When IBM released OS/400 V5R1, it replaced OS/400's Performance Monitor feature with a new Collection Services function that is configured through the Management Central capability of iSeries Operations Navigator. This means that many shops migrating to V5R1 must learn to put aside the old green-screen commands that start, stop, end, add, and change performance collection data under the Performance Monitor, and opt instead for the mostly graphical configuration capabilities that come with Collection Services.
There's just one problem with this setup: many times you still need commands or APIs to manage performance collections in the OS/400 startup program, batch jobs, on the command line, and in the OS/400 job scheduler. However, the old batch commands associated with Performance Monitor are not supported in V5R1; these commands can only be used in V5R1 for compiling CL programs for use in pre-V5R1 OS/400 versions, and IBM hasn't provided equivalent replacement commands dealing with Collection Services. Valuable commands like Start Performance Monitor (STRPFRMON), End Performance Monitor (ENDPFRMON), Start Performance Collection (STRPFRCOL), End Performance Collections (ENDPFRCOL), and Work with Performance Collections (WRKPFRCOL) are heavily used in pre-V5R1 OS/400 shops, and many organizations are looking for their natural replacements as they update their machines.
While IBM didn't replace the Performance Monitor commands per se, IBM does provide some Management Central APIs for working with Collection Services functions from a command line or inside a program. You can find a list of these APIs by going to the V5R1 iSeries Information Center and opening the Programming->CL and APIs->APIs->APIs by category dropdowns. This brings up an API category list, which has a hot link to the Management Central APIs. Clicking on this link brings you to a page that describes the various APIs IBM provides to manage some Collection Services functionality. Most of these APIs can be called either through OPM or ILE and the following APIs are available:
-- Change System Collector Attributes (QYPSCSCA in OPM, QypsChgSysCollectorAttributes in ILE), which allows you to change system or global collection attributes.
-- Cycle Collector (QYPSCYCC in OPM, QypsCycleCollector in ILE), which closes current collector objects and opens new collector objects.
-- End Collector (QYPSENDC in OPM, QypsEndCollector in ILE), which ends a specific collector.
-- Retrieve System Collector Attributes (QYPRSRSCA in OPM, QypsRtvSysCollectorAttributes in ILE), which retrieves the system collection attributes including the collection interval, the collection storage library name, the retention period, cycle time, and the currently running definition, if Collection Services is currently running.
-- Start Collector (QYPSSTRC in OPM, QypsStartCollector in ILE), which starts a specific performance collector.
-- There are also two Performance Management/400 APIs for those people who have installed the PM/400 software. These APIs are End PM/400 (Q1PENDM), which end PM/400 jobs; and Retransmit PM/400 Data (Q1PRTRN) which marks previously transmitted PM/400 data as untransmitted data, allowing those records to be transmitted again.
While the Management Central API functionality may not be as all-encompassing as the OpsNav Collection Service management features, these APIs may help ease V5R1 and V5R2 migration woes for shops who have built a performance measurement infrastructure based on green-screen Performance Monitor commands.
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About the author: Joe Hertvik is an IT professional and freelance writer who has been working with OS/400 since the days of the System/38 in the mid-1980s. Joe can be reached at jhertvik@midrangeserver.com.
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