What the heck is Host Mode?

If you manage job scheduling, message management, and resource monitoring for more than one partition running IBM i, you should get acquainted with Host Mode. Host Mode lets you duplicate job setups and propagate message handling rules among your partitions and servers. Plus, it provides consolidated reporting, so you get the big picture of what is going on in your data center.

Background

If you been using the Robot products for several years, you may remember Product Masters. The Product Master allowed you use Robot/NETWORK to send new rules from the Robot/NETWORK Host to the various Robot/NETWORK Nodes (partitions or systems) in your network. This setup also allowed you to monitor the Robot products from a centralized Status Center in Robot/NETWORK.

About three years ago, Help/Systems introduced Robot/NETWORK 10, a fully Java-based implementation with a new graphical user interface. As part of this redesign, Help/Systems decided to move the Product Master capabilities out of Robot/NETWORK and put them in the new versions of products as they were introduced.

Using Host Mode

To use the Product Master capabilities, you must be running the Robot/SCHEDULE 10 Explorer (graphical interface) and connect to other systems or partitions using Host Mode. When you are in Host Mode, Robot/SCHEDULE communicates with Robot/NETWORK so that you can access any system mapped to Robot/NETWORK.

Host Mode requires a little setup. To begin, define the connections you need. Open the System drop-down menu and select Connection Properties.

When the Connection Properties window displays, press the Add or Edit buttons to modify the connection.

Note: Make sure that the System Type is Robot/NETWORK Host.

Once you have defined your connections, use the drop-down address function to connect to your network in Host Mode.

So, what does Host Mode let you do? It provides these powerful capabilities:

• You can schedule jobs, manage messages, and monitor critical resources for multiple systems or partitions from a single console.
• You can distribute new message automation rules among systems or partitions.
• You can use it for change management, by creating jobs in a development partition and sending them to the production partition after testing.
• You get a single, unified interface for accessing all jobs and scheduling objects, and duplicating them to multiple systems.
• You can manage cross-system reactivity. When a batch process on one partition is a prerequisite for a process on another partition, you can automate your processes. Operators no longer have to check processes manually.
• You can use it for consolidated reporting. If you have multiple partitions to manage for job scheduling or message management, Host Mode offers the following consolidated reports:
  • Good Morning Report
  • Cross-System Reactive Jobs
  • Security (who changed what job)
  • Most Common Messages

More information For more information, check out the recorded Webinar, Centralize Management of Robot Jobs, QSYSOPR, and Resources with Robot/NETWORK, Robot/SCHEDULE, and Robot/CONSOLE , in the Resource Library on our website .

Contributed by Tom Huntington, Vice President of Technical Services

Using Import/Export in the Robot Products

A number of Robot products include the ability to export and import setups among partitions or systems. This can save you a lot of time when you want to duplicate product setups.

For example, Robot/SCHEDULE 10 lets you export jobs via XML to your PC and import them on another system running Robot/SCHEDULE. You can run the imported jobs on the new system immediately—without further setup. You can do the same with calendars and query system immediately—without further setup. You can do the same with calendars and query definitions, too!

Robot/CONSOLE 5 makes it much easier to replicate your setup from system to system. You use the export function to copy message sets, message centers, message queue monitors, message tables, OPAL tables, resources, and notification lists.

Robot/SPACE allows you to export and import multiple items at one time, including: ASP monitors, job storage monitors, storage audits, collection groups, queries, and data filters. Plus, it’s easy! Right-click the object to export and choose Export.

Robot/SPACE automatically saves the file to your PC. When you are ready to import, use the Explorer to connect to the other system and navigate to the appropriate area. For example, if you exported an ASP monitor, go to ASP monitors and right-click the kind of object your are duplicating.

Robot/SPACE displays a dialog that allows you to select the setup you want to import.

Contributed by Sara Williams, Research Technical Consultant

Q&A

I am currently running Robot/SPACE 2 on multiple systems. If I convert one system to Robot/SPACE 3, can I still connect to the Robot/SPACE 2 systems from my PC?

Yes, you can install both versions of the Robot/SPACE Graphical User Interface (GUI) on your PC. Use the Robot/SPACE 2 GUI to connect to the Robot/SPACE 2 systems and the Robot/SPACE 3 GUI to connect to the Robot/SPACE 3 system.

How can I quickly find out if objects were not saved in my backup?

From the Robot/SAVE Main Menu, select option 1 (Operations Menu). From the Operations Menu, select option 2 (Display Status Messages). Type a 2 next to the backup to display the objects that were not saved.

If all objects were saved, a message displays at the bottom of the panel (“This Rotation contains no unsaved objects.”). Otherwise, the Objects Not Saved Inquiry panel displays listing the objects not saved.

How can I determine if a message file has message sets that use it?

If you are using Robot/CONSOLE 5, select Message Sets from the Tree view, then Message Files. Select the specific message file in the List view and right-click to display a drop-down menu. Select the “Where used” option to list the message sets that use the message file.