Using Dynatrace's T24 Fast-Pack Services to Examine Close of Business (COB) Problems

Josef Mayrhofer
11 hours ago
3 min read

The Close of Business (COB) is a daily operation and a vital component for any banking institution. Many common issues can be swiftly assessed if we have an appropriate monitoring system established on our dashboard. With our fastpack services, we provide you with the majority of the details related to COB. In this blog, we will explore how these details can assist in the analysis of COB-related issues.

COB Timings

The elapsed time during COB is not the sole factor to consider. There are numerous other timings that must be examined to analyze and identify the specific reasons for any increase in COB duration.

The dashboard presents the COB duration over several days, including the start time of COB. This information will facilitate comparisons and allow for the assessment of any increases or decreases in COB time over the specified period.

Timely updates on the stages of the Close of Business (COB) and their respective timings will enable banks to accurately track the current status of the COB process, including the percentage of completion for each stage and the specific timings associated with them.

JOB and Report times: The timings listed below will assist us in analyzing which JOBS required more time during the COB and in comparing these JOBS over a span of days.

Traditional Method for Verifying COMO Files

Initially, we must identify the job responsible for the issue, then examine the relevant COMO to understand the situation.

Although checking each JOB during the COB operation can be time-consuming, our fast-pack services enable you to receive these updates in real-time. The only requirement is to monitor the updated dashboard.

Custom Logs: In conjunction with the COMO, we have the capability to set up custom logs in Dynatrace, which facilitates rapid issue analysis.

The dashboard presented below (redacted for security purposes) includes a list of currently active services, their counts, and a comparison over time. It also indicates whether any service was initiated on a given day. This information assists us in identifying and discontinuing unnecessary services, while also monitoring CPU and memory usage during service operation.

Locking Concerns

To prevent multiple updates to the same record during read/write operations in T24, it is essential to implement strategies that mitigate locking issues.

Our T24 Fast-Pack includes a dedicated dashboard that analyzes and counts locking issues.

COB Slowness

Despite the proper functioning of agent allocation and job processes, we may encounter memory issues stemming from other processes running on the server that consume a significant portion of the CPU. This can lead to interruptions in T24 record updates or job progress. It is essential to ensure that all non-T24 processes that are not necessary are either terminated or moved to another server.

On our T24 Fast-Pack services dashboard, we provide an overview of T24's overall health, which informs the bank about the status of all layers, services, as well as CPU and memory usage.

Errors and Alerting

Our T24 Fast-Pack services encompass issues related to T24 services. For instance, if any service operates for >30 minutes, an alert is configured to monitor and assess it. Additionally, similar custom alerts can be established.

Our COB optimization blog offers various suggestions for addressing COB slowness and fine-tuning. We categorize the COB tuning into T24 technical, T24 functional, and T24 environmental recommendations. Each bank will encounter numerous scenarios, and while solutions exist for all of them, it is essential to identify the appropriate approach.