Introduction

Imagine having a powerful BMC software solution at your fingertips, but you’re unsure how to maximize its full potential. You’re not alone! Many businesses struggle with implementation, adoption, and ongoing optimization. The good news? BMC’s Success Subscriptions provide a tailored approach to ensure you get the most value from your investment.

What Are BMC Success Subscriptions?

Success Subscriptions are designed to help organizations seamlessly integrate, optimize, and leverage BMC software solutions. Whether you need hands-on technical expertise, guided skill development, advisory support, or goal tracking, these subscriptions offer a flexible and scalable way to achieve your business objectives.

Why Success Subscriptions Matter

Adopting new technology isn’t just about having the right tools—it’s about ensuring your team knows how to implement, use, and advance those tools effectively.

Success Subscriptions provide:

• Hands-on technical expertise for smooth implementation.
• Assessments & best practices to refine processes.
• Advisory guidance to align technology with business goals.
• Education & training to empower teams with essential skills.
• Success Credits that allow businesses to tailor services to their evolving needs.

Maximizing Your Subscription Benefits

To make the most of your Success Subscription:

1. Define Your Goals – Work with your BMC team to outline key business objectives.
2. Plan Strategically – Use Success Credits to prioritize services that drive impact.
3. Evolve & Adapt – Regularly assess your progress and adjust your approach.

What Clients Are Saying

Customers appreciate the subscription-based model’s flexibility. One user noted, “The administrative simplicity of using Success Credits has saved us valuable hours that would have been spent on scope modifications and legal reviews.”

Final Thoughts

BMC Success Subscriptions are more than just a support package—they are a strategic investment in long-term success. By leveraging expert guidance, flexible credits, and ongoing training, businesses can drive meaningful outcomes with their BMC solutions. Ready to unlock the full potential of your software? Explore your Success Subscription options today!

For more information, visit BMC Success Subscriptions.

                                                                    February 14, 2025    

Dear Customer,

BMC is writing to you today as a customer of the BMC AMI Storage UPSTREAM for z/OS Server product.

Effective today and according to terms set out on BMC’s Customer Support site (https://www.bmc.com/support/resources/bmc-product-support-policy.html), BMC is announcing the End of Life for the BMC AMI Storage UPSTREAM for z/OS Server product offering.

BMC will continue to provide Limited Support for the current generally available versions of the BMC AMI Storage UPSTREAM product family as defined in the Product End of Life section of the BMC Product Support Policy until the end of support date of December 31, 2029. As per this policy, BMC will continue to develop hot fixes for problems of high technical impact; however, the product is considered functionally stabilized, and therefore, will not receive further enhancements during this period. There will be a period of up to seven years beyond the End of Life date where customers will be able to restore data backups created prior to December 31, 2029.

Effective today and until the End-of-Life date of December 31, 2029, BMC will provide customers with active support contracts the ability to access BMC Customer Support as described in this letter.

If you have any questions regarding this transition, please contact your BMC Account Manager at 1-855-834-7487 and press Option 1 for Sales, or BMC Customer Support at 1-800-537-1813. To receive updated information as it becomes available, please subscribe to our Proactive Alerts from our BMC Support Central site.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Matt Whitbourne

Vice President, Product Management

BMC Software

At BMC Community, we take immense pride in the dedication and hard work of our employees. Every day, they go above and beyond to support our customers and partners, ensuring seamless experiences, solving challenges, and delivering exceptional service. Their commitment forms the backbone of our success.

Now, we want to take a moment to recognize and celebrate their efforts – and we would love for you to join us!

An Opportunity to Say ‘Thank You’

Have you had a memorable interaction with one of our employees? Did someone go the extra mile to assist you? It can be from any team within BMC. Whether it was a kind gesture, timely support, or an innovative solution that made a difference, we invite you to share your gratitude.

Your words of appreciation mean the world to our employees and serve as a powerful motivator, reminding them of the impact they create daily.

How You Can Participate?

We have made it easy for you to express your appreciation:

1) Comment Below: Share your thank-you note in the comments section below.

