Question

Is it possible to change SQL in a z/OS mainframe COBOL application so that it becomes eligible to be directed to the IBM System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP)?

Answer 1

An important distinction to make is that according to IBM, zIIP is only available for “eligible database workloads”, and those “eligible” loads are mostly targeted for large BI/ERP/CRM solutions that run on distributed servers, which are connecting through DDF (Distributed Data Facility) over TCP/IP.

IBM has a list of DB2 workloads that can utilize zIIP. These include:

• DDF server threads that process SQL requests from applications that
  access DB2 by TCP/IP (up to 60%)
• Parallel child processes. A portion of each
  child process executes under a dependent enclave SRB if it processes
  on behalf of an application that originated from an allied address
  space, or under an independent enclave SRB if the processing is
  performed on behalf of a remote application that accesses DB2 by
  TCP/IP. The enclave priority is inherited from the invoking allied
  address space for a dependent enclave or from the main DDF server
  thread enclave classification for an independent enclave. (Versions up
  to 11 allowed 80% to run on zIIP, v12 upped this to 100% eligible).
• Utility index build and maintenance processes for the LOAD, REORG, and
  REBUILD INDEX utilities.

And if you’re on DB2 v10, you can also use zIIP with:

• Remote native SQL procedures.
• XML Schema validation and non-validation parsing.
• DB2 utility functions for maintaining index structures.
• Certain portions of processing for the RUNSTATS utility.
• Prefetch and deferred write processing for the DB2 buffer pool

Version 11 added the following:

• Asynchronous enclave SRBs (service request blocks) that execute in the
  Db2 ssnmMSTR, ssnmDBM1 and ssnmDIST address spaces, with the exception
  of p-lock negotiation processing. These processes include Db2 buffer pool
  processing for prefetch, deferred write, page set castout, log read, and
  log write processing. Additional eligible processes include index
  pseudo-delete and XML multi version document cleanup processing.

Version 12 allowed parallel child tasks to go 100% to zIIP after a certain threshold of CPU usage.

So, if you’re using COBOL programs, it would appear that IBM does not intend for you to use zIIP with these workloads. You can still take advantage of zIIP with utilites (LOAD, REORG), and some steps of the RUNSTATS utility, so it may still be worthwhile to have some zIIP.