This session provides a beginner-friendly introduction to System Management Facility (SMF), the foundation of performance and capacity analysis on IBM Z systems. I will explain what SMF records are, why they are collected, and how organisations use them to understand system activity, workload behaviour, resource utilisation, performance, and capacity.

The session introduces key SMF concepts, including record types, system configuration, CPU utilisation, performance reporting, and how SMF data supports capacity planning, charge back, and cost allocation. Attendees will gain an understanding of common SMF record types, their characteristics, and how performance data is transformed into actionable business insights for optimisation and cost management.