allocated  Cells Used   Use 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
        56        64      1         655           2        1002           2 
       280       288      1         145           1           1           0 
       848       856      1          48           1           1           0 
      2080      2088      1          20           1           1           1 
      4096      4104      1          10           0           0           0 
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
   Suggested Percentages for current Cell Sizes: 
     HEAPP(ON,56,2,280,1,848,1,2080,1,4096,1,0) 

With a small(16KB) heap specified

HEAP(16K,32768,ANYWHERE,FREE,8192,4096)
HEAPP(ON,56,1,280,1,848,1,2080,1,4096,1,0)

The output was

HEAPPOOLS Summary:                                                            
  Specified Element   Extent   Cells Per  Extents    Maximum      Cells In    
  Cell Size Size      Percent  Extent     Allocated  Cells Used   Use         
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------    
       56        64      1           4         251        1002           2    
      280       288      1           4           1           1           0    
      848       856      1           4           1           1           0    
     2080      2088      1           4           1           1           1    
     4096      4104      1           4           0           0           0    
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------    
  Suggested Percentages for current Cell Sizes:                               
    HEAPP(ON,56,90,280,2,848,6,2080,13,4096,1,0)                             

and we can see it had to allocate 251 extents for all the request.

Once the system has “warmed up” there should not be a major difference in performance. I would allocate the heap to be big enough to start with, and avoid extensions.

With the C run time there are heaps as well as heap pools. My C run time report gave

64bit User HEAP statistics:
31bit User HEAP statistics:
24bit User HEAP statistics:
64bit Library HEAP statistics:
31bit Library HEAP statistics:
24bit Library HEAP statistics:
64bit I/O HEAP statistics:
31bit I/O HEAP statistics:
24bit I/O HEAP statistics:

You should check all of these and make the initial size the same as the suggested recommended size. This way the storage will be allocated at startup, and you avoid problems of a request to expand the heap failing due to lack of storage during a buys period.

Advanced level for heap

While the above discussion is suitable for many workloads, especially if they are single threaded. It can get more complex when there are multiple thread using the heappools.

If you have a “hot” or highly active pool you can get contention when obtaining and releasing blocks from the heap pool. You can define multiple pools for an element size. For example

HEAPP(ON,(56,4),1,280,1,848,1,2080,1,4096,1,0)

The (56,4) says make 4 pools with block size of 56 bytes.

The output has

HEAPPOOLS Summary:                                                          
  Specified Element   Extent   Cells Per  Extents    Maximum      Cells In  
  Cell Size Size      Percent  Extent     Allocated  Cells Used   Use       
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------  
       56       64     1           4         251        1002           2  
       56       64     1           4           0           0           0  
       56       64     1           4           0           0           0  
       56       64     1           4           0           0           0  
      280       288      1           4           1           1           0  
      848       856      1           4           1           1           0  
     2080      2088      1           4           1           1           1  
     4096      4104      1           4           0           0           0  
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------  

We can see there are now 4 pools with cell size of 56 bytes. The documentation says Multiple pools are allocated with the same cell size and a portion of the threads are assigned to allocate cells out of each of the pools.

If you have 16 threads you might expect 4 threads to be allocated to each pool.

How do you know if you have a “hot” pool.

You cannot tell from the summary, as you just get the maximum cells used.

In the report is the count of requests for different storage ranges.

Pool  2     size:   160 Get Requests:           777707 
  Successful Get Heap requests:    81-   88                 77934 
  Successful Get Heap requests:    89-   96                 59912 
  Successful Get Heap requests:    97-  104                 47233 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   105-  112                 60263 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   113-  120                 80064 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   121-  128                302815 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   129-  136                 59762 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   137-  144                 43744 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   145-  152                 17307 
  Successful Get Heap requests:   153-  160                 28673
Pool  3     size:   288 Get Requests:            65642  

I used ISPF edit, to process the report.

By extracting the records with size: you get the count of requests per pool.

Pool  1     size:    80 Get Requests:           462187 
Pool  2     size:   160 Get Requests:           777707 
Pool  3     size:   288 Get Requests:            65642 
Pool  4     size:   792 Get Requests:            18293 
Pool  5     size:  1520 Get Requests:            23861 
Pool  6     size:  2728 Get Requests:            11677 
Pool  7     size:  4400 Get Requests:            48943 
Pool  8     size:  8360 Get Requests:            18646 
Pool  9     size: 14376 Get Requests:             1916 
Pool 10     size: 24120 Get Requests:             1961 
Pool 11     size: 37880 Get Requests:             4833 
Pool 12     size: 65536 Get Requests:              716 
Requests greater than the largest cell size:               1652 

It might be worth splitting Pool 2 and seeing if makes a difference in CPU usage at peak time. If it has a benefit, try Pool 1.