For example: "I want to express my gratitude to Adriana in CSM team for her exceptional assistance with my error issue. Her patience and expertise were invaluable." Thank you Adriana 😊

2) Social Media Shoutout: If you would like to give the shoutout on social media.  Post your gratitude using #ThankyouBMC on social platforms.

Why It Matters?

A simple ‘thank you’ can brighten someone’s day and reaffirm their dedication. Recognizing the people who make a difference fosters a culture of appreciation, motivation, and stronger relationships between our employees, customers, and partners.

So, take a moment to acknowledge those who have helped you—it makes all the difference.

We can’t wait to hear your stories of appreciation!

The BMC Community thrives on the active participation and valuable contributions of its members. This blog post shines a spotlight on our top 10 contributors – individuals who have consistently gone above and beyond to make a positive impact on our community.

These dedicated members have consistently provided insightful answers, shared valuable expertise, and fostered a supportive environment for all. Their contributions have not only helped other members find solutions and overcome challenges but have also enriched the overall knowledge base of the BMC Community.

Meet Our Top 10 Contributors:

1) Carl Wilson: 250633

2) Jason Miller: 205114

3) Stefan Hall: 204513

4) Mohammad Rehman: 179901

5) Ganesh Gore :143451

6) Nicolas Roome: 114316

7) Anne Brock : 112706

8) Marek Ceizel: 106409

9) Paul Donders: 105144

10) Mark Francome: 104804

Get Involved

Are you inspired by these community champions?

Here’s how you can make an impact:

• Share your unique experiences and solutions.
• Engage with questions and discussions.
• Document and share your successful implementations.
• Participate in community events.
• Mentor others in your areas of expertise.

Remember, every expert was once a beginner. Your contributions, no matter how small, add immense value to the collective knowledge of our community.

This blog celebrates just a few of the many exceptional contributors to our community. To all BMC Community members, thank you for making this space a global hub of learning and collaboration!

We would love to see YOU in the next Top 10 :)Start your contribution now!

Introduction

Managing Kubernetes clusters efficiently requires the right approach and utilities. While we provide our own Support Assistant tool for log collection and analysis in Innovation Suite, other solutions can also help simplify cluster management. However, it’s important not to become overly reliant on open-source tools. In environments with stringent security or compliance requirements, certain utilities may not be permitted. For this reason, mastering essential Kubernetes commands is crucial to ensure you can manage clusters effectively, regardless of the available resources.

This guide highlights some of the most valuable utilities I’ve found particularly useful for managing Helix on-premises deployments. Ultimately, the choice depends on your specific requirements and environment. However, for those operating Kubernetes without a managed platform, the following tools provide essential support.

BMC Support Assistant Tool

Out of the box, BMC Helix Innovation Suite includes the Support Assistant Tool, designed to help administrators view and collect logs for service management applications. To download logs from a specific directory, go to the Directories tab, click the download icon next to the directory name, and the logs will be downloaded as a ZIP file locally.

Note: Starting from version 25.1 of ITOM/Helix Platform Common Services, you can integrate with external logging systems such as Splunk, as well as external Elasticsearch, Fluent Bit, and Kibana (EFK) stacks. See the Resources section below for more details.

Thread Dumps

Thread dumps provide a snapshot of all active threads, including their states, call stacks, and resource locks, helping to identify deadlocks and performance bottlenecks, To download a thread dump, go to the Download Thread Dump column and click the download icon next to the corresponding container process.

K9S

K9s is an open-source, terminal-based UI client designed to interact with Kubernetes clusters. It provides an intuitive interface to quickly view pod metrics, inspect container logs, and manage Kubernetes resources efficiently.

Before installing K9s, ensure that your system has curl and bash installed:

curl -sS https://webi.sh/k9s | sh

source ~/.config/envman/PATH.env

To launch K9s from the command line, type k9s in lowercase:

k9s

This opens the tool in the default namespace, and you can switch to another namespace by selecting the number from the menu.

To run K9s in a given namespace, use the -n option.

k9s -n helixis

Hit the “esc” button followed by “:” on your keyboard and type in the K8s object name you’d like to browse to then hit the “Enter” button. In this example, nodes have been selected and we can see resource consumption.

Hit “Enter” again to view pods running on a particular node.

