Network and Systems Management: Bulldozing the Mountain of Complexity

by Denise Kalm, Rob Steiskal
December 1, 2008

Network traffic must be managed. It arrives unabated from various sources. Message payloads are often huge in support of new technologies such as video streams. Many business workloads associated with these network payloads are mission-critical. They require stringent Quality of Service (QoS) management. Network administrators must understand these workloads to appropriately prioritize the supporting network traffic.

With multi-platform applications being the norm, the new challenge is integrating the network “picture” with distributed systems information. Mainframe network experts must work with distributed network managers, and today’s systems programmers must manage a broad spectrum of system configurations and topologies comprised of multiple machines hosting a large number of Logical Partitions (LPARs) housing a variety of operating systems. Individual system images are frequently grouped together to form one or more Sysplexes employing a “share everything” methodology. In some cases, these Sysplexes may even cross geographical boundaries.

The dynamic nature of the modern mainframe environment presents unique management challenges. The ability to dynamically change the hardware configuration, adding processing engines and altering capacity limits on the fly, introduces a new dimension to systems management. The inclusion of specialty processors—such as System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP), System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP), and crypto engines—can, when properly managed, yield significant cost reductions. These systems can host multiple operating systems (including Linux) and standards- based software stacks (e.g., TCP/IP, Java, XML parsers, etc.) in support of modern application design and implementation methodologies (e.g., Web services and SOA). But configuring and managing these software stacks can be difficult in the absence of specific skills or tools.

Network administrators and systems programmers must contend with budget constraints; funding for new technologies is met by saving on existing run rates. Changes introduced as the result of a new project must be carefully managed to avoid disrupting required service levels. When improperly implemented, changes to applications or application components hosted on distributed platforms can result in service disruptions to mainframe-hosted application support components such as database and transaction management systems.

Both the mainframe and distributed system management teams must centrally monitor and manage the resources required to provide continuous access to critical business functions. By doing so, they’re able to quickly and efficiently identify the source of problems and resolve them. They need tools that support proactive management of the data center. Classic monitoring tools, combined with intelligent automation solutions, can deliver this capability, automatically detecting and resolving performance or service-level issues without human intervention.