MainView VistaPoint is an application workload monitor. VistaPoint reports response-time performance of z/OS, CICS, Db2, and IMS transactions and jobs. VistaPoint regards a transaction as a measurable event with a defined start and end time.

You can monitor the performance of selected regions or subsystems by defining them as workloads with BMC performance tools for z/OS, CICS, Db2, or IMS. These products work singularly or together with VistaPoint to monitor their respective targets and provide workload transaction data to VistaPoint.

You can combine workloads into a VistaPoint application. By creating applications composed of related workloads, VistaPoint gives you the capability to display transaction performance across products, regions, subsystems, and z/OS images in a single view.

The following figure shows a simple example of CICS regions and Db2 and IMS subsystems operating in two z/OS images. Some regions and subsystems are devoted to production work and others run development tasks. z/OS batch jobs are running in MVSA and TSO jobs are running in MVSB.

Mixture of Products Operating in Two MVS Images 

In this example, you can create VistaPoint workloads that represent this site's CICS, Db2, IMS, or z/OS environments in a single z/OS image or across a sysplex. For example, sites running CICS tasks with embedded SQL statements can create CICS and Db2 workloads that can be combined together in an application. The ability to combine related workloads together gives you the capability to get a performance overview with VistaPoint and then shift to another BMC product for more detail about individual subsystem performance.

VistaPoint provides a set of views that report transaction performance with differing levels of detail. VistaPoint's views present the aggregate performance of workloads by the application of which they are a member. BMC AMI Ops Monitor for CICS, BMC AMI Ops Monitor for Db2, and BMC AMI Ops Monitor for IMSoffer product-specific views that are integrated with VistaPoint. Each product's views provide additional detail about the performance of their targets, depending upon which monitors are active.

VistaPoint reports performance according to whether a workload's transactions meet a service-level objective composed of the following criteria:

• Transactions must complete within a predefined response-time goal set as the maximum for acceptable performance.
• A specified minimum percentage of the total reported transactions must complete within the response-time goal.

Integrating VistaPoint with other BMC AMI Ops products

The following figure shows BMC AMI Ops products monitoring their respective regions or subsystems. From the example shown in the figure Mixture of Products Operating in two MVS Images, you can create workloads for the transactions you want to monitor from each target. You can combine workloads into a common application based upon whether targets have shared tasks or resources. In this example, the Db2, CICS, IMS, and z/OS production regions or subsystems are logical candidates to define as workloads and group together as an application.

Monitoring Transactions with Workloads and Applications 

You can select the transactions to monitor from a product's targets and set the service-level objective in a definition for each workload. A single workload definition can be applied to multiple targets across multiple z/OS images. Conversely, you can define multiple workloads for the same target.

Each product's workloads become part of a common VistaPoint application by being associated to the same composite name in their workload definition. BMC AMI Ops Monitor for z/OS workloads are incorporated into a VistaPoint application by creating a composite workload with the same name as the application.

As part of a workload definition, you set a daily time range to monitor the response time of transactions that occur in the targets included in the workload. Also, you have the choice of including queuing in the measured response time of CICS and IMS transactions.

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