z/XPF is a totally new approach in profiling technology. Instead of gathering data from within an address space, z/XPF captures its data from OUTSIDE the address space at the processor level, giving you far more information – without affecting the target address space in ANY way!We call this methodology “Event profiling”. It allows us to present information you could not see before.
Now you can:
- Measure SVC counts, and elapsed time;
- Measure I/O response times;
- Measure memory management events;
- See locks and latches;
- Measure TCB AND SRB-mode code;
- Measure Program Calls;
- Track events across address spaces;
- Exploit SLIP and PER trace facilities for extremely fine measurement of events;
- Analyze Page faults;
- Analyze Locks and Latches.
Event profiling shows you MORE information, but it also has a very small “foot-print”.
- z/XPF works without ANY system hooks.
- It has no affect on the target address space.
- z/XPF’s server address space consumes only a tiny segment of system resources because z/OS does most of the work!
The three steps to using z/XPF are:
Create your Data Capture session
Tell z/XPF how and when to start your data capture session. You can start immediately, at a future date or time or whenever a job or job-step begins.
Run your Data Capture session
z/XPF monitors your program’s execution. It “sees” everything without affecting your program’s address space. It gathers and collates a HUGE amount of information. Legacy profilers can capture up to 1000 samples per second. In the same run, z/XPF might capture 1,000,000 events or MORE. Which method of data capture is more granular? Which might be more accurate?
Filter and review your reports
Allocate your report dataset, and z/XPF will show you:
- “Hot-spots” in CPU consumption;
- How your program uses its own code paths;
- Contention analysis;
- Wait-time analysis;
- Where you’re spending the most time;
- Where you’re wasting resources.
You can “slice and dice” your reports to get down to an incredible level of detail – right down to the instruction level.
z/XPF has DB2 “awareness” built in. It tracks and reports on SRB-mode code (absolutely unique)! Soon, z/XPF will have CICS-awareness as well!