Strobe Compatibility Issues
Under specific conditions, some restrictions and incompatibilities exist between the Strobe product and other proprietary packages. Review the sections below while planning your Strobe installation to determine whether any apply to your site.
Checkpoint/Restart During Measurement
Because of an MVS restriction, checkpoints cannot be taken while Strobe is measuring a job step. If the measured program does not use the checkpoint return codes, you can measure the program without any additional changes (you will receive warning messages from MVS stating that checkpoints could not be taken). To avoid a nonzero return code from a CHKPT macro, code RD=NC on the EXEC statement of the target job step. The operating system returns a condition code of zero to the CHKPT macro invocation, and execution continues normally.
Limited Function Address Spaces
Strobe will not measure Limited Function Address Spaces (LFASs). These address spaces are normally created by MVS. They are usually accessed by other address spaces via cross memory services and thus have little or no execution on their own behalf. Strobe/ISPF identifies these address spaces on the Display Active panel.
Address Spaces Using VIO, TCAM, and TSO
When a measurement request is made for a job step that uses VIO, TCAM, or TSO but is not yet executing, Strobe will attach its measurement task as a non-job step task rather than a job step task. If the job step subsequently attaches a job step task, the attach will fail.
Programs That Attach Tasks as Job Step Tasks
When Strobe receives a request to measure a job step that is already executing and whose main user task has already attached one or more tasks as job step tasks, MVS requires that the Strobe measurement task be attached as a job step task. Some MVS resource managers, such as TSO and VIO, assume that when any job step task terminates, the job step itself terminates, and so they terminate resources that belong to all tasks, not only those belonging to the terminating job step task. The remaining tasks often ABEND. Therefore, when Strobe measures in such an environment, the measurement task must persist throughout the duration of the step. The measurement task can remain inactive, however, with sampling suspended and the sample dataset closed.
Whether Strobe permits measurement of active job steps that attach their tasks as job step tasks depends on the following:
- JSTCB option in the PARMLIB member
- Whether the NOQUIT keyword is specified in the measurement request.
BatchPipes Support
When Strobe detects that a dataset is managed by BatchPipes, reports such as the Resource Demand Distribution and Dataset Characteristics reports will show CPU usage attributed to the BatchPipes processing. To enable Strobe to report on BatchPipes activity, you must do one of the following:
- Copy the BatchPipes Query Service (module ASFPMSQI) to a linklist dataset
- Add a STEPLIB for the dataset containing module ASFPMSQI (typically, “SYS1.SASFPLIB”) to the measured job
You also must have applied IBM PTF UN59629.
SmartBatch
If you specify a step number to measure a job step running in an IBM SmartBatch environment, Strobe may not be able to locate the job step if steps for the job are run on different systems.
CA ACF2
To measure address spaces that are defined to the CA ACF2 Sub-Auth Facility, modify the rules to allow the following modules to submit jobs:
- STRBCRB for all jobs
- IDMBCRB for IDMS jobs
- DFHBCRB for CICS jobs
- DFSBCRB for IMS jobs.
IPCS for CICS
You cannot use IPCS to format a CICS dump taken during Strobe measurement. IPCS can be used to format a dump after a measurement has ended. The presence of STRBCRB prevents the dump formatter from recognizing that the dump is from a CICS region.
CICSPlex Sysplex Manager (CP/SM)
If you are using CP/SM and you want take a Strobe measurement of CICS region that uses the CP/SM API, you should consider applying IBM APAR PQ51348 to avoid S306-0C abends.
If you plan to use the Request By CICSPlex feature (iStrobe only), ensure that the Strobe Session Manager address space has READ access to any/all SEYUAUTH datasets for active CICSPlex subsystems on a target LPAR.
