Spans
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SMF records contain a variety of fields that represent mainframe performance data. For example, the field QWHSLOCN specifies the local location name of a Db2 system. The pages in this section define the mappings and transformations of SMF record fields into meaningful tags that can be used in your APM software.
Jaeger query for a Db2 instance name
The Db2 SMF field QWHSLOCN in our example is mapped to the tag db.db2.instance_name. You can use this tag in your APM software to search, filter, analyze and correlate mainframe performance data.
Tag design
Whenever possible, the tag names defined in the OpenTelemetry specification are used by z/IRIS Telemetry. For mainframe-specific data, custom tags are defined with a zos prefix, for example zos.subsystem.name.
Span Tags and Resource Tags
The distinction between Span Tags and Resource Tags allows a fine-grained separation between tags that belong to an actual operation (Span Tags) and tags that belong to an entity producing telemetry data. (Resource Tags, for example: a Db2 system or a MQ Log Manager). If your APM software does not support this distinction, Resource Tags will automatically be transformed into Span Tags.
Common tags
Each span created by z/IRIS contains the following tags.
z/IRIS Telemetry tag | IBM SMF source | Constant value |
|---|---|---|
zos.subsystem.name | SMFxSSI | |
host.name | SMFxSID | |
host.arch | “z/Architecture” | |
os.type | “z/OS” |
service.name
z/IRIS sets the service.name tag according to the type of subsystem, application or unit of work that the trace represents.
services | Description |
|---|---|
| CICS transactions processed on z/OS. Spans are created from performance records contained in SMF type 110. |
| Traces created from Db2 z/OS SMF records types 100-102, that provide performance and error information about calls processed by an IBM Db2 z/OS server. |
| MQ Tasks that use MQ objects to process messages. Spans are created from SMF Type 116 subtypes 1 and 2 |
| Traces created from SMF record type 30 where SMF30WID=JES2 that provide performance and error information about z/OS batch jobs. |
| Traces created from SMF record type 30 where SMF30WID=OMVS that provide performance and error information about OMVS processes that were spawned on z/OS systems. |
| Traces created from SMF record type 30 where SMF30WID=STC that provides Started task performance and error information from z/OS systems. |
| Traces created from SMF record type 30 where SMF30WID=TSO that provide TSO user activity from z/OS systems. |
| Traces created from z/OS Connect record type 123 that provide performance and error information about REST API calls processed by an IBM z/OS Connect server. |