OS/400 has the tendency of allocating more CPU cycles to those jobs that require more CPU cycles, according to the job’s priority and timeslice.  A job’s priority can be between 1 and 99, with 1 being the highest priority. The timeslice is the amount of time that it is allowed to use the CPU. CPU is allocated to jobs according to their priority compared to that of other jobs waiting for CPU, and the timeslice determines how long they can use the CPU for before they go back to the queue. Each job has these values predetermined, and subsystems have their own characteristics, for example, jobs executed from QINTER have priority 20 and timeslice 2000.

This seems to make sense, but in practice this means that, as soon as an abusive (in CPU
usage terms) task is performed, a lot of CPU is allocated to that task, slowing down the response for the rest of the jobs, making the system impossible to use in extreme cases. These situations can be referred to as performance bottlenecks.  VISUAL Control for Jobs prevents this by automatically checking the CPU usage by job, and taking care of dynamically balancing the CPU allocation among all the jobs. The end result will be better global performance of the AS/4000 system.

VISUAL Control for Jobs benefits
Essentially, the product brings three main benefits to the customers:
1 - It accelerates the AS/400
VISUAL Control for Jobs takes care of obtaining the best possible response times , by detecting
CPU abusive jobs and avoiding these abuses. Thus, it automatically optimizes global system
performance.
2 - It identifies performance bottlenecks.
A series of reports can be obtained to detect exactly which are the programs that cause system
degradation. Also, graphical CPU usage charts can be obtained to identify idle processor times
or to analyze system usage trends.
3- It gives them the power to control their AS/400
Many sites need to configure their system to avoid periodical performance problems, e.g. end of month invoicing, users who increase their own job priority. By using VISUAL Control for Jobs, they can keep all of these performance affecting factors under control.

- Free your systems operators from tedious performance tuning tasks and allows them to concentrate on other more important work that they have to do
- Avoid the "chaos" of unpredictable response times
- Give your users faster response times and more stable performance
- VCJ can be used in any type of AS/400 environment

Any AS/400 can use VISUAL Control for Jobs.  A system operator is not required. Many VISUAL Control for Jobs customers have no system operating personnel at all.  It is part of the reason why they choose to buy the software - because they do not have the time nor the knowledge to do performance tuning and system management.  This is particularly true for companies who manage performance issues from remote locations. VISUAL Control for Jobs makes this task a lot easier for them, as they can be confident that they do not need to supervise the AS/400 all the time – VISUAL Control for Jobs is doing it for them.

VCJ will accelerate your AS/400 overall performance, and it really solves performance problems in a cost effective way. Simply request a demo trial and you will immediately notice the difference in the performance of your system when you start VISUAL Control for Jobs.

Customers with ERP packages
Companies who are running ERP software packages are a great example (BPCS, JD Edwards, MAPICS, SAP/R3, VAI etc.) of how well VCJ impacts the AS/400 environment.  These applications consume a lot of system resources, and frequently suffer from performance bottlenecks when running on AS/400 systems.  By using VISUAL Control for Jobs, response times can be greatly increased.

Monitor & Analyze your AS/400 performance
Many users buy the product just to find out where the problem areas are. With it, you can discover which program modules are directly affecting performance, and it also allows you to improve your job scheduling. VCJ also provides information that can be used to justify hardware upgrades to management.

Take advantage of your AS/400 investment - many large AS/400 sites have made a very expensive investment in their hardware and do not have severe performance problems, but do have occasional peak hours, end of month processes, users/programmers who increase their job priority, etc.  By using VISUAL Control for Jobs, you will be sure your users always have adequate response times. You can use the exceptions functions in the software to ensure that your AS/400 performance is tuned to the way that you want it.

Meaning, VCJ will delay the need for hardware upgrades and can be delayed with the proper tuning techniques freeing operators from tedious performance tuning tasks. You can avoid the "chaos" associated with unpredictable response times.  Many companies have adopted commitments to continuous quality improvements, so VISUAL Control for Jobs can be easily positioned as a user benefit in such situations, allowing you to provide a better service to your users.

Technical Description
VISUAL Control for Jobs is primarily composed of: Dynamic Supervisor, Performance Reports, and Complementary Utilities.

Dynamic Supervisor
The Dynamic Supervisor is a never ending job that controls the active jobs in the AS/400. This
Supervisor can be manually started whenever required or automatically started in each IPL.  The Dynamic Supervisor main function is to stop jobs from abusing the CPU and degrading the interactive response times. If such a situation is found, the Supervisor reduces the job attributes cyclically until it is no longer an abusing job. When a previously penalized job is no longer abusing the CPU, the Supervisor restores the default class attributes to the job, so that it will run normally as before.

