RESOURCE MEASUREMENT FACILITY (RMF)

RMF is a performance management and reporting tool. The data gathering component of RMF runs as a started task, and its parameters are defined in SYS1.PARMLIB(ERBRMF0n). Member 01 is for MonitorI, 03 is for MonitorII and 04 is for MonitorIII. The three monitors are discussed below. If you check out these parmlib members, you can see which RMF records you trap at your site. RMF cuts SMF type 70-79 SMF records for all monitors, and the Monitor III also records information in VSAM records.

RMF runs several data collectors. You can see how many RMF collectors are active with the command

                            
 MODIFY RMF,DISPLAY ACTIVE

which you can shorten to 

 F RMF,D                                  

RMF Monitors

The RMF task gathers performance data, but it is not held in a useful format. You use the RMF monitors to interpret the data, to allow you to check out your system performance

RMF Monitor II

This is a real time monitor that is useful for investigating problems that are happening now. You invoke it by either using the TSO command

 TSO RMFMON

or by taking the Monitor II option from the RMF ISPF panel. Once you are in the MonitorII, you see a command list, with a set of PF key shortcuts as shown below.

                     RMF DISPLAY MENU 
 NAME      PFK#  DESCRIPTION 
  
 ARD        1    ADDRESS SPACE RESOURCE DATA
 ASD        2    ADDRESS SPACE STATE DATA
 ASRM       3    ADDRESS SPACE SRM DATA
 CHANNEL    4    CHANNEL PATH ACTIVITY
 DDMN       5    -----NOT APPLICABLE IN GOAL MODE-----
 DEV        6    DEVICE ACTIVITY
 PGSP       7    PAGE/SWAP DATA SET ACTIVITY
 SENQ       8    SYSTEM ENQUEUE CONTENTION
 SENQR      9    SYSTEM ENQUEUE RESERVE
 SPAG       10   PAGING ACTIVITY
 SRCS       11   CENTRAL STORAGE / PROCESSOR / SRM
 TRX        12   -----NOT APPLICABLE IN GOAL MODE-----
 ARDJ            ADDRESS SPACE RESOURCE DATA 
 ASDJ            ADDRESS SPACE STATE DATA
 ASRMJ           ADDRESS SPACE SRM DATA
 DEVV            DEVICE ACTIVITY
 IOQUEUE         I/O QUEUING ACTIVITY
 SDS             RMF SYSPLEX DATA SERVER
 LLI             PROGRAM LIBRARY INFORMATION
 ILOCK           IRLM LONG LOCK DETECTION
 USER            USER PICTURE

You can either use the PFkeys, or the command (as shown in the 'name' column) to see each report. Some of the reports are multi-page, and you press enter to page down them. Other reports are single line, and you press enter to get a new line of data. You use the 'quit' command to exit the monitor.

RMF Monitors I and III

These monitors collect data over a longer timeframe, the default is 30 minutes, so you see a consolidated view of events.
You access MonitorII from the main RMF ISPF panel. There a lots of different reports, the best way thing to do, is to go in and try some of them. You can use PF7/8 to go up and down each reports. Some of the report field are cursor sensitive. For example if you place your cursor over a specific jobname on the job delay report and press enter, you will get an in-depth analysis for that job.

Some example ISPF reports are

 
 RMF 2.10.0 Channel Path Activity


 Channel Path       Utilization(%) 
 ID No    Type  SHR  Part  Total 

  78      CNC_S  Y   0.00   0.00
  79      CNC_P      0.01   0.01
  7A      CNC_?  Y   2.75   1.65
  7B      CNC_?  Y   4.23   4.23
  7C      CNC_S  Y  40.74  40.07
  7D      CNC_?  Y  37.90  36.76
  7E      CNC_?  Y  35.79  37.32
  7F      CNC_P  Y   0.00   0.00



.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 
                      RMF 2.10.0 ENQ Resource Delays


Samples: 120     System: SYSB  Date: 01/13/04  Time: 10.52

----------- Resource Name -----------    ---- Delayed ----
Major/Minor     (Scope)                   %  Name     STAT

SYSIGGV2        (SYS)                      8 KCAI9P4   EW
 CATALOG.TSOUSR2 	                        +CATALOG
                                           3 KCAI9P4   SW
                                             +CATALOG
                                           1 ZHGPPPFV  SW
                                             +CATALOG

RMFPP, a Spreadsheet Interface

IBM provide a spreadsheet interface to RMF. Download the mainframe file SYS1.SERBPWSV(ERB9R2SW) to a file called ERB9R2SW.EXE on your PC. You then execute this file, and it will install RMFPP. The install process is easy, I simply took the defaults, and ended up with a new program group called "IBM RMF Performance Management". Within this group, select "Spreadsheet Reporter" and the following window appears

You need to follow four steps to produce a spreadsheet. Basically, you select each button on the top line of the spreadsheet reporter in turn.

1. You use the Collector to decide what RMF data to process. You need to define a profile that allows you to log onto the mainframe, and the location of the SMF data. This should be obvious, but the location you want is the file that stores the SMF type 70-79 records. You then specify which reports you want to extract, and the time interval, then hit the Submit button. If you did not select a profile then the Submit button is grayed out. Now the process failed for me at this point, as I could not get the FTP to work. However, once I realised that all it was doing was transferring some JCL to the mainframe, I just did it myself using the Netview Access file transfer program. You need to transmit as a text file. Run the RMF post processing JCL, and it stores the result in a mainframe dataset called your_userid.REPORT.RMFDATA. You then transmit that back to your PC, as a text file again, into the C:/RMFPP/LISTING/ directory, and the transfer will generate a file with an extension of 'lis'
2. You use the Extractor to split up the report you just downloaded. Open the Extractor window, and use the Find button to pickup the input file you just downloaded. Press the Run button and it will create a large number of small rpt files in a directory called Dmmddyyx. The system will give you a generated name for the collection of files, called a work-set. You can override this with your own name, which may be a bit more meaningful.
3. You use the Convertor to convert RMF reports to spreadsheets. When you open the converter window, you need to select your work-set file (the one you downloaded from the mainframe) and hit the OK button. The windows at the bottom then list all the options available for reporting, including system, date, interval and report type. You select the ones you want, and press Convert. At the end of the conversion, you need to press Exit to clear the convert window.
4. You use the Spreadsheet option to open and create spreadsheets. The process is quite intuitive and the spreadsheets are well documented, it is best to just try it.

You end up with some pretty coloured graphs which illustrate system performance trends and problems. These are ideal for Management, as they like to see pictures, and will help support any purchase request.

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