XM4DB2 maintains and displays a table of current exceptions across the DB2 subsystems and enterprise-wide. Each event is highlighted only once - the entry disappears when the problem is fixed. On urgent matters the system notifies the database and system administrators. There is a function with the option to automatically resolve “standard” issues. Some of the exceptions that are continuously checked include:

• Objects in an unexpected restricted state and all its affected plans/packages
• Foreseeable lack of space of objects whether attributable to z/OS, ICF or DB2
• Unrecoverable tablespaces due to missing image-copies
• Possible infringement of SLAs with regard to recovery time
• Missing Archived Logs; inconsistency with BSDS
• Stopped Procedures e.g. REJECT or QUEUE with queue length reached
• Stopped Utilities and affected objects
• In-doubt Threads and related system implications
• DDF status with regard to connections and threads
• Plans/packages that are invalid or inoperative or impacted by other failures
• Buffer pool related problems, e.g. avoidable re-reads, thresholds hit, etc.
• Unexpected load peaks in respect of Getpage and CPU consumption.

Cope with the Flood of Information

DB2 systems continuously change as everything is in motion. Activities will invoke DB2 messages with information on events, warnings about restrictions and error messages on probable pitfalls. Continuous efforts are necessary to view and evaluate the flood of messages that are relevant. It’s not enough to simply scan for particular messages or to analyze the output of display commands. Early recognition of costly disruptions requires the DBA to check different sources of information and to draw from those observations a conclusion. “Visionary” supervision prevents emergencies and ensures continuous availability.

Raw or Well done - How do you like your DB2 Problem Analysis?

There are multiple monitor programs for DB2 and z/OS on the market that deliver great raw statistics. Unfortunately they all lack the ability to intelligently combine different observations and determine when a true exception or future error situation is pending.  They do not automatically track suspicious and potentially harmful events. The primary purpose of those monitor tools is to make data available to help the expert in analyzing the ailing DB2 system, in many cases after users are impacted and therefore way too late.  XM4DB2 is for Operations and Production DBA staff. Daily it delivers a pro-active observation of the DB2 systems to improve and guarantee availability of all objects and their dependent applications. XM4DB2 offers predefined solutions and allows for customized exception definitions too. An exception that repeatedly leads to a particular error, and seems in the short term to be unavoidable, needs a standard treatment. XM4DB2 offers prepared jobs for repair and other functions. Those jobs can be checked or supplemented and released by staff or an automatic submit to a scheduler can be implemented. XM4DB2 is adaptive and it’s easy to define actions. Staff can define actions or describe a set of events as an exception, which are then automatically added to observations and continuously tracked and alerted.  XM4DB2 is intelligent. It does not overload staff with senseless repetition of already alerted problems. Rather, it tracks a detected problem and removes it from the list as soon it is solved.

Why XM4DB2?

There are hundreds of messages and warnings on over 30+ possible restricted states.  With just two DB2 systems using potentially thousands of tablespaces it is near impossible to manually observe and detect problems, with 10 or say 100 subsystems it’s definitely in the realm of the impossible.  It requires a dedicated program to unerringly find this set of decisive events within DB2 and z/OS.  With the naked eye it’s impossible to see what is going on and to foresee the consequences. XM4DB2 tackles the non-stop supervision of the DB2 environment with its unique functionality and technology. Beyond saving time, effort and staff resources, it helps to keep mission critical applications running smoothly. How much does each minute of DB2 downtime cost your organization?