Download or read book Installing and Configuring IBM Db2 AI for IBM z OS v1 4 0 written by Tim Hogan and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artificial intelligence (AI) enables computers and machines to mimic the perception, learning, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. AI development is made possible by the availability of large amounts of data and the corresponding development and wide availability of computer systems that can process all that data faster and more accurately than humans can. What happens if you infuse AI with a world-class database management system, such as IBM Db2®? IBM® has done just that with Db2 AI for z/OS (Db2ZAI). Db2ZAI is built to infuse AI and data science to assist businesses in the use of AI to develop applications more easily. With Db2ZAI, the following benefits are realized: Data science functionality Better built applications Improved database performance (and DBA's time and efforts are saved) through simplification and automation of error reporting and routine tasks Machine learning (ML) optimizer to improve query access paths and reduce the need for manual tuning and query optimization Integrated data access that makes data available from various vendors including private cloud providers. This IBM Redpaper® publication helps to simplify your installation by tailoring and configuration of Db2 AI for z/OS®. It was written for system programmers, system administrators, and database administrators.

Download or read book Installing and Configuring IBM Db2 AI for IBM Z OS V1 4 0 written by Tim Hogan and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artificial intelligence (AI) enables computers and machines to mimic the perception, learning, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. AI development is made possible by the availability of large amounts of data and the corresponding development and wide availability of computer systems that can process all that data faster and more accurately than humans can. What happens if you infuse AI with a world-class database management system, such as IBM Db2®? IBM® has done just that with Db2 AI for z/OS (Db2ZAI). Db2ZAI is built to infuse AI and data science to assist businesses in the use of AI to develop applications more easily. With Db2ZAI, the following benefits are realized: Data science functionality Better built applications Improved database performance (and DBA's time and efforts are saved) through simplification and automation of error reporting and routine tasks Machine learning (ML) optimizer to improve query access paths and reduce the need for manual tuning and query optimization Integrated data access that makes data available from various vendors including private cloud providers. This IBM Redpaper® publication helps to simplify your installation by tailoring and configuration of Db2 AI for z/OS®. It was written for system programmers, system administrators, and database administrators.

Download or read book Optimized Inferencing and Integration with AI on IBM zSystems Introduction Methodology and Use Cases written by Makenzie Manna and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today's fast-paced, ever-growing digital world, you face various new and complex business problems. To help resolve these problems, enterprises are embedding artificial intelligence (AI) into their mission-critical business processes and applications to help improve operations, optimize performance, personalize the user experience, and differentiate themselves from the competition. Furthermore, the use of AI on the IBM® zSystems platform, where your mission-critical transactions, data, and applications are installed, is a key aspect of modernizing business-critical applications while maintaining strict service-level agreements (SLAs) and security requirements. This colocation of data and AI empowers your enterprise to optimally and easily deploy and infuse AI capabilities into your enterprise workloads with the most recent and relevant data available in real time, which enables a more transparent, accurate, and dependable AI experience. This IBM Redpaper publication introduces and explains AI technologies and hardware optimizations, and demonstrates how to leverage certain capabilities and components to enable AI solutions in business-critical use cases, such as fraud detection and credit risk scoring, on the platform. Real-time inferencing with AI models, a capability that is critical to certain industries and use cases, now can be implemented with optimized performance thanks to innovations like IBM zSystems Integrated Accelerator for AI embedded in the Telum chip within IBM z16TM. This publication describes and demonstrates the implementation and integration of the two end-to-end solutions (fraud detection and credit risk), from developing and training the AI models to deploying the models in an IBM z/OS® V2R5 environment on IBM z16 hardware, and integrating AI functions into an application, for example an IBM z/OS Customer Information Control System (IBM CICS®) application. We describe performance optimization recommendations and considerations when leveraging AI technology on the IBM zSystems platform, including optimizations for micro-batching in IBM Watson® Machine Learning for z/OS. The benefits that are derived from the solutions also are described in detail, including how the open-source AI framework portability of the IBM zSystems platform enables model development and training to be done anywhere, including on IBM zSystems, and enables easy integration to deploy on IBM zSystems for optimal inferencing. Thus, allowing enterprises to uncover insights at the transaction-level while taking advantage of the speed, depth, and securability of the platform. This publication is intended for technical specialists, site reliability engineers, architects, system programmers, and systems engineers. Technologies that are covered include TensorFlow Serving, WMLz, IBM Cloud Pak® for Data (CP4D), IBM z/OS Container Extensions (zCX), IBM CICS, Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), and IBM Deep Learning Compiler (zDLC).

