Enhanced visual network monitoring tool lets you fix problems faster

When you upgrade to Robot/NETWORK 10, you get a great new way to view events from all your systems—the Map Center. The Robot/NETWORK Map Center is a graphical display that you can customize to represent and access your Robot/NETWORK System i servers. Each server in your network is represented by an icon on the main Map Center tab. Each separate Host system is also represented, with its Nodes, on its own tab. The Map Center supports TCP/IP and gives you point-and-click access to network problem resolution.

To start the Map Center, select the Map Center Icon from the Robot/NETWORK Explorer tool bar.

You are notified of statuses in the Map Center while you are connected to a Host. When status notification is on, a status counter on an icon on the Host, the Node, and the tab head indicates the number of statuses waiting. The color of the icon indicates the highest severity status received using the following scheme:

For example, a blue icon displaying a number 2 indicates that two statuses are waiting and that the highest severity status is Informational. A yellow icon displaying a number 4 indicates that four statuses are waiting and that the highest severity is Warning, and so on.

When Robot/CONSOLE receives an inquiry message, a Robot/SCHEDULE job ends abnormally, or another defined event occurs, the Node’s color can change depending on the severity of the event.

With the Robot/NETWORK Map Center, you can spot any System i having trouble. Multiple people, each using their own PC and their own view of the network, can view the Map Center simultaneously. It’s a great visual tool to quickly identify problems across multiple networks or with individual nodes in large networks.

When you move your mouse over a system, Robot/NETWORK displays a pop-up window showing the severity and number of outstanding events. When an event arrives on a Node, you can access it directly from the Map Center by selecting either the Node or the Host. When you select a system, the Status Center displays, allowing you to reply to the event, acknowledge it, or research it. When all events for a system have been acknowledged, the system’s color changes to green, indicating there are no outstanding events.

The arrows connecting systems in the Map Center indicate the status of the current communication between Hosts and Nodes. If the arrow connecting the Host and Node is red, the Node is not communicating with the Host. This may mean that Robot/NETWORK is not active on the Node (the Node is offline) or that there is a communication issue. A dashed arrow indicates that the status of the connection is unknown.

When you right-click the system, you have access to many other functions.

• View Statuses displays the Status Center. If you view statuses from a Node, the Status Center displays only the statuses from that Node. If you view statuses from a Host, the Status Center displays the statuses for the Host and its Nodes. Exactly what is displayed depends on the filter (if any) you are using for the display.
• Properties. For a Host, you can use the Properties dialog to view the Host properties; change the listening port, notification port, and time zone offset; set escalation options for product status messages from the Nodes; and set visibility with other Hosts. For a Node, you can use the dialog to view the Node’s properties and change the escalation options for its product status messages.
• Server. Using the Server options, you can locate specific information about your System i Host hardware and software; view system statuses; work with the active jobs on the server; work with the spooled files on the server; and start a TELNET session to access different servers (Host or Node) in the network.

A dashed rectangle identifies the selected system. Double-click to display the Status Center or right-click to display more options, as shown.
Contributed by Terri Preston, Technical Consultant

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 1:18 pm and is filed under Robot/NETWORK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.