Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
On Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:19:30 -0600, McKown, John john.mck...@healthmarkets.com wrote: Anyway, I was thinking that a twitter like service to which they could connect their home PC or smartphone would make it easier for them to track the activity on the system without the need to bring up a VPN connection and logon to TSO. John, I wrote a few tools like this at a previous job where we basically had no operations support. One would select output files from nightly backups using IGGCSIFX and produce an RSS feed of all the backup jobs including their completion status and links to the output from each one (does anybody really use RSS anymore?). I had another one that would use SDSF REXX to check output status of selected jobs and send an HTTP email with info and links to the output datasets. HTH Dana -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
On Fri, 9 Mar 2012 10:29:51 -0600, McKown, John wrote: I'll admit that my mind is not running quite right today. And how does that make today any different . ;-) I remember a time (not so long ago) when we were assured technology would free us from the shackles of our daytime desk. Yeah, right. Like any of the cognoscenti believed that. I must admit I have avoided joining the herd that stampeded to off to become twits. Social media seemed to imply being particularly sociable ... One gripe I have with automated notification systems is that is a hell of a job to get *off* such a list. Especially if you are not an employee, but an itinerant that may get added to several such lists at different companies. Shane ... -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
Not at all a stupid idea, John. There are many shops that already do that sort of thing and many ways to do it. As an aside, there are some organizations that handle third shift support from some part of the world where/when it's first shift. That can be done within the company itself (typically if it's a global multi-national sort of company) or on a contract basis. That's been true for decades, and not just in IT. To pick a random combination, between Los Angeles, Sydney, and London you can have continuous support coverage, and it's never an unreasonable hour of the night. Timothy Sipples Resident Enterprise Architect (Based in Singapore) E-Mail: timothy.sipp...@us.ibm.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
John, I did that with a software product I previously authored. The Internet enabling product has an HTTP client interface that I used to tweet as a demo. Calls can be made from the product's REXX interface so you could tweet from batch jobsteps or use an API to make requests from program code. So, it has been done! Originally Twitter allowed the use of the HTTP authorization request header so you could pass a base64 encoded user and password. That was fairly easy to do via HTTP requests. Now Twitter requires authorization using the OAUTH protocol which is much more involved from the client request side. We found the easiest thing to do for the oauth requirement was write a web service running off platform, and use the product's web service client interface to invoke the web service from z/OS instead of trying to do the oauth directly from z/OS. It was an interesting facility because any number of people, worldwide, can follow a single Twitter user and be notified about whatever topics you want to publish to them. Chuck Arney Arney Computer Systems -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of McKown, John Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 10:30 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification. I'll admit that my mind is not running quite right today. But something that is bouncing around is notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS. Would it be helpful, or stupid, to set up a twitter type, secured, server. Then have the appropriate people from work, who have smartphones or even PCs, be able to follow specific topics, which may be things such as individual server names, or z/OS product job status, or abended jobs. Or are some companies doing something similar using SMS? We use SMS messages via CA-Unicenter for monitoring CA-Unicenter tickets assigned to our group. But we cannot individually decide if we would like more. And we don't generate tickets for things like production job completed successfully on 2012-03-10 at 13:58 or Event ... has not completed successfully yet. On weekends, we are totally dark and the on-call Production Support person must periodically logon to z/OS in order to check statuses. I thought it might! be easier if they got tweets about things. Of course, for all I know, this may be impossible due to software patents. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
I'll admit that my mind is not running quite right today. But something that is bouncing around is notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS. Would it be helpful, or stupid, to set up a twitter type, secured, server. Then have the appropriate people from work, who have smartphones or even PCs, be able to follow specific topics, which may be things such as individual server names, or z/OS product job status, or abended jobs. Or are some companies doing something similar using SMS? We use SMS messages via CA-Unicenter for monitoring CA-Unicenter tickets assigned to our group. But we cannot individually decide if we would like more. And we don't generate tickets for things like production job completed successfully on 2012-03-10 at 13:58 or Event ... has not completed successfully yet. On weekends, we are totally dark and the on-call Production Support person must periodically logon to z/OS in order to check statuses. I thought it might! be easier if they got tweets about things. Of course, for all I know, this may be impossible due to software patents. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
