VitalSigns for IP, White Papers
Staying on Top of Enterprise Extender:
Proactive Monitoring, Management, & Optimization.
by Anura Gurugé, January 2009
How to Monitor Enterprise Extender on z/OS
Monitoring Enterprise Extender (EE) is like watching a swan--or an ugly duckling--glide across a lake.
Most of the activity is invisible below the surface.
The end points of an EE route are SNA-VTAM nodes using HPR (high-performance routing).
For tools that monitor TCIP, the HPR work is invisible below the surface.
The middle of an EE route is UDP datagrams moving through IP routers.
For tools that monitor SNA-VTAM, the IP work is invisible below the surface.
Neither set of tools can the whole of this fast moving and very ugly duckling.
"The level of HPR data made available by
VIP is unprecedented."
Because EE is so complex--maybe even convoluted--managing it requires
a unique tool that understands both SNA-VTAM-HPR and UDP-IP.
And monitoring and diagnoses requires a nimble tool that can correlate
multiple data sources in real time, before routes change in
a highly fluid network.
Download this white paper to learn how to...
- Trace the precise route of any EE connection;
identify all of its IP nodes and routers,
and their response times.
- Learn the congestion status at the HPR control points
outside either end of an EE connection.
- Receive alerts regarding HPR path switches, and correlate
them with IP response times.
- Diagnose erratic EE performance, whether the cause is inside the
mainframe our outside of it, on the IP net.
Traditional tools cannot monitor EE efficiently.
You need a a uniquely gifted monitor: VIP from SDS.
Read an excerpt from the VIP White Paper:
z/OS Enterprise Extender, i.e. HPR over UDP/IP, now represents SNA's final frontier--the
IBM-endorsed, strategic means for sustaining business critical SNA/APPN
applications across IP networks, without sacrificing SNA's native COS
and routing. EE, however, unlike its illustrious forebears, SNA and APPN,
was not a painstakingly designed, end-to-end architecture.
Instead it was mashup--a decade before mashups became fashionable.
In an effort to enable SNA across IP, IBM, working with many of the
router vendors, came up with EE--layering HPR on top of UDP/IP.
The result is a rather elongated protocol stack with considerable overlap
of functionality between HPR and IP.
Given that HPR, independent of IP, has the option to perform end-to-end path
switches and congestion control, one cannot, by any stretch of the imagination,
adequately manage a business-critical EE network just using TCP/IP-oriented
network management products. You have to have specialized HPR support, as is
available with VIP with its well-defined suite of EE/HPR capabilities.
The level of HPR data made available by VIP, spanning hop counts,
path switches, ARB congestion, transmission rates, and NLP queuing statistics,
is unprecedented. This degree of data, at this granularity, can only be
obtained in real-time via the proficient exploitation of IBM's NMI.
Any other technique, such as packet tracing, will prove woefully
inadequate. VIP's EE traceroute and alert reconciliation, furthermore,
provide incisive EE/HPR-specific means to quickly isolate and resolve
EE-related issues.
But the real beauty here is that VIP, despite these industry-leading EE/HPR
capabilities, is not just a point solution. Instead, it is a highly proven,
full-spectrum mainframe TCP/IP monitor with a highly effective architecture.
It includes comprehensive, no-blind-spots-whatsoever, support for all the
components that make up the network--encompassing everything from
applications to remote routers.
Just keep in mind the image of the swimming swan. When it comes to EE
monitoring/management you have to have vision of and access to what is
happening both above and below the surface--where the surface in this case
is the UDP/IP boundary. VIP really does work both above and
below this crucial boundary.
With VIP it is thus guaranteed that you can stay on top of EE--at all times.
continued...(click here, *.pdf, 1,825 kb)
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