You can also sort the “Successful Heap requests” count, and see what range has the most requests. I don’t know what you would use this information for, unless you were investigating why so much storage was being used.

Ph D level for heap

For high use application on boxes with many CPUs you can get contention for storage at the hardware cache level.

Before a CPU can use storage, it has to get the 256 byte cache line into the processor cache. If two CPU’s are fighting for storage in the same 256 bytes the throughput goes down.

By specifying

HEAPP(ALIGN….

It ensures each block is isolated in its own cache line. This can lead to an increase in virtual storage, but you should get improved throughput at the high end. It may make very little difference when there is little load, or on an LPAR with few engines.

Can I define a disk Read Only to z/OS?

As part of migrating z/OS to a new service level, I wanted to mount old volumes Read-Only, so they were not updated when the new level was used. (For example z/OS updates the dataset last access time in the VTOC). I was running on zPDT, or z/OS on top of Linux, so all of the hardware is emulated. On a real machine you may be able to configure the storage subsystem.

I had four options

  • Make the disk on Linux read only – this worked, and was easy.
  • Copy the disks of interest so I had write access to a copy. This worked, and was easy.
  • Use the zPDT command awsmount 0ac5 -m /mnt/zimages/zOS/A4USR1 –readonly . This worked and was easy.
  • Update the Hardware Configuration Definition (HCD) to make a disk read only. I could define it, but not activate it because this read-only support is for PPRC mirrored disks. I could not vary the address online.

This blog post describes how I changed the HCD to add a read only disk.

This was a journey going into areas I had not been in before (creating IODFs).

The Hardware Configuration Definition(HCD) defines the configuration of the hardware. In day’s gone by the systems programmer would have to do a “sysgen” and used macros to define devices, then assemble it and use it. Nowadays you can maintain the configuration using ISPF panels.

What does the HCD do, and what is an OSCONFIG?

The documentation is not very clear about HCD. There are tiny clues, where it mentions making disks read-only, in OSCONFIG, but does not explain how to display and use the OSCONFIG. Now I know, it is easy.

  • You define each device, or group of similar devices in the HCD.
  • For each OS Configuration (OSCONFIG) you define each operating system image, and which devices belong in which OSCONFIG. See, … simple!

For example you define your configuration, including production and test devices, in the HCD. You then configure

  • A test system with only the test volumes
  • A production system with only the production volumes
  • The sysprog’s system with both test and production devices. From this machine, the systems programmer can create production or test configurations.

Getting started with HCD

The HCD is panel driven from ISPF.

You have to work with a copy of the IODF, and the system will generate a copy for you (suffixed with .WORK). I created a copy, made changes, then created a new IODF.

What is currently being used?

From the main HCD panel

  • 2. Activate or process configuration data
    • 5. View active configuration

Create a copy

From main menu use

  • 6. Maintain I/O definition files
    • 2. Copy I/O definition file

and follow the prompts.

On the home page it has the name of the current IODF being worked on, update it if necessary.

Display the OSCONFIG

Use the ISPF configuration panels for HCD:

  • 1. Define, modify, or view configuration data
    • 1. Operating system configurations

It then lists the available OSCONFIGs. Use / to select one, then select

  • 7. Work with attached devices

This lists the devices. You can scroll or use “L AF0” to locate the devices.

Put / in front to display the options. At the right it gives the command, so

  • 8. Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (d)

I can either use /, and 8, or use ‘d’ (instead of the /) to delete an entry.

PF3 to return to “Define, Modify, or View Configuration Data”.

Add new devices

Use

  • 5. I/O devices

This lists the devices. Use F11 to add

  • Device number 0af0
  • Number of devices 16
  • Device type 3390

Press enter.

It displays a list of OS Configs, select one.

  • option 1 select

You are prompted to configure the devices

  • OFFLINE No Device considered online or offline at IPL
  • DYNAMIC Yes Device supports dynamic configuration
  • LOCANY No UCB can reside in 31 bit storage
  • WLMPAV Yes Device supports work load manager
  • READ-ONLY Sec Restrict access to read requests (SEC or NO)
  • SHARED No Device shared with other systems
  • SHAREDUP No Shared when system physically partitioned

Press enter. To make this read-only I specified Shared=no and read-only=sec. (Sec is for secondary device. The read write copy of the mirrored is is the primary device).

Use PF3 to return.

Activate the configuration

From the HCD home page,

  • 2. Activate or process configuration data
    • 1. Build production I/O definition file

Create production eg “‘SYS1.IODF88”

then

  • 6. Activate or verify configuration dynamically

This displays

  • Currently active IODF . : SYS1.IODF99
  • IODF to be activated . : SYS1.IODF88
  • Test only . . . . . . . . Yes (Yes or No)

Use Test only = YES to validate it, then repeat with Test only = NO. This will make it live.