I'll admit that my mind is not running quite right today. But something that is bouncing around is notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS. Would it be helpful, or stupid, to set up a twitter type, secured, server. Then have the appropriate people from work, who have smartphones or even PCs, be able to follow specific topics, which may be things such as individual server names, or z/OS product job status, or abended jobs. Or are some companies doing something similar using SMS? We use SMS messages via CA-Unicenter for monitoring CA-Unicenter tickets assigned to our group. But we cannot individually decide if we would like more. And we don't generate tickets for things like production job completed successfully on 2012-03-10 at 13:58 or Event ... has not completed successfully yet. On weekends, we are totally dark and the on-call Production Support person must periodically logon to z/OS in order to check statuses. I thought it migh! t! be easier if they got tweets about things. Of course, for all I know, this may be impossible due to software patents. Of course there could be other software to do this. Things like CA Spectrum, eHealth, OPS/MVS, and Automation point, could possible handle this type of request, if set up. I believe the magic new word is MIB MIB Description: MIB = Management Information Base a) A collection of objects that can be accessed by means of a network management protocol. b) A definition for management information that specifies the information available from a host or gateway and the operations allowed. c) In OSI, the conceptual repository of management information within an open system. Then SMTP or similar could be used to tweet. Lizette -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
Our SMS messing is actually email being sent to the proper email-to-SMS converter address. One problem I've found with email is latency. And, again, I'm thinking that some sort of infrastructure is needed to route the appropriate messages to the people who want to be informed of them. Our current method, using CA-OPS/MVS to send an SNMP trap to Orion which sends a message, maybe, to CA-Unicenter, which then creates an email which is sent to our MS-Exchange server, which sends it out, is controlled by the admins. A person cannot decide if they want to get messages or not. Of course, the messages go (hopefully) to the appropriate on-call person. The I'll decide what, if anything, I want to be informed of being made dynamically by the user was what I was thinking would be different. Also, it seems to me, that following a particular user via a twitter-like mechanism would have less latency. Sometimes our emails get delayed. The worst case I can recall was an incident! that occurred about 19:00. The SMS message about that showed up on my phone at 09:00 the next day! And guess who caught hell for not responding quickly enough? Not the MS-Exchange server, or the email-to-SMS server, I assure you. But then, it is quite possible that I'm trying to fix something that isn't even broken. Wouldn't be the first time. Won't be the last. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Lizette Koehler Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 10:39 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification. I'll admit that my mind is not running quite right today. But something that is bouncing around is notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS. Would it be helpful, or stupid, to set up a twitter type, secured, server. Then have the appropriate people from work, who have smartphones or even PCs, be able to follow specific topics, which may be things such as individual server names, or z/OS product job status, or abended jobs. Or are some companies doing something similar using SMS? We use SMS messages via CA-Unicenter for monitoring CA-Unicenter tickets assigned to our group. But we cannot individually decide if we would like more. And we don't generate tickets for things like production job completed successfully on 2012-03-10 at 13:58 or Event ... has not completed successfully yet. On weekends, we are totally dark and the on-call Production Support person must periodically logon to z/OS in order to check statuses. I thought it migh! t! be easier if they got tweets about things. Of course, for all I know, this may be impossible due to software patents. Of course there could be other software to do this. Things like CA Spectrum, eHealth, OPS/MVS, and Automation point, could possible handle this type of request, if set up. I believe the magic new word is MIB MIB Description: MIB = Management Information Base a) A collection of objects that can be accessed by means of a network management protocol. b) A definition for management information that specifies the information available from a host or gateway and the operations allowed. c) In OSI, the conceptual repository of management information within an open system. Then SMTP or similar could be used to tweet. Lizette -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