To gain a deeper understanding into a pod’s state and troubleshoot issues, simply hit the "d" button to describe the pod. This will show detailed information about the pod’s configuration, status, container logs, events (including warnings), resource usage, and any errors that might help identify problems. It’s particularly useful when you need to investigate why a pod is failing, restarting, or having trouble pulling images. To return to the main screen, press the "Esc" button again.

To log into the container’s shell, highlight the row you’re interested in.

Now, hit the "s" button to log into the container. From here, you can explore directories, check logs, and inspect files within the container. This is especially useful for investigating runtime issues, checking application logs, or troubleshooting configuration problems directly within the container environment.

To exit the container, simply type "exit". Then, highlight a container row and hit the "l" button to view the standard output logs. This will allow you to quickly access the logs generated by the container, helping you monitor its activity, identify errors, or trace application behavior.

Pod events in Kubernetes are log entries that provide information about the lifecycle of a pod and its containers. These events capture various actions or state changes, such as scheduling, creation, updates, failures, and terminations. In K9s, to view all pod events within a namespace, simply hit "Esc", type ":" followed by "events", and press Enter.

Kubens

Kubens simplifies switching between Kubernetes namespaces without the need to use the -n flag in every command. The following steps cover installation on Linux.

wget https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx/releases/download/v0.9.4/kubens_v0.9.4_linux_x86_64.tar.gz

tar -xvf kubens_v0.9.4_linux_x86_64.tar.gz

mv kubens /usr/local/bin/

Examples, set the default namespace to helixis

$ kubens helixis

Active namespace is "helixis ".

For every subsequent kubectl command, objects only from this namespace will be returned.

# Switch back to the previously used namespace

$ kubens –   

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a powerful IDE that, while similar to K9s in managing Kubernetes resources, offers a different set of capabilities that I personally find useful. One key advantage of VS Code is its ability to easily download specific log files, making it a great tool for extracting and analyzing logs outside the Kubernetes environment. Additionally, with the YAML extension, VS Code ensures proper indentation when working with Kubernetes resource configurations. This can help prevent deployment errors caused by incorrect YAML syntax, which is especially helpful when making customizations or creating resources from scratch.

1. Download and install Visual Studio & 7-Zip
2. Download and extract the Windows kubectl client from the “\kubernetes-client-windows-386.tar\kubernetes\client\bin” tar folder using 7-zip.
3. Move the kubectl binary to “C:/windows/system32”.
4. Open a command prompt and create a .kube directory under the %USERPROFILE% folder.
5. Copy the K8s config file from the .kube directory on the bastion host to the local .kube directory on your windows box.

In Visual Studio Code, click the “extensions” button on the left panel, type Kubernetes and install the Kubernetes extension followed by “Install dependencies”.

Click on the cluster on the top left.

Right click and select “Use Namespace” to view objects.

Move to the Workloads section and select the pod you’re interested in. To view the standard output logs, click the Logs button to the right of the pod’s name, then click the Run button. You can also optionally search for a specific keyword or error within the logs to narrow down your search and troubleshoot more effectively.

Click the download button on the log file and choose the download location. For example, when we download an rsso log file, Visual Studio Code will automatically run this Kubernetes command in the background.

kubectl cp helix-platform/rsso-7f45447c49-fqbt6:/usr/local/tomcat/logs/rsso.log rsso.log -c rsso

Kube-capacity

Kube-capacity is a Kubernetes plugin that provides valuable insights into resource utilization across your clusters. It helps you understand the resource consumption patterns of your Kubernetes nodes and pods, giving you an easy way to track memory and CPU usage in real time. This tool is especially useful for optimizing resource allocation, identifying potential bottlenecks, and ensuring efficient scaling for your workloads.