If RACF CLASS(CPSMOBJ) is protected, you may need to add the Strobe STC with READ access or you may see ICH408I messages when Strobe attempts to identify CICSPlex names and/or connected CICS region names:
ICH408I USER(<user> ) GROUP(STC ) NAME(<STROBE SM> ) CONFIG.DEF.<CMASNAME> CL(CPSMOBJ ) INSUFFICIENT ACCESS AUTHORITY FROM CONFIG.** (G) ACCESS INTENT(READ ) ACCESS ALLOWED(NONE )
CA 1/External Data Manager
When you are using the CA 1 or CA Dispatch products with the External Data Manager (EDM), you must use either a job or dataset name as the EDM criteria in the TMOEDMxx definition. Do not use the EDM program name as the EDM selection criteria.
CA InterTest
Attribution reports for Strobe measurements of CICS applications running with CA InterTest may be incomplete. Run the CICS application without CA InterTest to obtain complete attribution reports.
Changeman Audit
Strobe will not measure programs executing in a Changeman address space.
HSM
Strobe will not measure programs executing in the HSM address space.
Hiperbatch
When measuring a job that is using hiperbatch, you must specify the NOJSTCB option on the ADD command to prevent early termination of the user task.
FOCUS
Strobe does not measure programs executing in the address space for Focus Versions 7.01, and 7.03 and 7.05. See MIPS#34002 for 7.01 and MIPS#33993 for 7.03.
CA Panexec
Strobe for CA Gen (AllFusion) CA Panexec supports job libraries and LNKLST libraries managed by the CA Panexec product. CA Panexec prevents Strobe from accessing program libraries to acquire control section information. To acquire this information, you need to use Strobe for CA Gen (AllFusion) CA Panexec and latest PTFs issued by CA Panexec. Member PANEPTF in STROBE.CNTRL contains instructions on the CA Panexec PTFs.
Dynamic LINKLIST Support
To prevent creating incorrect measurement or attribution data, do not issue the following command during a Strobe measurement session:
SETPROG LNKLST,UPDATE,JOB=xxxxxxxx
PDSMAN
If you create the Strobe environment after the PDSMAN LPA option has been enabled, and subsequently disable the PDSMAN LPA option, the Strobe attach filter may become disabled. We recommend that the Strobe environment be created prior to enabling the PDSMAN LPA option. Doing so allows the Strobe attach filter to remain enabled.
MIM
Strobe is incompatible with and will not allow you to measure a Multiple-Image Manager (MIM) address space.
IBM InfoSphere Change Data Capture for z/OS
Strobe does not measure the Change Data Capture address space. This address space uses SVC screening which interferes with the Strobe implant process.
BMC Product Compatibility Issues
This section discusses compatibility issues between Strobeand BMC Software products.
BMC STOP X-37
You cannot use the BMC/Boole STOP X37 product to manage Strobelog datasets.
BMC Application Restart Control
- If you are using the BMC Application Restart Control (AR/CTL) product, you must be using version 2.2.02 before you can use Strobe.
When measuring a job step that uses any of BMC’s AR/CTL products and has any datasets allocated to VIO, you cannot use Strobe to measure the job step with an ADD QUEUED request.
BMC Data Accelerator
If you are using the BMC Data Accelerator, it must be running before you start Strobe.
BMC UNLOAD
When in a JES3 environment, the BMC Unload+ procedure may multitask and try to close files under a task control block other than the one that opened it. For corrective action, see the “JES3 Considerations” section in the BMC Unload Installation manual.
Control-D and Control-M
Before attempting to use Strobe to measure a Control-D or Control-M system, contact BMC Support for PTF information.
C Programs with Compiler Option OPTIMIZE(2) or Interprocedural Analysis (IPA)
When C/370 and AD/Cycle C/370 programs use compiler option OPTIMIZE(2) or inter-procedural analysis (IPA), the information Strobe needs to produce detailed statement level associations is removed. Therefore, Strobe relates activity and wait time to the C procedure name, rather than to the user-coded C statement.
We recommend that you use an ADD ACTIVE request, or modify the job step JCL to remove the VIO allocations before using Strobe to measure the job step with an ADD QUEUED request.
VSAM Dataset Management
Do not use third-party vendor products to manage any VSAM datasets used by Strobe. These datasets include the queue, system message, group, history and AutoStrobe datasets.
StorageTek
StorageTek’s Host Software Component (HSC) library management software cannot be measured by Strobe.