On Fri, 2012-03-09 at 11:29 -0500, McKown, John wrote: notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS We're small like you, lights-out after 9:00pm, and the operations automation we have is all homebrew. I have a console monitor application, written in REXX, that watches for specific messages such as ABENDs. It also watches for messages with MDBGHOLD=YES that remain un-DOMed for longer than a set period. Normal action is to send email via Lionel's XMITIP, and then to escalate to another email address if the first recipient doesn't acknowledge (by simply hitting 'reply' on their email client) within ten minutes. We have another application which runs as a final step of most of our production jobs, and emails the responsible programmer(s) in the event of ABEND or untoward return codes. An MPF exit backs up that application in case the failed job had a JCL error or otherwise could not continue to the last step. A third application analyzes our IDMS transaction log and filters for unusual activity, emailing some of us who care about that sort of thing. Automated email works great, mostly, and can include more diagnostic information than a tweet (say) can include. When email doesn't work - and it isn't foolproof - we rely on our users to call. Press 1 to wake somebody up. -- David Andrews A. Duda Sons, Inc. david.andr...@duda.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
That's pretty much what we do. Except that our Prod Control people simply can't do if I am not told otherwise, then everything is OK.. So they continue to logon to do a quick look to make sure that the cycle is running. Because if something goes wrong, and Exchange is down, they won't get notified in time to fix it before the people coming in early start screaming about where's my report?. We don't actually print anything (no print operators at all any more), but keep our sysout on a Web based platform called Redwood. The users come in and logon to it to read their morning reports. And some of them do raise the roof if the report is not waiting for them. Anyway, I was thinking that a twitter like service to which they could connect their home PC or smartphone would make it easier for them to track the activity on the system without the need to bring up a VPN connection and logon to TSO. Then go to CA-7 and do commands to see where the cycle is. Or use DA OJOB to check on running jobs. They'd just get a series of tweets like: SCRJ-12 JOB jobname (0884) COMPLETED NORMALLY. *** COMPLETED ***. HIGHEST CONDITION CODE = . Hum, you know what? We have CA-OPS/MVS. I may write up a rule which will log those messages to a UNIX file, which would be read from a Web page served up on our z/OS HTTPD server. I'd date time stamp them, so I could subset to the last n hours. That might be of interest to the Production Control people, rather than logging onto TSO and/or CA-7. I'll ask. -- John McKown Systems Engineer IV IT Administrative Services Group HealthMarkets(r) 9151 Boulevard 26 * N. Richland Hills * TX 76010 (817) 255-3225 phone * john.mck...@healthmarkets.com * www.HealthMarkets.com Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message may contain confidential or proprietary information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. HealthMarkets(r) is the brand name for products underwritten and issued by the insurance subsidiaries of HealthMarkets, Inc. -The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company(r), Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of TennesseeSM and The MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company.SM -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of David Andrews Sent: Friday, March 09, 2012 11:02 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification. On Fri, 2012-03-09 at 11:29 -0500, McKown, John wrote: notification of events happening on servers, especially z/OS We're small like you, lights-out after 9:00pm, and the operations automation we have is all homebrew. I have a console monitor application, written in REXX, that watches for specific messages such as ABENDs. It also watches for messages with MDBGHOLD=YES that remain un-DOMed for longer than a set period. Normal action is to send email via Lionel's XMITIP, and then to escalate to another email address if the first recipient doesn't acknowledge (by simply hitting 'reply' on their email client) within ten minutes. We have another application which runs as a final step of most of our production jobs, and emails the responsible programmer(s) in the event of ABEND or untoward return codes. An MPF exit backs up that application in case the failed job had a JCL error or otherwise could not continue to the last step. A third application analyzes our IDMS transaction log and filters for unusual activity, emailing some of us who care about that sort of thing. Automated email works great, mostly, and can include more diagnostic information than a tweet (say) can include. When email doesn't work - and it isn't foolproof - we rely on our users to call. Press 1 to wake somebody up. -- David Andrews A. Duda Sons, Inc. david.andr...@duda.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
We have an in-house monitoring system on zOS that detects significant events (very broadly defined) - batch and online-, logs them, uses an external table to lookup who to notify via a complex masking system, and notifies them. Notification uses SMTP. That allows direct interface to vendors whose devices support SMS via SMTP. E.g. major pager vendors and cellphone vendors have such interfaces in US Canada and EU. It also allows use of maillists in the email system. Only downsides are vendor response time and firewalls. The system is on all lpars/plexes (except the sandboxes) in all data centers. The logs are consolidated and coordinated, as are the tables - they exist locally on each lpar/plex but are in sync with the mother ship. I created an interface so that any system (e.g. *nix, M$W) that can touch zOS (NDM, FTP, MQ, etc) can use the notification system, including the filtering part. Cobol/CICS/MQ plus vendor tools (e.g. Fault Analyzer) to connect to SRM and Endevor. As much as possible, the system is external table driven. Only some of the filtering algorithms are hard code. The contact number is in the message so that in special cases (e.g. DR) there is indication of who/where is the controlling site. Otherwise the plex indicates country. - The information contained in this communication (including any attachments hereto) is confidential and is intended solely for the personal and confidential use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error and that any review, dissemination, copying, or unauthorized use of this information, or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message. Thank you -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