Performance Reports
The Dynamic Supervisor collects performance data. This data can be analyzed using VISUAL Control for Jobs, and presented in tables or bar charts, or it can be exported to be analyzed in dedicated statistical analysis programs. The data collected is recorded in native databases. Any customer can write ad hoc queries or programs to extract information the way they want it. VCJ alos has its own very powerful querying options. For example, the ANZCHGJOB command displays a ranking of the most CPU consuming jobs, to assist in the detection of software bottlenecks.

Furthermore, all of the changes made by VISUAL Control for Jobs are recorded in an externally defined native database. There are many options to list, print and analyze - even graphically product activity. The benefit of this is that you can see which are the jobs, users, subsystems etc. that are being penalized most often, so that operators can make appropriate changes so that they no longer abuse resources so much.

The VCJ's performance reports are also useful when customizing. For instance, if few jobs get changed or penalized during the day, product defaults should be adjusted in a more restrictive way. That means lowering the thresholds that determine when the Dynamic Supervisor intervenes.

Exceptions
The Dynamic Supervisor activity is fully customizable. You can change its run parameters at
start up, or whilst running. A complete set of exceptions can also be defined so that the Supervisor does not change the priority of mission critical jobs, users, subsystems etc. User exceptions can also be used to ensure that users do not change their priority and timeslice, a common cause of resource hogging problems.

SOS Command
Among the most interesting utilities is the SOS command. The SOS command is an interactive way to improve response times in emergencies. Technically, it’s very similar to a single Dynamic Supervisor pass. All abusive jobs found are immediately penalized, regardless of any exception set. This is useful when the AS/400 system is seriously overloaded and an immediate solution must be found.

Auto Evaluator
The Auto Evaluator is a simple way for our customers  to compare the performance change with and without VISUAL Control for Jobs. By having VISUAL Control for Jobs active for one week and inactive for one week, and then using the Auto Evaluator to compare the performance during the two periods, which you will allow you to easily see the difference that VISUAL Control for Jobs makes to your system.

Ease of use
VISUAL Control for Jobs is very easy to install and use indeed. The CD ROM installation
automates the process for customers. All VISUAL Control for Jobs features are implemented in standard commands, and are accessible through a single menu.  Many customers use the product as they have received it, without customization (refer to paragraph Customization for more info about this subject). Others like to study the default parameters, change them, use the menu and the commands, etc. If you would like advice on how to configure VISUAL Control for Jobs to suit tyour needs, contact us for further advice.

Customization and adapting the VCJ to a Site
There is an important thing you should keep in mind with VISUAL Control for Jobs: in many cases, it is necessary to customize VISUAL Control for Jobs to work according to the system needs of your customer. In these cases, it is the only way that your customer will be able to fully realize the potential of VISUAL Control for Jobs for optimizing the AS/400.

Customization is Easy
The product is fully customizable. That is, adaptable to the different environments it can be
running under, and to the customer’s wishes. It is easy to change the default parameters and try new ones. Customization is not a difficult in most cases.

Technical Considerations of Customization
There are a few parameters in STRCTL (Start Dynamic Supervisor) that command the action of VISUAL Control for Jobs. These parameters are:

Check Interval
This determines how often VISUAL Control for Jobs checks the status of the AS/400. It is measured in seconds. A very large value (say, more than 60 seconds) can cause poor reaction to abusive jobs. A short value improves the product’s ability to penalize an abusive job quickly. Beware though, a very short value (say, 5 seconds) in a low end AS/400 can cause VISUAL Control for Jobs job itself to use a high CPU percentage, but this is not a problem in medium to large AS/400. As a rule of thumb, if interactive response times are still low, try decreasing the Check Interval parameter.

Autoadjust
To optimize the resources used by VISUAL Control for Jobs itself, there is a Check Interval Auto Adjust option. Setting this option to YES means that the Dynamic Supervisor will decrease the Check Interval if the AS/400 is being heavily used (based on Total CPU percent) and will increase Check Interval when the machine is less used. Keep this parameter in mind when adjusting the Checking Interval: if you do not set Autoadjust to *NO, the Checking Interval you have entered will be ignored.

Total CPU% Used to Activate Dynamic Supervisor (SYSCPULVL)
If total CPU% usage does not reach this value, the Dynamic Supervisor does nothing. A high value (say, more than 60%) can cause the product to ignore abusive jobs. A very low value (say, less than 20%) may result in changing jobs when there is no need to do so (there is CPU power unused).

Minimum Job CPU% Usage to Change (JOBCPULVLI and JOBCPULVLB)
This is the minimum CPU% usage a job has to be using to be penalized. If this value is very high (say, 40% or more), two or more jobs can be abusing the CPU and never get penalized. If the value is very low (say, 2%) jobs will be continuously penalized and restored, which can be a problem in medium to low end AS/400. You can set separate values for Interactive and Batch jobs. Rule of thumb: if interactive response is still poor, try decreasing this parameter.

