Data collection should support user message counters and a customizable weighted message calculation

• A vanilla object code version of offline DATAREAD should be shipped so that customers with no local mods do not have to compile the offline code. If customers can use the vanilla shipped DATAREAD they would not need a PL/1 compiler and could save potentially significant licensing costs.

• Data collection/reduction should be enhanced to avoid the need for the most common user modifications. Specifically, data collection/reduction should support
1) (High priority) User message counters and the ability for the user to define how to calculate weighted message rate.

Currently 5 messages counters (high speed processed, low speed, high speed routed, created, and SSCP) and the count of weighted IP messages are written at the start/end of data collection and by the system data control.

The vanilla calculation for weighted messages is :
(high speed processed – low speed ) + (low speed * WT) +
(high speed routed * WT2) + weighted IP messages

The user can only control the weighting of low speed and high speed routed via the WT and WT2 controls in tpf/c_dcdr.h that are also maintained in file system file etc/dataco.txt.

The IBM message counters do not necessarily describe the message counts of interest and the vanilla weighted message calculation may not describe how the customer wants to define weighted message rate. The result is that the user has to apply mods to repurpose the IBM message counters and/or change the offline data reduction code to calculate weighted messages as required. To avoid this IBM should

• Provide an array of at least 16 counters that the user can use to count messages of various types according to their needs. These user counters should be written out with the IBM defined counts and should appear in the SYSTEM SUMMARY section of the data reduction report so that min/max/mean values are shown.
• Support user-defined descriptions of the user counters in tpf/c_dcdr.h and etc/dataco.txt so that a meaningful description appears in the data reduction report. These name controls must be managed by ZMEAS SET/DISPLAY.
• Add new user controls be added to tpf/c_dcdr.h and etc/dataco.txt that allow the user to define how weighted messages are calculated by offline data reduction. These controls must be managed by ZMEAS SET/DISPLAY.
One solution would be to define a weighting value per IBM and user defined message counter, and to allow the weighting to be set to 0. The weighted message calculation would then be defined as (Wx is the control in dataco.txt):
((high speed processed *W1)- low speed)) + (low speed * W2) +
(high speed routed * w3) + (weighted IP messages * W4) +
a(user counter1 * W5) + (user counter2 * W6)…. + (user counterN * Wn+4)

The user could remove the associated bucket from the calculation by setting its weighting to 0.
ZSTAT cvoff0.asm source need not be updated to display the user counts. If the user wants to display them they can do so via the provided user exit usta.asm. Similarly, cdc may not need to accommodate these counters since user exits are supplied.

2) Support user-defined descriptions of the applications controlled with @switch global bits so that a meaningful description appears in the data reduction report.

One solution would be to add user descriptions to tpf/c_dcdr.h and etc/dataco and have the names managed by ZMEAS SET/DISPLAY. A default of UNKNOWN or similar could also be supported to avoid having to describe unused bits.