Product-provided workflow templates
The product-provided workflow templates:
- Always specify a dynamic time span (for example, Last N days or Last N Business Weeks)
- Always select All values for all filters that are environment-specific to the user.
For example, SYSPLEX, CPC Name, and SMFID are all environment-specific filters. - Often aggregate a few filters to decrease the number of chart lines in the graphing area.
- Always display only top N objects by one of the important KPIs. The variable <N> is usually selected quite low.
When required, all other objects are aggregated and shown as Other. Product-provided alert rules with default parameters are attached to the most important KPIs.
Workflow template filters
The following filters are available for the workflow templates:
Filter | Description |
|---|---|
ALL | All objects are shown (sometimes with the aggregate option). |
Top or Bottom N objects | Only one metric (most of the time) is shown for multiple objects. |
Specific values | Use for filters that have the same selections (for example, Filters for Processor type, Subsystem type, or Importance level). |
To use the workflow templates
- In the Create Workflow pane, select a template from Workflow Templates.
- Starting from the root View, evaluate each view and category in the workflow.
- For each view and category, select filter values appropriate for your enterprise and adjust the top <N> parameter.
For more information, see Managing-alerts. - Evaluate the view and category with alerts and review the alerts.
If the alert parameters are too sensitive and generate too many alerts, clone the Alert Rule and modify its parameters. - Select the same filters in subsequent Child views to reduce the data and produce meaningful reports and charts.
- Create a dashboard and include one or more workflows in the dashboard.
After you perform these steps, the dashboards are evaluated every night to provide daily reports with appropriate Alerts.
For workflow template list, see Workflow-templates-list.
Tips for using product-provided templates
You can use the product-provided workflow templates as it is, or modify it and create a new workflow template suitable to your environment. When you are creating workflow templates from scratch, you can use the product-provided filters.
For confidentiality, product-provided workflow templates do not use site-specific filters (such as LPAR or Service Class Names, and SMF IDs). Only non-site-specific filters (such as Processor Type, Service Class Goal Type and Goal Importance, and OLTP Subsystem type) are included. However, the absence of site-specific filters can create queries and charts with hundreds or thousands of objects, making the results unusable.
To avoid this, when you are working with the product-provided templates, you can use the following techniques:
- In any query, when you select data for a particular category in a view, the number of the objects is limited by the top number or bottom number (represented by N) for any of these object metrics. If you have selected multiple metrics metrics, you can control this number. The maximum number you can specify for <N> is 50, but workflow templates usually specify a smaller number (3, 5, or 10, depending on the object type). Drawing even a single metric for more than 50 objects is impractical.
- When required, you can request showing all remaining objects as one aggregate.
- When the template shows multiple metrics for each object in the same view, the <N> value is sometimes set to 1.
For example, if you have selected the Service Class with highest CPU usage and show multiple services and wait components of the response time for it. - The templates often aggregate one or more filters to provide a bird's-eye view of the environment (for example, aggregating all CICS regions activity for a particular application).
- Most of the workflow templates have attached alert rules that can create alerts based on the analysis of historical data. The alert rules start working as soon as the database has accumulated enough historical data for statistical analysis (at least two to three weeks of hourly data).
Tips for customizing product-provided workflow templates
To create a workflow template relevant to your environment by modifying the product-provided workflow template, we recommend using one or more of the following methods:
- Select one or more values for one or more filters. This automatically limits the collection of objects from where the top or bottom <N> value is specified.
For example, selecting one or several Sysplexes or CPCs limits the collection of objects such as, LPARs, Service Classes, and Suites. - Adjust the <N> value so that it shows enough objects, but still produces clear graphics.
- Clear the aggregation check box to see a detailed view of some sub-objects.
For example, clearing aggregation on the SMF ID filter shows Suite Activity in individual LPARs rather than aggregated by CPC.
Alternatively, you can select an aggregation check box if you do not require this level of detail.
For example, to see the aggregated activity of all Subsystem Address spaces, check the aggregation for the Subsystem Instance name. - Select or clear Show remaining objects as aggregate in Advanced Filter Actions according to your requirement.
- Customize the Alert Rule parameters according to your requirements.
For information, see the "Customizing product-provided alert rules" section in Managing alerts.