For me, the SYS1.IODFxx dataset, was created on the wrong volume. It has to be on the same volume as the SYS1.IPLPARM and other IPL information for a successful IPL.

Move the SYS1.IODF to the IPL parm volume.

Change your IPL loadxx member in SYS1.IPLPARM to point to the new IODF.

Although I had specified A4SYS1 as the volume for the SYS1.IODF88, SMS allocation routines allocated it on a different volume. I had to move it to the correct volume. See here.

Once I had IPLed with the new IODF

The command

D U,,,,0AF0,1 gave

UNIT TYPE STATUS   VOLSER     VOLSTATE      SS   
0AF0 3390 F-NRD-RO                /RSDNT     0   

Which says there is no device mounted, but it has been defined as RO.

I varied it online and I got

V 0AF0,ONLINE
IEE103I UNIT 0AF0 NOT BROUGHT ONLINE
IEE763I NAME= IECDINIT CODE= 000000000110088F
IEA434I DEVICE ONLINE IS NOT ALLOWED, R/O SEC PPRC STATE NOT VALID
IEE764I END OF IEE103I RELATED MESSAGES

Which means it was unable to mount my disk as it was not part of a PPRC mirrored DASD environment. I had defined a disk as Read Only, but was not able to use it.

Running a headless Linux meant I was running disk less, and had no backups.

I had a Linux server and had a USB attached disk which I used to do backups. When I logged on after boot using the locally attached screen and keyboard the USB disk was visible. I configured an auto backup procedure, and checked it worked whenever I powered on the server.

I got into the a habit of using telnet to logon and accessing the system remotely. By chance, I checked to see if the backup disk was full, and found the disk was not visible. When I logged on with a local screen and keyboard, the disk was there, and had not been updated for over 100 days.

Digging around I found that USB disks can be mounted at startup or when a user logs on.

The mount information is in a file /etc/fstab.

I used the Ubuntu program “disks” to display and manage the disks. I selected a USB disk, clicked on the settings button, and selected “Edit Mount Options”. By default it had “User Session Defaults” on – which means mount the USB when a user logs on locally. I set

  • User Session Defaults off
  • Mount at system startup
  • Show in user interface
  • Mount Point /mnt/backup1

Next time I rebooted in headless mode, the disk was there as /mnt/backup.

I checked my backups – and they were done. I remember one of the points from when I use to do a MQ health check with customers.

Always check your backups are being done – and are backup what you expect.

Colin Paice

I should have paid more attention!

Moving a system dataset was a challenge

As part of configuring the IO on my z/OS system using HCD, I needed to create a dataset on the IPL volume. This was a challenge, but I got there, the long way.

When I used the HCD to create a SYS1.IODFxx dataset, I specified the DASD volume I wanted to put it on. Unfortunately, because SMS got in the way and overrode my the volume I had specified, and picked a different one!

I could have changed the SMS definitions to say do not play with dataset beginning with SYS1, but I thought it would be easy to move it. After a while I got the following JCL to work

//IBMIODF JOB   ACCOUNTING INFORMATION,REGION=NNNNK 
//STEP1    EXEC  PGM=ADRDSSU,REGION=0M 
//SYSPRINT DD    SYSOUT=A 
//DASD1    DD    UNIT=3390,VOL=(PRIVATE,SER=USER00),DISP=OLD 
//DASD2    DD    UNIT=3390,VOL=(PRIVATE,SER=A4SYS1),DISP=OLD 
//SYSIN    DD    * 
 COPY DATASET(INCLUDE('SYS1.IODF88.CLUSTER')) SPHERE - 
  PROCESS(SYS1)  - 
   BYPASSACS('SYS1.IODF88.CLUSTER') - 
   NULLSTORCLAS - 
  LOGINDDNAME(DASD1) OUTDDNAME(DASD2) DELETE CATALOG 
/* 

Notes:

  1. I had to specify the name with its cluster name. Without this I got message ADR383W code 05.
  2. Although I had specified the target volid of A4SYS1, it was moved to A4USR1! I had to specify
    1. PROCESS(SYS1) I think it gives an extra layer of security. For example many people can have access to DFDSS to move data sets, around, but only a few people would want to move SYS1.** data sets around.
    2. BYPASSACS(…) to bypass SMS and not use ACS routines to allocate the volume. I had to specify the dataset name, using “*” did not move it to the required volume.
    3. NULLSTORCLASS to tell SMS not to use a storage class.

How do I see what is in my z/OS HCD?

I’m running ADCD z/OS on zD&T, and wanted to see what was in my HCD (Hardware Configuration Definition). There are some ISPF panels, which allow you to print things, but they had some “required” parameters which I didn’t have and didn’t need.