To install kube-capacity, ensure that Git is installed, then run the following commands:

(

set -x; cd "$(mktemp -d)" &&

OS="$(uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" &&

ARCH="$(uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/')" &&

KREW="krew-${OS}_${ARCH}" &&

curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/latest/download/${KREW}.tar.gz" &&

tar zxvf "${KREW}.tar.gz" &&

./"${KREW}" install krew

)

Next, add the $HOME/.krew/bin directory to your PATH environment variable. To do this, update your .bashrc or .zshrc file and append the following line:

export PATH="${KREW_ROOT:-$HOME/.krew}/bin:$PATH"

Now run the following command:

kubectl krew install resource-capacity

With kube-capacity, you can quickly assess:

• Node Resource Usage: See how much CPU and memory are being utilized on each node.
• Pod Resource Consumption: Understand the resource demands of each pod, including usage trends.
• Resource Over-commitment: Identify areas where you may have over-committed resources, leading to inefficiencies or potential issues.

For example:

Conclusion

Managing Kubernetes clusters effectively requires the right combination of tools and techniques. While tools like k9s, Visual Studio Code, Kube-Capacity and the BMC Support Assistant provide valuable insights into your cluster’s health and resources, it’s important to remain familiar with the core Kubernetes commands and concepts that can help you troubleshoot and resolve issues directly.

The use of logs, events, and thread dumps can significantly simplify your debugging and performance analysis. Whether you’re using command-line tools or leveraging powerful IDEs, staying flexible in your approach will ensure that you can manage your clusters efficiently, even in the most complex environments.

Ultimately, the key is balancing between automation tools and a good understanding of Kubernetes’ internal workings which comes with experience.

Resources

BMC Helix Innovation Suite - Support Assistant Tool

BMC Helix Documentation

External Logging Solutions

Bring your own logging

K9s

Official GitHub page to explore the project, report issues, and access installation instructions.

K9s GitHub Repository

Complete documentation for K9s, including advanced usage and configuration options.

K9s Documentation

Kubens

Kubens GitHub Repository

Official repository for both Kubens and Kubectx, tools for managing Kubernetes namespaces and contexts.

Kubens Quick Start Guide

Visual Studio Code for Kubernetes

Visual Studio Code Official Website

Kube-capacity

Github page

Knowledge Share Wednesday

In today's world, usually enterprises runs on multiple platforms, each chosen for its unique strengths. While your z/OS mainframe continues to power mission-critical operations with unmatched reliability, Windows and Linux systems drive innovation and modern applications. But how do you make these diverse systems work together seamlessly? 

Enter BMC AMI Common Enterprise Services (CES) – your bridge to unified enterprise operations. Install CES on z/OS and access it from a z/OS, Windows, or Linux systems. Let's explore how CES transforms common business challenges into opportunities for growth. 

Real-time Excellence 

Imagine your administrators having instant access to your CES application and residing data, regardless of where it's stored. One of our clients faced this exact challenge—their core transactions lived in z/OS, while their administrators using Windows. CES created a seamless connection, enabling: 

• Real-time access to CES, data and configurations across all platforms 
• Instant visibility into logs and support files 
• Unified customer experience across all touchpoints 
• Access to all integrated web-poducts like Code Pipeline, iStrobe, Abend-AID, Security session monitor and Total Test 

Making Data-Driven Decisions Simple  

When your critical business data lives in different systems, getting a complete picture can feel impossible. CES changes this by: 

• Consolidating data from z/OS, Linux, and Windows into unified reports 
• Providing real-time access to business insights 
• Enabling instant data analysis across all platforms by using iStrobe 

Simplifying Security Management 

Managing security across multiple platforms shouldn't keep you awake at night. CES provides a single, powerful solution for: 

• Unified access control policies for the users 
• Centralized certificate management 
• Streamlined compliance reporting 
• Comprehensive security logging and user sessions 

Modernizing Without the Headache  

Want to modernize your applications without disrupting existing operations? CES makes it possible by: 

• Providing standardized APIs for accessing z/OS capabilities 
• Enabling modern development teams to integrate with mainframe systems 
• Preserving the reliability of your core systems while enabling innovation 

The Business Impact  

By implementing CES, organizations typically have: 

• Access to web-based UI rather than the green screens 
• Reduced operational complexity 
• Enhanced security compliance 
• Accelerated application modernization 
• Improved decision-making capabilities 

In today's fast-paced business environment, the ability to seamlessly integrate all your platforms isn't just nice to have—it's essential for staying competitive. CES provides the foundation you need to unify your enterprise systems, modernize at your own pace, and deliver exceptional experiences to both customers and employees.