Download or read book DB2 11 for z OS Technical Overview written by Paolo Bruni and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-05-05 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IBM® DB2® Version 11.1 for z/OS® (DB2 11 for z/OS or just DB2 11 throughout this book) is the fifteenth release of DB2 for IBM MVSTM. It brings performance and synergy with the IBM System z® hardware and opportunities to drive business value in the following areas. DB2 11 can provide unmatched reliability, availability, and scalability - Improved data sharing performance and efficiency - Less downtime by removing growth limitations - Simplified management, improved autonomics, and reduced planned outages DB2 11 can save money and save time - Aggressive CPU reduction goals - Additional utilities performance and CPU improvements - Save time and resources with new autonomic and application development capabilities DB2 11 provides simpler, faster migration - SQL compatibility, divorce system migration from application migration - Access path stability improvements - Better application performance with SQL and XML enhancements DB2 11 includes enhanced business analytics - Faster, more efficient performance for query workloads - Accelerator enhancements - More efficient inline database scoring enables predictive analytics The DB2 11 environment is available either for new installations of DB2 or for migrations from DB2 10 for z/OS subsystems only. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the enhancements made available with DB2 11 for z/OS. The contents help database administrators to understand the new functions and performance enhancements, to plan for ways to use the key new capabilities, and to justify the investment in installing or migrating to DB2 11.

Download or read book IBM Integrated Synchronization Incremental Updates Unleashed written by Christian Michel and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2021-01-27 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The IBM® Db2® Analytics Accelerator (Accelerator) is a logical extension of Db2 for IBM z/OS® that provides a high-speed query engine that efficiently and cost-effectively runs analytics workloads. The Accelerator is an integrated back-end component of Db2 for z/OS. Together, they provide a hybrid workload-optimized database management system that seamlessly manages queries that are found in transactional workloads to Db2 for z/OS and queries that are found in analytics applications to Accelerator. Each query runs in its optimal environment for maximum speed and cost efficiency. The incremental update function of Db2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS updates Accelerator-shadow tables continually. Changes to the data in original Db2 for z/OS tables are propagated to the corresponding target tables with a high frequency and a brief delay. Query results from Accelerator are always extracted from recent, close-to-real-time data. An incremental update capability that is called IBM InfoSphere® Change Data Capture (InfoSphere CDC) is provided by IBM InfoSphere Data Replication for z/OS up to Db2 Analytics Accelerator V7.5. Since then, an extra new replication protocol between Db2 for z/OS and Accelerator that is called IBM Integrated Synchronization was introduced. With Db2 Analytics Accelerator V7.5, customers can choose which one to use. IBM Integrated Synchronization is a built-in product feature that you use to set up incremental updates. It does not require InfoSphere CDC, which is bundled with IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator. In addition, IBM Integrated Synchronization has more advantages: Simplified administration, packaging, upgrades, and support. These items are managed as part of the Db2 for z/OS maintenance stream. Updates are processed quickly. Reduced CPU consumption on the mainframe due to a streamlined, optimized design where most of the processing is done on the Accelerator. This situation provides reduced latency. Uses IBM Z® Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) on Db2 for z/OS, which leads to reduced CPU costs on IBM Z and better overall performance data, such as throughput and synchronized rows per second. On z/OS, the workload to capture the table changes was reduced, and the remainder can be handled by zIIPs. With the introduction of an enterprise-grade Hybrid Transactional Analytics Processing (HTAP) enabler that is also known as the Wait for Data protocol, the integrated low latency protocol is now enabled to support more analytical queries running against the latest committed data. IBM Db2 for z/OS Data Gate simplifies delivering data from IBM Db2 for z/OS to IBM Cloud® Pak® for Data for direct access by new applications. It uses the special-purpose integrated synchronization protocol to maintain data currency with low latency between Db2 for z/OS and dedicated target databases on IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