This post shows the JCL I used, and gives a quick overview of the output

The JCL to create a batch report. This uses program CBDMGHCP. This parameters are described here. Note you can have the output created in XML format.

//IBMHCD JOB MSGCLASS=H
//GCREP EXEC PGM=CBDMGHCP,
// PARM='REPORT,CSMEN,,,,,00'
//HCDIODFS DD DSN=SYS1.IODF99,DISP=SHR
//HCDRPT DD SYSOUT=,
// DCB=(RECFM=FBA,LRECL=200,BLKSIZE=6400)
//HCDMLOG DD SYSOUT=,
// DCB=(RECFM=FBA,LRECL=200,BLKSIZE=6400)

The output data sets require the DCB information. If this is not provided you get messages like

IEC141I 013-34,IGG0199G,IBMHCD,GCREP,HCDRPT.

The output of the report in HCDRPT

At the top is

TIME: 16:46 DATE: 2021-07-12
IODF NAME: SYS1.IODF99
IODF TYPE: Production
IODF VERSION: 5
IODF VOLUME: A4SYS1
DESCRIPTION: m3000 with SCSI 08-0B only

It lists the sections

PROCESSOR SUMMARY REPORT                         A
PARTITION REPORT                                 B
IOCDS REPORT                                     C
CHANNEL PATH SUMMARY REPORT                      D
CONTROL UNIT SUMMARY REPORT                      G
DEVICE SUMMARY REPORT                            I
SWITCH SUMMARY REPORT                            K 
SWITCH DETAIL  REPORT                            L
SWITCH CONFIGURATION SUMMARY REPORT              M
SWITCH CONFIGURATION DETAIL REPORT               N
OPERATING SYSTEM SUMMARY REPORT                  O
OS DEVICE REPORT                                 P
OS DEVICE DETAIL REPORT                          Q
EDT REPORT  (MVS ONLY)                           R
OS CONSOLE REPORT                                S

Component reports heading

Following the list of sections are the data. Each section has a header like

CONTROL UNIT SUMMARY REPORT TIME:... DATE:...  PAGE G- 1

Where the title (CONTROL UNIT SUMMARY REPORT) and the character following the PAGE match the list of sections, which has “CONTROL UNIT SUMMARY REPORT G”.

To go to a section use Find ‘PAGE G’ .

CONTROL UNIT SUMMARY REPORT

   CONTROL UNIT        
 NUMBER  TYPE-MODEL    
 _____________________ 
 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
  0700   3174 
 -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
  0A80   3990 
  0A81   3990 
  0A82   3990 
  0A83   3990 

Where 0700 is a console, and 0a80 is disk on an emulated 3990.

DEVICE SUMMARY REPORT

--- DEVICE ---    DEVICE                                                
 NUMBER,RANGE    TYPE-MODEL    ATTACHING CONTROL UNITS         
______________  _____________  |____|___
   0700         3270-X          0700 
   0A80         3390            0A80

OPERATING SYSTEM SUMMARY REPORT

 OPERATING                                     
 SYSTEM ID   TYPE        GEN    DESCRIPTION    
 _________   ________    ___    _______________
 OS390       MVS                ADCD ZOS IODF 

MVS DEVICE REPORT

DEV#,RANGE  TYPE-MODEL ... 
__________ __________  ...

0700,64    3270-X....
0A80,112   3390  ....          

Followed by columns of data with headings ( given in the report)

KEY            KEY DESCRIPTION 
---            --------------- 
DEV#,RANGE  -  DEVICE NUMBER, COUNT OF DEVICES (DECIMAL) 
TYPE-MODEL  -  DEVICE TYPE AND MODEL 
SS          -  SUBCHANNEL SET ID 
BASE        -  BASE DEVICE NUMBER FOR MULTIPLE EXPOSURE DEVICES 
UCB-TYPE    -  UCB TYPE BYTES 
ERP-NAME    -  ERROR RECOVERY PROGRAM 
DDT-NAME    -  DEVICE DESCRIPTOR TABLE 
MLT-NAME    -  MODULE LIST TABLE 
OPT         -  OPTIONAL MLT INDICATOR 
UIM-NAME    -  UNIT INFORMATION MODULE SUPPORTING THE DEVICE 
ATI         -  ATTENTION TABLE INDEX (UCBATI) 
AL          -  ALTERNATE CONTROL UNIT (UCBALTCU) 
SH          -  SHARED UP OPTION (UCBSHRUP) 
SW          -  DEVICE CAN BE SWAPPED BY DDR (UCBSWAPF) 
MX          -  DEVICE HAS MULTIPLE EXPOSURES (UCBMTPXP) 
MI          -  MIH PROCESSING SHOULD BE BYPASSED (UCBMIHPB) 
O           -  MLT IS OPTIONAL 
Y           -  DEVICE SUPPORTS THIS FEATURE 
BLANK       -  DEVICE DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS FEATURE 

The UIM is a an object with parameters defined for the device type. They are defined here. The options are defined here. For example a 3270 can have a selector pen!. a 3800 printer can have a burster.