On 3/9/2012 3:05 PM, Kirk Talman wrote: We have an in-house monitoring system on zOS that detects significant events (very broadly defined) - batch and online-, logs them, uses an external table to lookup who to notify via a complex masking system, and notifies them. Notification uses SMTP. That allows direct interface to vendors whose devices support SMS via SMTP. E.g. major pager vendors and cellphone vendors have such interfaces in US Canada and EU. It also allows use of maillists in the email system. Only downsides are vendor response time and firewalls. The system is on all lpars/plexes (except the sandboxes) in all data centers. The logs are consolidated and coordinated, as are the tables - they exist locally on each lpar/plex but are in sync with the mother ship. I created an interface so that any system (e.g. *nix, M$W) that can touch zOS (NDM, FTP, MQ, etc) can use the notification system, including the filtering part. Cobol/CICS/MQ plus vendor tools (e.g. Fault Analyzer) to connect to SRM and Endevor. As much as possible, the system is external table driven. Only some of the filtering algorithms are hard code. The contact number is in the message so that in special cases (e.g. DR) there is indication of who/where is the controlling site. Otherwise the plex indicates country. I sure wish IBM would get with it and promote these kinds of capabilities as being available with z/OS. People aren't aware of all things that are possible and it always comes across as the mainframe is 'old', 'stodgy', 'not modern' and so on. Ah well. Guess they aren't really serious about the long term viability. [OK, so it's Friday.] -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-355-2752 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
All, The Tweeting is a good idea, I seem to remember the server people in most places I have worked had pager systems and scene what Liz suggested in several places using Netview. So this very doable. Sent from my iPad Scott Ford Senior Systems Engineer www.identityforge.com On Mar 9, 2012, at 5:12 PM, Steve Comstock st...@trainersfriend.com wrote: On 3/9/2012 3:05 PM, Kirk Talman wrote: We have an in-house monitoring system on zOS that detects significant events (very broadly defined) - batch and online-, logs them, uses an external table to lookup who to notify via a complex masking system, and notifies them. Notification uses SMTP. That allows direct interface to vendors whose devices support SMS via SMTP. E.g. major pager vendors and cellphone vendors have such interfaces in US Canada and EU. It also allows use of maillists in the email system. Only downsides are vendor response time and firewalls. The system is on all lpars/plexes (except the sandboxes) in all data centers. The logs are consolidated and coordinated, as are the tables - they exist locally on each lpar/plex but are in sync with the mother ship. I created an interface so that any system (e.g. *nix, M$W) that can touch zOS (NDM, FTP, MQ, etc) can use the notification system, including the filtering part. Cobol/CICS/MQ plus vendor tools (e.g. Fault Analyzer) to connect to SRM and Endevor. As much as possible, the system is external table driven. Only some of the filtering algorithms are hard code. The contact number is in the message so that in special cases (e.g. DR) there is indication of who/where is the controlling site. Otherwise the plex indicates country. I sure wish IBM would get with it and promote these kinds of capabilities as being available with z/OS. People aren't aware of all things that are possible and it always comes across as the mainframe is 'old', 'stodgy', 'not modern' and so on. Ah well. Guess they aren't really serious about the long term viability. [OK, so it's Friday.] -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-355-2752 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: A stupid idea? Using twitter like service for z/SO, et al., event notification.
Sorry if this sounds like a marketing entry, but it probably will. A little over two years ago I wrote a little product (called SyzTXT/z) that works with our other products but especially with the console message product (SyzMPF/z) so that if something happens that the site feels is important (abend, IP attack, or anything or any console event at all), SyzMPF/z will use SyzTXT/z to send email or SMS text to whoever (up to 255 users or groups of users) they want to get the messages. We also have another product (SyzNotify) that will send the highest condition (or abend) codes (similar to our SyzEmail product, except that SyzNOTIFY is automatic where SyzEmail requires JCL be added to the task) via email or sms text of any job (whether it works or not). At the time I wrote them it seemed to me that it had a small niche, but we found that people tend to buy some of our other products just because they want to use the smaller niche ones like SyzTXT and SyzNOTIFY. I would imagine that the reason is that people just want to be informed of what's happening and if you can keep them from having to log on, (i.e. they jsut look at there text message on their iPhone), then they feel better about how things are running. End of marketing :) Brian -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
