Tips for Optimizing Your Sysplex with XCF

A typical sysplex will have 50 to 100 components on each system that use XCF services to communicate with their peers. As a result, XCF can offer a unique insight into what is going on in your sysplex.

While every sysplex is different (because every company’s workload and applications are different), we generally expect the XCF profile of a given sysplex to be consistent over time. This means that, with the proper reporting tools, XCF can help you spot anomalous behavior. It is also a great way to detect relationships that you might otherwise be unaware of. You might find that an unexpected increase in messages in a particular XCF group is an indication that some new function is being used. Or the absence of messages in another group might indicate a problem with some piece of software.

In this latest Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter reprint, Todd Havekost provides a methodology for analyzing the activity of XCF-exploiting products and components, using actual examples of the insights that can be garnered from XCF SMF records by anyone that has the enthusiasm and tools to help you analyze them.

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This document is reprinted with permission from Watson and Walker. It originally appeared in Cheryl Watson’s Tuning Letter 2022 No. 2.

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