There is a summary of devices.

        TOTAL NUMBER OF DEVICES BY CLASS 
        -------------------------------- 
CLASS NAME             CLASS TYPE    DEVICE COUNT 
----------             ----------    ------------ 
TAPE                       80               64 
COMMUNICATION DEVICES      40                0 
C-T-C                      41               24 
DASD                       20             1001 
GRAPHICS                   10               95 
UNIT RECORD                08                3 
CHARACTER READERS          04                0 
TOTAL NUMBER OF I/O DEVICES DEFINED BY THIS I/O CONFIGURATION     1187 

MVS DEVICE DETAIL REPORT

NUMBER,RANGE TYPE   SS PARAMETER                        FEATURE
____________ ______ __ _______________________________ _______
   0700,64   3270-X  0 OFFLINE=NO                       SELPEN,... 
   0A80,112  3390    0 OFFLINE=NO,DYNAMIC=YES,LOCANY=NO SHARED 

E D T REPORT

The Eligible Device Table Report has

                                AFFINITY  ALLOCATION   
 NAME TYPE  VIO  TOKEN  PREF    INDEX     DEVICE TYPE  DEVICE NUMBER LIST 
 _________  ___  _____  ______  ________  ___________  ___________________
 GENERIC                   280    FFFF     3010200F    ... 0A80- 0AFF ...
 GENERIC                  3800    FFFF     12001009    0700- 073F   

N I P Console REPORT

The Nucleus IP l Console Report has

 DEVICE #        TYPE-MODEL 
 ________       _____________ 
 0700           3270-X 
 0701           3270-X 

I’m sorry I haven’t a clue…

As well as being a very popular British comedy, it is how I sometimes feel about what is happening inside the Liberty Web servers, and products like z/OSMF, z/OS Connect and MQWEB. It feels like a spacecraft in cartoons – there are usually only two controls – start and stop.

One reason for this is that the developers often do not have to use the product in production, and have not sat there, head in hand saying “what is going on ?”.

In this post I’ll cover

What data values to expose

As a concept, if you give someone a lever to pull – you need to give them a way of showing the effect of pulling the level.

If you give someone a tuning parameter, they need to know the impact of using the tuning parameter. For example

  • you implement a pool of blocks of storage.
  • you can configure the number of maximum number of blocks
  • if a thread needs some storage, and there is a free block in the pool, then assign the block to the thread. When the thread has finished with it, the thread goes back into the pool.
  • if all the blocks in the pool are in-use, allocate a block. When the thread has finished with the block – free it.
  • if you specify a very large number of blocks it could cause a storage shortage

The big questions with this example is “how big do you make the pool”?

To be able to specify the correct pool size you need to know information like

  • What was the maximum number of blocks used – in total
  • How many times were additional blocks allocated (and freed)
  • What was the total number of blocks requested.

You might decide that the pool is big enough if less than1% of requests had to allocate a block.

If you find that the maximum value used was 1% of the size of the pool, you can make the pool much smaller.

If you find that 99% of the requests were allocated/freed, this indicates the pool is much to small and you need to increase the size.

For other areas you could display

  • The number of authentication requests that were userid+ password, or were from a certificate.
  • The number of authentication requests which failed.
  • The list of userid names in the userid cache.
  • How many times each application was invoked.
  • The number of times a thread had to wait for a resource.
  • The elapsed time waiting for a resource, and what the resource was.

What attributes to expose

You look at the data to ask

  • Do I have a problem now?
  • Will I have a problem in the future? You need to collect information over time and look at trends.
  • When we had a problem yesterday, did this component contribute to it? You need to have historical data.

It is not obvious what data attributes you should display.

  • The “value now” is is easy to understand.
  • The “average value” is harder. Is this from the start of the application (6 months ago), or a weighted average (99 * previous average + current value)/100. With this weighted average, a change since the previous value indicates the trend.
  • The maximum value is hard – from when? There may have been a peak at startup, and small peaks since then will not show up. Having a “reset command” can be useful, or have it reset on a timer – such as display and reset every 10 minutes.
  • If you “reset” the values and display the value before any activity, what do you display? “0”s for all of the values, or the values when the reset command was issued.

Resetting values can make it easier to understand the data. Comparing two 8 digit numbers is much harder than comparing two 2 digit numbers.

How to expose data

Java has a Java Management eXtension (JMX) for reporting management information. It looks very well designed, is easy to use, and very compact! There is an extensive document from Oracle here.