Download or read book Turning Data into Insight with IBM Machine Learning for z OS written by Samantha Buhler and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The exponential growth in data over the last decade coupled with a drastic drop in cost of storage has enabled organizations to amass a large amount of data. This vast data becomes the new natural resource that these organizations must tap in to innovate and stay ahead of the competition, and they must do so in a secure environment that protects the data throughout its lifecyle and data access in real time at any time. When it comes to security, nothing can rival IBM® Z, the multi-workload transactional platform that powers the core business processes of the majority of the Fortune 500 enterprises with unmatched security, availability, reliability, and scalability. With core transactions and data originating on IBM Z, it simply makes sense for analytics to exist and run on the same platform. For years, some businesses chose to move their sensitive data off IBM Z to platforms that include data lakes, Hadoop, and warehouses for analytics processing. However, the massive growth of digital data, the punishing cost of security exposures as well as the unprecedented demand for instant actionable intelligence from data in real time have convinced them to rethink that decision and, instead, embrace the strategy of data gravity for analytics. At the core of data gravity is the conviction that analytics must exist and run where the data resides. An IBM client eloquently compares this change in analytics strategy to a shift from "moving the ocean to the boat to moving the boat to the ocean," where the boat is the analytics and the ocean is the data. IBM respects and invests heavily on data gravity because it recognizes the tremendous benefits that data gravity can deliver to you, including reduced cost and minimized security risks. IBM Machine Learning for z/OS® is one of the offerings that decidedly move analytics to Z where your mission-critical data resides. In the inherently secure Z environment, your machine learning scoring services can co-exist with your transactional applications and data, supporting high throughput and minimizing response time while delivering consistent service level agreements (SLAs). This book introduces Machine Learning for z/OS version 1.1.0 and describes its unique value proposition. It provides step-by-step guidance for you to get started with the program, including best practices for capacity planning, installation and configuration, administration and operation. Through a retail example, the book shows how you can use the versatile and intuitive web user interface to quickly train, build, evaluate, and deploy a model. Most importantly, it examines use cases across industries to illustrate how you can easily turn your massive data into valuable insights with Machine Learning for z/OS.

Download or read book Apache Spark Implementation on IBM z OS written by Lydia Parziale and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-08-13 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term big data refers to extremely large sets of data that are analyzed to reveal insights, such as patterns, trends, and associations. The algorithms that analyze this data to provide these insights must extract value from a wide range of data sources, including business data and live, streaming, social media data. However, the real value of these insights comes from their timeliness. Rapid delivery of insights enables anyone (not only data scientists) to make effective decisions, applying deep intelligence to every enterprise application. Apache Spark is an integrated analytics framework and runtime to accelerate and simplify algorithm development, depoyment, and realization of business insight from analytics. Apache Spark on IBM® z/OS® puts the open source engine, augmented with unique differentiated features, built specifically for data science, where big data resides. This IBM Redbooks® publication describes the installation and configuration of IBM z/OS Platform for Apache Spark for field teams and clients. Additionally, it includes examples of business analytics scenarios.

Download or read book Using IBM z OS WLM to Measure Mobile and Other Workloads written by IBM Client Center Montpellier and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This IBM® RedpaperTM publication discusses the need to monitor and measure different workloads, especially mobile workloads. It introduces the workload classification capabilities of IBM z SystemsTM platforms and helps you to understand how recent enhancements to IBM MVSTM Workload Management (WLM) and other IBM software products can be used to measure the processor cost of mobile workloads. This paper looks at how mobile-initiated and other transactions in IBM CICS®, IMSTM, DB2®, and WebSphere® Application Server can be "tagged and tracked" using WLM. For each of these subsystems, the options for classifying mobile requests and using WLM to measure mobile workloads are reviewed. A scenario is considered in which a bank is witnessing a significant growth in mobile initiated transactions, and wants to monitor and measure the mobile channels more closely. This paper outlines how the bank can use WLM to do this. This publication can help you to configure WLM mobile classification rules. It can also help you to interpret Workload Activity reports from IBM RMFTM Post Processor and to report on the CPU consumption of different workloads, including mobile and public cloud workloads.

Download or read book Machine Learning with Business Rules on IBM Z Acting on Your Insights written by Mike Johnson and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2019-12-11 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Redpaper introduces the integration between two IBM products that you might like to consider when implementing a modern agile solution on your Z systems. The document briefly introduces Operational Decision Manager on z/OS and Machine learning on z/OS. In the case of Machine Learning we focus on the aspect of real-time scoring models and how these can be used with Business Rules to give better decisions. Note: Important changes since this document was written: This document was written for an older release of Operational Decision Manager for z/OS (ODM for z/OS). ODM for z/OS 8.9.1 required the writing of custom Java code to access a Watson Machine Learning for z/OS Scoring Service (this can be seen in ). Since that time ODM for z/OS version 8.10.1 has been released and much improves the integration experience. Integrating the two products no longer requires custom Java code. Using ODM for z/OS 8.10.1 or later you can use an automated wizard in the ODM tooling to: Browse and select a model from Watson Machine Learning Import the Machine Learning data model into your rule project Automatically generate a template rule that integrates a call to the Watson Machine Learning scoring service Download and read this document for: Individual introductions to ODM for z/OS and Machine learning Discussions on the benefits of using the two technologies together Information on integrating if you have not yet updated to ODM for z/OS 8.10.1 For information about the machine learning integration in ODM for z/OS 8.10.1 see IBM Watson Machine Learning for z/OS integration topic in the ODM for z/OS 8.10.x Knowledge Center

