Description of PRFRUN

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From Kris Buelens, IBM Belgium

PRFRUNis a set of REXX procedures to automate performance reporting viaMONWRITEandVMPRF.

The base exec is PRFRUN EXEC, which must be started in userid VMPRF

Change Overview, V3.1

As downloading a file with a + sign in it seems to pose problems (it results in a 404, URL not found error), the name of the +PRFRUN package is changed to PRFRUN.

Change Overview, V3.2.a

The removal of the + sign from the name, made that the PRFRUN EXEC no longer called the "user exit" exec: +PRFEXIT EXEC.

Change Overview, V3.2.b

When the PRFRUN PROFILE file contains Auth_SFS PUBLIC we granted read authority to a userid named "PUBLIC" instead of to everyone. (As opposed to the CMS GRANT AUTH command, the DMSGRANT CSL routine -that we use- needs other parameters for a real "grant to public").

Change Overview, V3.2.c

When MONWRITE doesn't start cleanly, the MONDATA file is not as expected by VMPRF. This may be the case when getting HCPMOW6271A Warning: output file does not contain initial sample configuration records
The worst consequence can be a VMPRF abend. When this happens, PRFRUN 3.2.c will search the MONDATA file for a valid start point and pass that part of the MONDATA file to VMPRF.

Change Overview, V3.3

  • PRFRUN is completely repackaged (as to avoid my versioning problems)
  • PRFRUN EXEC is based on our newest Rexx server kernel. See comments inside PRFRUN EXEC for kernel change history.
  • RUNPRF EXEC is added: it presents a menu that makes it very easy to have our VMPRF server create a special VMPRF report for you. The menu helps with the selecting of the important VMPRF parameters. Then this request is sent to our server for a onetime execution.

Change Overview, V3.3.a16 June 2003

The RUNPRF EXEC did no longer work: VMPRF now requires that an explicit ENDCHAR is requested in the PRFRUN CMDS. RUNPRF is an exec that allows you to easily request an extra VMPRF analysis.

Operational Overview

The PRFRUN EXEC will most of the time be waiting for events to handle. We use the WAKEUP MODULE for that. The events it can react to are :
  • Time based events(defined in the file PRFRUN WAKEUP) this is used to start the CP MONITOR (and MONWRITE), as well as to start the VMPRF procedure to do the normal performance analysis.
  • RDR files: files sent by authorized users will be RECEIVEd
  • SMSGandMSG: allows authorized users to request PRFRUN services (such as to perform a special VMPRF analysis, or to execute CP/CMS commands)

PRFRUN is designed to work in a distributed environment, this means it can be controlled from remote VM systems.

Some Automation Features


You must be aware of the following important features :
  • Starts/stops MONWRITE at appropriate time, enables CP monitor ; all controlled by entries in file PRFRUN WAKEUP (uses WAKEUP file format)
  • To start MONWRITE, PRFRUN will issue CP XAUTOLOG MONWRITE and CP SET SECUSER MONWRITE *, after whichCP SEND MONWRITE ... is used to send the appropriate commands to MONWRITE.
  • If MONWRITE's A-disk gets full : PRFRUN erases oldest files and restarts MONWRITE. So, the size of MONWRITE's A-disk defines how many MONITOR files remain available for analysis. See also further down.
  • At the time specified in PRFRUN WAKEUP, PRFRUN starts the standard VMPRF procedures to do the performance analysis. This means you have to create the VMPRF control files as usual (VMPRF MASTER, VMPRF REPORTS, ....) After the run, PRFRUN will check the long VMPRF RUN file for errors (and warn you if some are found). It'll also copy the generated VMPRF report into an SFS directory per weekday day (so the reports are kept 1 week). Some other postprocessing includes : saving some extra reports, making an extra IO analysis summary file.
  • To avoid getting big VMPRF TREND files and DISK-full conditions, PRFRUN will make one TREND file per month (and automatically erase the oldest files from VMPRF 200). The fileid isVMPRF TRNDyymm
  • Allows (authorized) end-users to send commands & files (files will be received to the A-disk). When a (modified) PRFRUN EXEC is sent it will stored on the A-disk and PRFRUN will restart itself to work immediately with the latest version of the procedure. This allows for 'online maintenance'.