I found Basic Introduction to JMX by Baeldung , was an excellent article with code samples on GitHub. I got these working in Eclipse within an hour!

The principal behind JMX is …

For each field you want to expose you have a get… method.

You define an interface with name class| |”MBean” which defines all of the methods for displaying the data.

public interface myClassMBean {
public String getOwner();
public int getMaxSize();
}

You define the class and the methods to expose the data.

public class myClass implements myClassMBean{

// and the methods to expose the data

public String getOwner() {
return fileOwner;
}

public int getMaxSize() {
return fileSize;
}

}

And you tell JMX to implement it

myClass myClassInstance = new myClass(); // create the instance of myClass

MBeanServer server = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();
ObjectName objectName =….
server.registerMBean(myClassInstance, objectName);

Where myClassInstance is a class instance. The JMX code extracts the name of the class from the object, and can the identify all the methods defined in the class||”MBean” interface. Tools like jconsole can then query these methods, and invoke them.

ObjectName is an object like

ObjectName objectName = new ObjectName(“ColinJava:type=files,name=onefile”);

Where “ColinJava” is a high level element, “type” is a category, and “name” is the description of the instance .

That’s it.

When you use jconsole ( or other tools) to display it you get

You could have

MBeanServer server = ManagementFactory.getPlatformMBeanServer();

ObjectName bigPoolName = new ObjectName(“ColinJava:type=threadpool,name=BigPool”);
server.registerMBean(bigpoolInstance, bigPoolName);

ObjectName medPoolName = new ObjectName(“ColinJava:type=threadpool,name=MedPool”);
server.registerMBean(medpoolInstance, medPoolname);

ObjectName smPoolName = new ObjectName(“ColinJava:type=threadpool,name=SmallPool”);
server.registerMBean(smallpoolInstance,smPoolName);

This would display the stats data for three pools

  • ColinJava
    • threadpool
      • Bigpool..
      • MedPool….
      • SmallPool…

And so build up a tree like

  • ColinJava
    • threadpool
      • Bigpool..
      • MedPool….
      • SmallPool…
    • Userids
      • Userid+password
      • Certificate
    • Applications
      • Application 1
      • Application 2
    • Errors
      • Applications
      • Authentication

You can also have set…() methods to set values, but you need to be more careful; checking authorities, and possibly synchronising updates with other concurrent activity.

You can also have methods like resetStats() which show up within jconsole as Operations.

How do I build up the list of what is needed?

It is easy to expose data values which have little value. I remember MQ had a field in the statistics “Number of times the hash table changed”. I never found a use for this. Other times I thought “If only we had a count of ……”

You can collect information from problems reported to you. “It was hard to diagnose because… if we had the count of … the end user could have fixed it without calling us”.

Your performance team is another good source of candidates fields. Part of the performance team’s job is to identify statistics to make it easier to tune the system, and reduce the resources used. It is not just about identifying hot spots.

Before you implement the collection of data, you could present to your team on how the data will be used, and produce some typical graphs. You should get some good feedback, even if it is “I dont understand it”.

What can I use to display the data

There are several ways of displaying the data.

  • jconsole – which comes as part of Java can display the data in a window
  • python – you can issue a query can capture the data. I have this set up to capture the data every 10 seconds
  • other tools using the standard interfaces.

Have a good REST and save a fortune in CPU with Python

Following on from Have a good REST and save a fortune in CPU. The post gives some guidance on reducing the costs of using Liberty based servers from a Python program.

Certificate set up

I used certificate authentication from Linux to z/OS. I used

  • A certificate defined on Linux using Openssl.
  • I sent the Linux CA certificate to z/OS and imported it to the TRUST keyring.
  • I created a certificate on z/OS and installed it into the KEY keyring.
  • I exported the z/OS CA, sent it to Linux, and created a file called tempca.pem.

Python set up

Define the names of the user certificate private key, and certificate

cf=”colinpaicesECp256r1.pem”
kf=”colinpaicesECp256r1.key.pem”
cpcert=(cf,kf)

Define the name of the certificate for validating the server’s certificate

v=’tempca.pem’

Set up a cookie jar to hold the cookies sent down from the server

jar = requests.cookies.RequestsCookieJar()

Define the URL and request

geturl =”https://10.1.1.2:9443/ibmmq/rest/v1/admin/qmgr/

Define the headers

import base64
useridPassword = base64.b64encode(b’colin:passworm’)
my_header = {
‘Content-Type’: ‘application/json’,
‘Authorization’: useridPassword,
‘ibm-mq-rest-csrf-token’ : ‘ ‘
}

An example flow of two requests, using two connections

For example using python

s = requests
response1 = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert)
response2 = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert)

creates two session, each has a TLS handshake, issue a request, get a response and end.

