Strobe for WebSphere MQ Overview

The Strobe Application Performance Measurement System is a product that determines where and how application time is spent in online regions and batch processing programs and how system resources are used. Strobe collects several types of data as it tracks activity within an z/OS environment and produces a collection of reports that helps you determine where to revise applications to improve their performance.

Strobe for WebSphere MQ supports measurement and analysis of CICS and batch applications that use IBM WebSphere MQ. Strobe for WebSphere MQ provides:

CPU time and wait time caused by WebSphere MQ calls
Summary information on WebSphere MQ call options and message attributes
Attribution of CPU time and wait time within WebSphere MQ system services (prefixed by CSQ) to invoking application code
Function descriptors for WebSphere MQ system services.

WebSphere MQ Overview

The IBM WebSphere MQ message queueing product provides an information infrastructure that allows applications to communicate across different platforms and environments. Some concepts behind this infrastructure are described through the following IBM terminology:

Messages - Data structures that contain control information and the data to be transferred between applications via WebSphere MQ queues.
Queues - Data structures used to store messages until they are retrieved by an application program.
Queue Manager - Program that provides services by which user applications can read or write messages on WebSphere MQ queues. In z/OS, the WebSphere MQ queue manager is a separate address space.
Channel - Agent that allows messages to be moved between queues defined to different queue managers. The processing associated with transmitting messages between different queue managers is sometimes referred to as Distributed Queue Management (DQM).
Message Queueing Interface (MQI) - A set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) by which programs connect to individual queue managers, gain access to individual queues, and store and retrieve messages from queues.

The following figure shows a simple WebSphere MQ environment. Strobe for WebSphere MQ reports whether batch application A or CICS application B incur CPU or wait time during attempts to access the WebSphere MQ queues C1 or C2.

WebSphere MQ Overview

Strobe for WebSphere MQ Benefits

Strobe for WebSphere MQ collects application performance information as the application executes. When measurement completes, Strobe organizes this information into the Strobe Performance Profile, a series of reports that show where and how time is spent during application execution, pinpointing possible areas for performance improvement. Measuring your application at successive stages of the development cycle helps you to evaluate and improve your code before moving the applications into production.

Measuring your production applications with Strobe for WebSphere MQ enables you to identify areas of the application to evaluate for improvement. You can then evaluate these performance improvement opportunities, determine the changes to make, implement the changes, and measure again to verify the effects of your changes.

The next section discusses the key concepts and terms that are central to the use of Strobe for WebSphere MQ.

Concepts and Terminology

Prior to using Strobe for WebSphere MQ, you need to become familiar with the basic concepts and terminology specific to Strobe. The following figure and the table following it introduce you to these concepts and terms.

Overview of Strobe Tasks

Performance Profile	After Strobe closes the sample data set, you can use it to create the Performance Profile, a hierarchical series of reports that present the performance data collected during a measurement session. These reports show where and how the application spends the time during execution.
measurement request	A measurement request specifies the parameters for measuring the performance of an application. As soon as the application is active, Strobe begins a measurement session, an interval during which Strobe collects performance data about the application while it is executing. Strobe stores measurement data in a sample data set, a file that contains the information collected during a single measurement session. Each measurement session corresponds to one sample data set.
Attribution	Attribution identifies the sites of invocation of system service routines, relating activity or wait to the modules that called these routines. Examine two Performance Profile reports to get a complete picture of the overall performance of your application. Attribution of CPU Wait Time report Attribution of CPU Execution Time report. Examine these reports when system services are responsible for significant CPU use or wait time.

Overview of the Target Environment

Strobe for WebSphere MQ can be used to identify performance improvement opportunities for both batch applications and online CICS applications. The Strobe for WebSphere MQ target environment is a batch, online IMS, CICS, or CICS address space which uses the WebSphere MQ API.

Measuring Batch Jobs

Measurement of batch application service calls to WebSphere MQ is one function of Strobe for WebSphere MQ. The Strobe Performance Profile contains reports of activity that takes place during the course of the execution of a batch job’s steps that involves WebSphere MQ access. The Performance Profile includes a series of CPU and wait time reports that provide comprehensive information about a batch job and its use of WebSphere MQ. See WebSphere-MQ-Reports-that-Show-CPU-Time and WebSphere-MQ-Reports-that-Show-Wait-Time for more information about Strobe for WebSphere MQ batch job reporting.

Measuring Online IMS transactions

To measure service calls that an online IMS transaction makes for WebSphere MQ API services, you must have Strobe for WebSphere MQ and Strobe for IMS installed at your site. If you set the appropriate IMS Data Collector options as explained in IMS Transaction Level Reporting, Strobe for WebSphere MQ will report information about online IMS transactions that access WebSphere MQ. One set of transaction summary reports and one set of individual IMS transaction calls to WebSphere MQ are produced by Strobe. See MQSeries-IMS-Transaction-Summary-Reports, WebSphere-MQ-Reports-that-Show-CPU-Time and WebSphere-MQ-Reports-that-Show-Wait-Time for more information about IMS and WebSphere MQ measurement reporting.

Measuring CICS Jobs

To measure service calls that a CICS application makes for WebSphere MQ API services, you must have Strobe for WebSphere MQ and Strobe for CICS installed at your site. If you set the appropriate CICS Data Collector options, Strobe for WebSphere MQ will report information about CICS transactions that access WebSphere MQ.

Important

Viewing reports by CICS user ID or terminal requires use of .

A special Performance Profile report provides transaction-specific information about CICS service calls to WebSphere MQ. See MQSeries-Reports-for-CICS-Transactions for more information about CICS and Strobe for WebSphere MQ measurement reporting.

Where to Find More Information

You can find detailed instructions for submitting and managing measurement requests and creating Performance Profiles in the Strobe/ISPF Online Tutorials and in the Using-Strobe-to-measure-online-applications-and-batch-programs. For more information on interpreting Performance Profiles, refer to the Using-the-Strobe-Application-Performance-Measurement-System.