Episode 16 “Chapter and Worse”

Here are the show notes for Episode 16 “Chapter and Worse”. The show is called this because our Topics topic is about adding chapter markers (and pictures!) to our published MP3 file. We hope those of you that can see them enjoy them.

Where we’ve been

Marna has just returned from conferences and events in Johannesburg ZA, Chicago IL, and Munich Germany.

Martin has been to Munich Germany, and also visited a customer in Siena Italy.

Feedback

We have received feedback (in person, in Munich!) that our stereo separation of the channels
was a little dizzying. Martin will be trying to make it less severe to relieve this
effect.

Thanks for the feedback; We want to hear more!

Follow Up

Martin and Marna talked to the developers of the DocBuddy app, about their new release.

The latest release is 2.0.1, and has added a lot of social aspects (and fixed reported problems). The ability
to look up messages is still there, but z/OS V2.3 isn’t there yet. We anticipate it will be coming soon, though, as
it is important.

You can sign into the app (very easy to do!), and subscribe to Products and People, and discover them. People
are “Influencers” and can be subscribed to. Products doesn’t include all the core z/OS elements,
but Communications Server is there and has been active.

Feedback can be given, it’s an email under “Settings”, which took us a while to find.

Mainframe

Our “Mainframe” topic discusses a new z/OS V2.3 function, Coupling Facility Encryption, with Mark Brooks,
Sysplex Design and Development. Mark talked about this latest capability in Sysplex, which has been
getting a lot of attention as part of the larger Pervasive Encryption direction.

Mark explained that CF Encryption means that the customer’s data is encrypted by XCF
in z/OS, sent along the link as encrypted, and stored as encrypted on the Coupling Facility.

z/OS sysprog needs to set it up by:

• using new keywords on CFRM policy on a structure by structure basis
• putting it in your CFRM couple data sets, and the policy change will be pending
• rebuild the struture (to get it from unencyrpted to encrypted)
• DISPLAY XCF structure commands can be used to see what the policy
  has, what the structure currently is, and the form of encryption used.

List and Cache structures contain customer sensitive data, the XCF control
information will not be encrypted because it is not sensitive customer data. Lock
structures don’t contain sensitive customer data, and are not encryptable.

Software requirements:

• z/OS V2.3. Strongly recommend not using CF encryption in production until fully at z/OS V2.3.
• ICSF. Need to have ICSF to generate keys and talk to the crypto
  cards. Every system in sysplex needs to be running with the same AES master key
  (meaning, same PKDS), note this requirement!
• XCF generates the key from ICSF services and stores that wrapped key inside the CFRM
  couple data set.

Hardware requirements:

• CPACF
• Encryption is performance sensitive, because it is extra work to encrypt and decrypt.
  You want it to be executed quickly. Encryption is host-based, and zEC12 has these
  facilities, however the older machines are not as fast as a z14. Take that into consideration.

Tooling:

• zBNA looks at new SMF data, so that you can see the amount of data transferred to the CF. From there, you could judge the cost of doing the encryption.
• SMF 74 Subtype 4 records contain the new information on the amount of data, via measurement APAR OA51879 on z/OS
  V2.2. Planning can begin on z/OS V2.2 with this APAR.

For more information, see the z/OS Setting Up a Sysplex.

Performance

Martin talked about MSU-related CPU fields for doing software pricing analysis. Some of these fields are used by SCRT in support of the new Mobile function.

Most notably the fields cover:

• Mobile Workload Pricing (MOBILE), using a new WLM mechanism, is available to many customers today. (The old way of doing Mobile Workload Pricing has been around for quite a long time.)
  Note a misrecording of IMS Mobile CPU at the Service Class Period level, which is fixed in IMS V15 APAR PI84889 and IMS V14 APAR PI84838.
• CATEGORYA and CATEGORYB: These are just placeholders for any future additional pricing options that come about.

These categories of CPU/MSUs are brought to life using the Workload Manager ISPF panels, using a new reporting attribute. You scroll twice to the right to get there. The values in the field can be MOBILE, CATEGORYA, or CATEGORYB.

Container Pricing is another pricing model, ….., and maybe another topic on that later.

The overall idea: Be aware of the new fields that you will be analysing. These fields are available at two levels:

• At the System level, as Rolling 4 Hour Average numbers – in SMF 70 Subtype 1.
• At the Service Class Period level, as interval-based numbers – in SMF 72 Subtype 3.

Topics

Our podcast “Topics” topic is about adding chapter markers to the MP3 file for podcast apps. This
makes it nice to skip from one section to another easily. Our podcast has five
sections, each with its own graphic and chapter.

Copyright on the MP3 specification expired finally in 2017, allowing more things to be done with the format. Chapters is one of them.

Martin adds the chapter markers into the MP3 file after doing the audio editing with Audacity. He then takes the MP3 file, and runs it into another tool on iOS called Ferrite. Audacity doesn’t have the ability to mark chapters (or to add the graphics), but Ferrite does. Hence it has to be processed with this second program to give the final MP3 chapters and graphics! (Ferrite was among the first tools to support Chapter Markers, with or without graphics.)

On Martin’s iOS podcast app, Overcast, he sees the chapter markers and graphics fine.

Marna uses Android and CastBox, in which she cannot see them. She then tried another Android app, PodcastAddict, which claimed to have chapter support, and yet she still doesn’t see them. So it goes. Your browser does not support the audio element.

Some more Podcasts by IBM developerWorks TV

40+ Episodes

The New Buil ..