An example of two requests using one session

For example using python

s = requests.Session()
response1 = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert1)
response2 = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert2)

The initial request has one expensive TLS handshake, the second request reuses the session.

Reusing this session means there was only one expensive Client Hello,Server Hello exchange for the whole conversation.

Even though the second request specified a different set of certificates, the certificates from when the session was established, using cpcert1 were used. (No surprise here as the certificates are only used when the session is established).

For the authentication, in both cases the first requests received a cookie with the LtpaToken2 cookie in it.

When this was passed up on successive requests, the userid information from the first request was used.

What is the difference?

I ran a workload of a single thread doing 200 requests. The ratios are important, not the absolute values.

Shared sessionOne session per requests
TCP flows to server1 11
CPU cost1 5
Elapsed time16

Have a good REST and save a fortune in CPU

The REST protocol is a common programming model with the internet. It is basically a one shot model, which scales and has high availability, but can have a very high CPU cost. There are things you can do to reduce the CPU cost. Also, the MQWeb server, has implemented some changes to reduce the cost. See here for the MQ documentation.

The post gives some guidance on reducing the costs, for Liberty based servers.

The traditional model and the REST model

The traditional application model may have a client and a flow to the server

  • Connect to the server and authenticate
  • Debit my account by £500 within syncpoint
  • Credit your account by £500 within syncpoint
  • Commit the transaction
  • Do the next transaction etc
  • At the end of the day, disconnect from the server.

The REST model would be

  • Connect to the server and authenticate and do (Debit my account by £500, credit your account by £500), disconnect

This model has the advantage that it scales. When you initiate a transaction it can go to any one of the available back-end servers. This spreads the load and improves availability.

With the traditional model, the clients connects any available server at the start of day stays connected all day. If a new server becomes available during the day, it may get no workload.

The downside of the REST model is the cost. Establishing a connection and authenticating can be very expensive. I could not find much useful documentation on how to reduce these costs.

There are two parts of getting a REST connection.

  • Establishing the connection
  • Authentication

Establishing the connection

You can have each REST request use a new session for every REST request each of which which involves a full TLS handshake. Two requests could go to different servers, or go to the same server.

You can issue multiple REST request over the same session, to the same backend server.

On my little z/OS, using z/OSMF it takes

  • about 1 second to create a new connection and issue a request and terminate
  • about 0.1 seconds to use the shared session, per REST request.

Establishing the TLS session is expensive, as there is a lot of computation to generate the keys.

For MQWEB, the results are very similar.

Authentication

Once the session has been established each REST request requires authentication.

If you are using userid and password, the values are checked with z/OS.

If you are using client certificate authentication the Subject DN is looked up in the security manager, and if there is a DN to userid mapping, the userid is returned.

Once you have a valid userid, the userid’s access can be obtained from the security manager.

All of these values can be cached in the Liberty web server. So the first time a certificate or userid is used, it will take a longer than successive times.

Information about authentication is then encrypted and passed back in the REST response as the LtpaToken2 cookie.

If a REST request passes the cookie back to the server, then the information in the cookie is used by the server, and fewer checks need to be done.

This cookie can expire, and when it does expire the userid and password, or the certificate DN is checked as before, and the cookie will be updated.

If you do not send the LtpaToken2 cookie, this will cause the passed authentication information to be revalidated. If you want to change userid, do not send the the cookie.

Is any of this documented?

There is not a lot of documentation. There is information Configuring the authentication cache in Liberty.

There is a parameter javax.net.ssl.sessionCacheSize. If this is not set the default is 20480.

What they don’t tell you about using a REST interface.

After I stumbled on a change to my Python program which gave 10 times the throughput to a Web Server, I realised that I knew only a little about using REST. It is the difference between the knowledge to get a Proof Of Concept working, and the knowledge to run properly in production; it is the difference between one request a minute to 100 requests a second.

This blog post compares REST and traditional client server and suggests ways of using REST in production. The same arguments also apply to long running classical client server applications.

A REST request is a stateless, self contained request which you send to the back-end server, and get one response back. It is also known as a one shot request. Traditional client server applications can send several requests to the back-end as part of a unit of work.