Maximum Job CPU% to restore running attributes (RSTATRLVL)
This indicate the CPU% a job should be using (as a maximum) to get its attributes restored. If this value is very low (say, less than 2%), a job that is not using very much CPU can be penalized for a long time until it’s finally restored. If the value is very high (say, more than 6%), the job could be restored even if it is still an abusive job.

Force Timeslice
Using the Force Timeslice command, you can specify that certain critical jobs get a set timeslice that cannot be changed, usually 5000. If your customers complain that their critical jobs are being executed slower than before then tell them to set a Force Timeslice for these jobs to ensure that they are executed faster.

Try the new parameters with CHGCTL
STRCTL command parameter default changes have effect only when starting the Supervisor again after ending it with the ENDCTL command. To try the new parameters immediately, use the CHGCTL command. This changes the parameters of the active Dynamic Supervisor. The  CHGCTL command has no effect on the STRCTL defaults. If the newer parameters work better than the older ones, remember to change the STRCTL defaults by means of an AS/400 CHGCMDDFT command.

Auto Evaluator
When testing, all customers should be encouraged to use the Auto Evaluator. It makes it easier for them to see how VISUAL Control for Jobs is helping them. It can also help them to decide how they need to customize the VISUAL Control for Jobs settings.

Exceptions
If you want to make some special or critical processes to be untouched, even if these processes are abusing the system. To take account of this, VISUAL Control for Jobs has many different type of exceptions: by user, job, job name, program or subsystem. This allow you to fully control the performance of you AS/400 according to your specific requirements.

User Exceptions
If you want to protect a user from the Dynamic Supervisor penalizations, you will need to make a User exception (WRKUSRATR command). All the jobs launched as Special Users
will run in a protected mode and will never be changed by the Dynamic Supervisor. In the same way, some users can be defined as Restricted Users, to ensure that they never abuse
resources. These users have limits set to the amount of CPU that they can use.

Job Exceptions
If you have some jobs or programs that are considered urgent and do not want these tasks to be penalized, you can protect them by using a Job Exception (SETEXCPT command). A program, or part of a program, can be protected automatically by inserting a SETEXCPT just before the CALL to the program that will be run protected, and a RMVEXCPT after the CALL, in the corresponding CL or MENU program.  To protect a n interactive job, use option 21 of the WRKJOBL command. To see a list of currently protected jobs, use the WRKEXCPT command.

Other Exceptions
Other exceptions, i.e. by job name, program or subsystem – work in a similar way. Exceptions
can be set using generic names, so you can for instance put an exception for all jobs with the
name "INVOI*", which will put an exception on all of the invoicing jobs, for example INVOICE1,
INCOICE2 etc.

The SOS command ignores exceptions!
The SOS command does change protected jobs, and jobs of Special Users. Use the SOS
command as a last resort to restore a good response in case a protected job abuses the
system.

VISUAL Control for Jobs vs. IBM Performance Tools
As you have surely noticed, VISUAL Control for Jobs is much more than just a tool that produces reports about performance. However, it does produce useful charts (every customer love them) about immediate CPU usage (PULSE utility), historical CPU usage and workload reports and charts. Some of this data can also be obtained with products such as IBM Performance Tools.

Performance Analysis is an additional feature, not the main feature, but the data that is obtained is important data, and the reports are easy to obtain and read, not to mention the charts. The ANZCHGJOB is in fact a unique tool to detect the abusing programs and tasks, simply by analyzing the changes that VISUAL Control for Jobs makes.

Many customers do not know what IBM Performance Tools are or how they work, and these tools are rather expensive and the data is often difficult to interpret. They are not very popular. The simplicity of using VISUAL Control for Jobs to collect performance data means that we are delivering a benefit you can use even if your not a System Engineer.

VISUAL Control for Windows and the Graphical Analyzer offers more sophisticated graphical analysis of performance data, so you should always consider VISUAL Control for Windows if you are interested in creating performance data graphs. There are also many other software products which offer Performance Analysis, but we are concerned about performance management and tuning here.

VISUAL Control for Jobs vs. More Hardware or an Upgrade
If you are planning to add more memory or disk as a way to improve your AS/400 performance, than you are only postponing the problems.  Your performance bottlenecks will still exist.  Placing silly puddy in a crack only temporarily solves the problem.  VISUAL Control for Jobs is the only way to be sure that the system will be available even at peak hours (performance bottlenecks won’t disappear even if you add more memory!) 

No matter how much hardware you purchase to increase performance, you will always have a big job stopping other jobs from using the CPU, and the problems will still exist. The system needs to be correctly balanced and optimized.  The price of VISUAL Control for Jobs is usually relatively small compared to the price of a hardware upgrade, and could be included on the same budget request.