Download or read book An Introduction to z VM Single System Image SSI and Live Guest Relocation LGR written by Lydia Parziale and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IBM® z/VM® 6.2 introduces significant changes to z/VM in the form of multi-system clustering technology allowing up to four z/VM instances in a single system image (SSI) cluster. This technology is important, because it offers clients an attractive alternative to vertical growth by adding new z/VM systems. In the past, this capability required duplicate efforts to install, maintain, and manage each system. With SSI, these duplicate efforts are reduced or eliminated. Support for live guest relocation (LGR) allows you to move Linux virtual servers without disruption to the business, helping you to avoid planned outages. The z/VM systems are aware of each other and can take advantage of their combined resources. LGR enables clients to avoid loss of service due to planned outages by relocating guests from a system requiring maintenance to a system that remains active during the maintenance period. Together, the SSI and LGR technologies offer substantial client value, and they are a major departure from past z/VM practices. This IBM Redbooks® publication gives you a broad understanding of the new SSI architecture and an overview of LGR. We show an LGR example that shows a typical SAP user environment. In our example, the SAP Application Server Central Instance resides on a Linux on System z® guest and an IBM DB2® 10 database server runs on z/OS®. This book is written for IT architects, who design the systems, and IT specialists, who build the systems.

Download or read book DB2 9 for Z OS written by Paolo Bruni and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Locking is the generic term used to refer to the database management system function that is required for managing interprocess concurrency and maintaining data integrity. However, locking is just one of the serialization mechanisms available in IBM℗ʼ DB2℗ʼ for z/OS℗ʼ. DB2 uses different mechanisms for serialization to achieve its goal of maximizing concurrency without losing integrity with a minimum cost in CPU, I/O, and storage resources. In this IBM Redbooks℗ʼ publication, we review and explore the different serialization mechanisms used in DB2, such as transaction (DML) locking, claims and drains, restrictive states, latching, and optimistic serialization. This book was written for application developers in order to help them better understand serialization mechanisms and how they influence application design decisions.

Download or read book Turning Data Into Insight with IBM Machine Learning for Z OS written by Samantha Buhler and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Modernize Your IBM DB2 for IBM z OS Maintenance with Utility Autonomics written by Dean Brown and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IBM® DB2® for IBM z/OS® helps lower the cost of managing data by automating administration, increasing storage efficiency, improving performance, and simplifying the deployment of virtual appliances. By automating tasks such as memory allocation, storage management, and business policy maintenance, DB2 is able to perform many management tasks itself, freeing up Database Administrators to focus on new projects. This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces autonomics for DB2 for z/OS. IBM provides several different components that, when combined, can create an autonomic database environment. All these respective components cover certain aspects of autonomics, which can collaborate into one coherent solution. In our evolution of autonomics and the need to move to smarter systems there has been a bigger drive to the concept of "Active" versus "Passive" autonomics. With the inclusion of the IBM Management Console for IMSTM and DB2 for z/OS and the Autonomics Director, it is now easier than ever to make that transition by leveraging the strength of the DB2 Utilities Solution Pack for z/OS all in one standardized and centralized interface. This publication guides you through the business reasons for adopting autonomic solutions, and provides step-by-step guidance to implement these capabilities in your DB2 for z/OS configuration. This publication is of interest primarily to DB2 Database Administrators and DB2 Systems Programmers, and for anyone looking to understand the benefits of DB2 autonomic solutions.

Download or read book Integrating Db2 for z OS Database Changes Into a CI CD Pipeline written by Maryela Weihrauch and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The goal of this IBM® Redbooks® publication is to demonstrate the ability to perform single click automated deployments of multi-platform applications that include IBM Db2 for z/OS database schema changes by using the capabilities of IBM Db2 DevOps Experience for z/OS. Pushing the application and database code changes to a source control management system (SCM) triggers a single CI/CD pipeline execution for application and database changes. Therefore, it mitigates the dependency on the DBA to deploy those database changes in a separate process. At the same time, DBAs can safeguard the integrity of their organization's data by implementing site rules in Db2 DevOps Experience. DBAs define whether a schema change can be approved automatically after all site rules are satisfied or whether it must be approved manually. In this publication, we provide an overview of the CI/CD pipeline architecture in the context of a sample application. We also describe the steps that are relevant to the roles of the DevOps engineer who implements the enterprise CI/CD pipeline, the DBA who is responsible for database code changes in Db2 for z/OS and for defining site rules that ensure quality in production, and the application developer who changes the application code and communicates requirements for changes in the database schema.