In the table below I compare an extreme REST transaction, and an extreme traditional Client Server

AttributeRESTClient Server
ConnectionCreate a new connection for every request.Connect once, stay connected all day, reuse the session, disconnect at end of day.
Workload BalancingThe request can select from any available server, and so on average, requests will be spread across all connections. If a new server is added, then it will get used.The application connects to a server and stays connected. If the session ends and restarts, it may select a different server.
If a new server is added, it may not be used.
AuthenticationEach request needs authentication. If the userid is invalidated, the request will fail. Note that servers cache userid information, so it may take minutes before the request is
re-authenticated.
Authentication is done as part of the connection. If the userid is invalidated during the day, the application will carry on working until it restarts.
IdentificationBoth userid+password, and client certificate can be used to give the userid.Both userid+password, and client certificate can be used to give the userid. If you want to change which identity is used, you should disconnect and reconnect.
CostIt is very expensive to create a new connection. It is even more expensive when using TLS, because of the generation of the secret key. As a result it is very very expensive to use REST requests.The expensive create connection is done once, at start of day. Successive request do not have this overhead, so are much cheaper
Renew TLS session keyBecause there is only one transfer per connection you do not need to renew the encryption key.Using the same session key for a whole day is weak, as it makes it easier to break it. Renewing the session key after an amount of data has been processed, or after a time period is good practice.
RequestSome requests are suitable for packaging in one request, for example where just one server is involved.This can support more complex requests, for example DB2 on system A, and MQ on system B.
Number of connectionsThe connection is active only when it is used.The connection is active even though it has not been used for a long time. This can waste resources, and prevent other connections from being made to the server.
StatisticsYou get an SMF record for every request. Creating an SMF record costs CPU.You get one SMF record for collection of work, so reducing the overall costs. The worst case is one SMF record for the whole day.

What are good practices for using REST (and Client Server) in production?

Do not have a new connection for every request. Create a session which can be reused for perhaps 50 requests or ten minutes, depending on workload. This has the advantages :

  • You reduce the costs of creating the new connection for every request, by reusing the session.
  • You get workload balancing. With the connection ending and being recreated periodically, you will get the connections spread across all available connections. You should randomise the time a connection is active for, so you do not get a lot of time-out activity occurring at the same time
  • You get the re-authentication regularly.
  • The TLS key is renewed periodically.
  • You avoid the long running connections doing nothing.
  • For a REST request you may get fewer SMF records, for a Client-Server you get more SMF requests, and so more granular data.

How can I do this?

With Java you can open a connection, and have the client control how long it is open for.

With Python and the requests package, you can use

s = requests.Session()
res = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert)

res = s.get(geturl,headers=my_header,verify=v,cookies=jar,cert=cpcert)
etc

With Curl you can reuse the session.

Do I need to worry if my throughput is low?

No, If you are likely to have only one request to a server, and so cannot benefit from having multiple requests per connection you might just as well stay with a “one shot” and not use any of the tuning suggestions.

My favourite TCP commands

Console commands

Display VIPA stuff

Netstat

Netstat has two formats TSO and OMVS

  • TSO format is like NETSTAT CONN (can also be issued from operator console)
  • OMVS format is like netstat -c

There is a comparison table here

The omvs command is good for netstat -c > filename

TSO command

  1. netstat conn Displays the information about each active TCP connection and UDP socket
  2. netstat conn ( PORT 10443 who is using port 10443 Gives Foreign socket 10.1.0.2..48518 (see below)
  3. netstat allconn Provides information for all TCP connections and UDP sockets, including recently closed ones.
  4. netstat allconn ( ipport 10.1.0.2+48518 Show information about this socket coming in from 10.1.0.2 port 48518
  5. netstat all ( ipport 10.1.0.2+48518 shows all information about the remote port.
  6. netstat conn TCP TCPIP2 for TSO command for TCPIP stack TCPIP2
  7. netstat home give the IP addresses this TCPIP stack uses. For example 10.1.1.2 amd 127.0.0.1
  8. netstat Dev give stats about all interfaces
  9. netstat home report dsn ‘colin.output’ issue the home command, and write the output to ‘colin.output’
  10. netstat conn report hlq colin ( port 1414 the hlq says output the report with data set name colin.netstat.conn

OMVS

  1. netstat -c Displays the information about each active TCP connection and UDP socket
  2. netstat -c -P 10443 who is using port 10443 Gives Foreign socket 10.1.0.2..48518 (see below)
  3. netstat -a Provides information for all TCP connections and UDP sockets, including recently closed ones.
  4. netstat -a -B 10.1.0.2+48518 Show information about this socket coming in from 10.1.0.2 port 48518
  5. netstat -A -B 10.1.0.2+48518 shows all information about the remote port.
  6. netstat -c -p TCPIP2 display all connections for TCPIP jobname TCPIP2
  7. netstat -c -p TCPIP2 -P 10443 which jobs are using port 10443 – direct the request to TCPIP2 stack
  8. netstat -h give the IP addresses this TCPIP stack uses. For example 10.1.1.2 amd 127.0.0.1
  9. netstat -d give stats about all connections

Ping

TSO Ping address

USS ping address

Trace route

TSO TRACERTE address

USS traceroute address

Ubuntu commands