Going from Robot/SCHEDULE and Robot/NETWORK 9 to 10

When you’ve completed the planning steps [see planning article], you are ready to do the actual conversion. This article gives you an overview of the conversion process and post-conversion tasks.

Before you begin
You must update any other products that do not meet the minimum requirements outlined in the conversion instructions.

If you are converting your Robot/NETWORK Host and Alternate Host(s), end Robot/NETWORK on all the Node systems. Remember, you want to convert Robot/NETWORK before you convert Robot/SCHEDULE. Keep in mind that Robot/NETWORK cannot be converted while the system is in a restricted state. The conversion requires some communication subsystems and certain TCP/IP server jobs to be active.

Robot/SCHEDULE must be inactive. Before ending Robot/SCHEDULE, put EVERY-type jobs on hold to prevent them from being submitted during the conversion. Robot/SCHEDULE jobs cannot be in submitted or running status during the conversion. But, Robot/SCHEDULE can be converted while the system is in a restricted state.

Double-check that there are no locks on product libraries and that mirroring of the ROBOTLIB library has been stopped.

Tip: Use the command, WRKOBJLCK OBJ(ROBOTLIB) OBJTYPE(*LIB), to check for locks on the product libraries.

Rerun the pre-checker program. If everything is ready for conversion, the program completes very quickly.

When you are ready to begin, use the RSLSHUTDWN command to end all the Robot products gracefully and the RBTSLEEPER subsystem.

The conversion process
The files you need for converting Robot/SCHEDULE and Robot/NETWORK Version 9 to Version 10 are located on blue disk #1. You can work with this disk in either of two ways:

* Insert the CD in your system’s optical drive and use the LODRUN command from the system console.

* If you have the Robot Product Maintenance Wizard installed on your PC, you can upload the conversion programs from your PC to the system and use the HLPCDMENU command.

To start the conversion process, select option 4 from the Maintain Help/Systems Products menu and enter the conversion code specified in the conversion instructions. (Note: The conversion codes and the pre-checker program codes are different.) During the conversion, interactive messages display.

Post-conversion tasks
First, verify that your conversions were successful by reviewing the RBTINSTP log and the conversion job logs.

Next, verify that your release and modification level are now version 10.

Restart the products. After the products are active and running, follow the clean-up instructions for both products. Remove the Version 9 libraries so they are not included in your backups.

Robot/NETWORK considerations
Install the Robot/NETWORK Graphical User Interface (GUI) on your operators’ PCs immediately following the conversion of the Host. These files are on the red disk. This interface is required to enter your license key for Robot/NETWORK 10.

Consider putting the new Map Center or consolidated Status Center on an overhead monitor in your data center. Complete the Add Host connections to get your new GUI Status Center up and running quickly.

The GUI offers several new tools, such as consolidated (multi-system) reports that you can schedule in Robot/SCHEDULE, a tool that checks for product updates, and a Product License Manager that lets you manage your Robot license keys centrally.

The Robot/NETWORK Product Masters have also changed. The Robot/SCHEDULE Product Master is now located in the Robot/SCHEDULE GUI. (There is no green-screen version.) The other Product Masters are now located on individual product green-screen menus. You can access packet history from the Robot/NETWORK Explorer.

Robot/SCHEDULE considerations
Install the Robot/SCHEDULE GUI on your operators’ PCs immediately following the conversion. These files are on the red disk. With both the Robot/NETWORK and Robot/SCHEDULE GUIs installed, you can now run Robot/SCHEDULE in Host Mode. To connect to a system in Host Mode, you must define a connection profile in Robot/SCHEDULE. When you connect this way, you can access all jobs, for all Nodes in your Robot/NETWORK environment, with a single Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer session! And, you can produce consolidated reports.

One of the most popular new features of Robot/SCHEDULE 10 is job monitors. Job monitors allow you to monitor your job schedule for specific events: jobs that run too long, complete too quickly, or start later than their scheduled run time. If you plan to use job monitors, you need to specify what Robot/SCHEDULE should do with the history of these events.

Robot/SCHEDULE’s Job History Options offer new history purge parameters for job monitor events. You can tell Robot/SCHEDULE to purge job monitor events and specify the number of job monitor events to retain automatically.

Contributed by Yvonne Schumacher, Technical Training Consultant and Vivian Hall, Technical Consultant

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Robot/NETWORK, Robot/SCHEDULE. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.