Download or read book ABCs of IBM z OS System Programming Volume 6 written by Karan Singh and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2014-08-12 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ABCs of IBM® z/OS® System Programming is an 11-volume collection that provides an introduction to the z/OS operating system and the hardware architecture. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced system programmer, the ABCs collection provides the information that you need to start your research into z/OS and related subjects. If you want to become more familiar with z/OS in your current environment or if you are evaluating platforms to consolidate your e-business applications, the ABCs collection can serve as a powerful technical tool. Following are the contents of the volumes: Volume 1: Introduction to z/OS and storage concepts, TSO/E, ISPF, JCL, SDSF, and z/OS delivery and installation Volume 2: z/OS implementation and daily maintenance, defining subsystems, JES2 and JES3, LPA, LNKLST, authorized libraries, IBM Language Environment®, and SMP/E Volume 3: Introduction to DFSMS, data set basics, storage management hardware and software, VSAM, System-managed storage, catalogs, and DFSMStvs Volume 4: Communication Server, TCP/IP, and IBM VTAM® Volume 5: Base and IBM Parallel Sysplex®, System Logger, Resource Recovery Services (RRS), global resource serialization (GRS), z/OS system operations, automatic restart management (ARM), and IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel SysplexTM (IBM GDPS®) Volume 6: Introduction to security, IBM RACF®, digital certificates and public key infrastructure (PKI), Kerberos, cryptography and IBM z9® integrated cryptography, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) Volume 7: Printing in a z/OS environment, Infoprint Server, and Infoprint Central Volume 8: An introduction to z/OS problem diagnosis Volume 9: z/OS UNIX System Services Volume 10: Introduction to IBM z/Architecture®, IBM System z® processor design, System z connectivity, logical partition (LPAR) concepts, hardware configuration definition (HCD), and Hardware Management Console (HMC) Volume 11: Capacity planning, performance management, Workload Manager (WLM), IBM Resource Measurement FacilityTM (RMFTM), and System Management Facilities (SMF)

Download or read book Hybrid Analytics Solution using IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator for z OS V3 1 written by Paolo Bruni and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2013-09-27 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The IBM® DB2® Analytics Accelerator Version 3.1 for IBM z/OS® (simply called Accelerator in this book) is a union of the IBM System z® quality of service and IBM Netezza® technology to accelerate complex queries in a DB2 for z/OS highly secure and available environment. Superior performance and scalability with rapid appliance deployment provide an ideal solution for complex analysis. In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we provide technical decision-makers with a broad understanding of the benefits of Version 3.1 of the Accelerator's major new functions. We describe their installation and the advantages to existing analytical processes as measured in our test environment. We also describe the IBM zEnterprise® Analytics System 9700, a hybrid System z solution offering that is surrounded by a complete set of optional packs to enable customers to custom tailor the system to their unique needs..

Download or read book DB2 10 for z OS Performance Topics written by Paolo Bruni and published by IBM Redbooks. This book was released on 2013-08-23 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DB2® 10 for z/OS can reduce the total DB2 CPU demand from 5-20%, compared to DB2 9, when you take advantage of all the enhancements. Many CPU reductions are built in directly to DB2, requiring no application changes. Some enhancements are implemented through normal DB2 activities through rebinding, restructuring database definitions, improving applications, and utility processing. The CPU demand reduction features have the potential to provide significant total cost of ownership savings based on the application mix and transaction types. Improvements in optimization reduce costs by processing SQL automatically with more efficient data access paths. Improvements through a range-list index scan access method, list prefetch for IN-list, more parallelism for select and index insert processing, better work file usage, better record identifier (RID) pool overflow management, improved sequential detection, faster log I/O, access path certainty evaluation for static SQL, and improved distributed data facility (DDF) transaction flow all provide more efficiency without changes to applications. These enhancements can reduce total CPU enterprise costs because of improved efficiency in the DB2 10 for z/OS. DB2 10 includes numerous performance enhancements for Large Objects (LOBs) that save disk space for small LOBs and that provide dramatically better performance for LOB retrieval, inserts, load, and import/export using DB2 utilities. DB210 can also more effectively REORG partitions that contain LOBs. This IBM Redbooks® publication® provides an overview of the performance impact of DB2 10 for z/OS discussing the overall performance and possible impacts when moving from version to version. We include performance measurements that were made in the laboratory and provide some estimates. Keep in mind that your results are likely to vary, as the conditions and work will differ. In this book, we assume that you are somewhat familiar with DB2 10 for z/OS. See DB2 10 for z/OS Technical Overview, SG24-7892-00, for an introduction to the new functions.