In 2008, U.S. Daylight Saving Time begins on March 9 and ends on November 2. Whether you change the time manually or have the system change the time automatically, the most important thing to keep in mind is that Robot/SCHEDULE must be inactive when the time change is made.

Two ways to set up the time change
Basically, there are two ways to accomplish the time change in Robot/SCHEDULE.

1. Create a CL program to end Robot/SCHEDULE, change the time, and restart Robot/SCHEDULE. (You can set up a Robot/SCHEDULE job to call this program.) This approach is explained in the Help/FACTS “Using Robot/SCHEDULE to automate Daylight Saving Time change.”

Note: You can modify the program to restart additional products so they pick up the time change. Products that benefit from this include: Robot/ALERT, Robot/AUTOTUNE, Robot/CLIENT, Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/MONITOR, Robot/NETWORK, and Robot/REPORTS.

2. Use the QTIMZON system value to make the change. With this approach, you need to create two Robot/SCHEDULE jobs to make Robot/SCHEDULE inactive during the time change. Download the Help/FACTS “Using Robot/SCHEDULE with the QTIMZON System Value” to get the details.

Important note: If you use the QTIMZON system value, IBM has issued the following Program Temporary Fixes (PTFs) that add updated time zone descriptions. After you apply the appropriate PTFs for your OS level, you can change the QTIMZON system value to the new value for your region. Continue to check with IBM in the event that future PTFs become available.

* i5/OS V5R4M0: PTFs SI26040 and SI25990

* i5/OS V5R3M0: PTFs SI26039 and SI25991

There are no changes for the QTIMZON system value in V6R1M0.

If your system uses a Hardware Management Console (HMC), you might need to apply additional fixes.

Unless specifically mentioned above, other Robot products are not affected by the time change. In addition, SEQUEL, ABSTRACT, ESEND, and EASY VIEW are not affected by the time change.

Contributed by Jeanne Thiesfeld, Technical Consultant

Send jobs Host-to-Host or Node-to-Node with Robot/NETWORK 10.0

If you haven’t discovered Robot/NETWORK packets, you are in for a treat. You can use Robot/NETWORK packets to centrally control and maintain:

* Robot/SCHEDULE job setups

* Robot/CONSOLE message sets, message tables, and message groups

* Robot/REPORTS report sets

Once you start using packets, you no longer have to sign on to multiple systems and create the same objects over and over. Not only do packets save you time, but they also reduce errors caused by repetition. You create an object once and use it many times.

Creating Robot/SCHEDULE packets
To access Robot/SCHEDULE packets, go into Robot/NETWORK 10.0 and click Product Master. Then, right-click Robot/SCHEDULE and select Explore. When the Robot/SCHEDULE 10.0 Explorer (graphical user interface) displays, you can create Robot/SCHEDULE jobs and other objects, such as date objects and OPAL objects, that you may need to complete your job setup. Use the same steps you would use if you were creating the job or object in a production Robot/SCHEDULE environment. Then you can send these jobs to remote Nodes. (Or, if you have a multi-Host environment, you can send these jobs to another Host’s Product Master.)

Note: Jobs or objects created in the Product Master library of Robot/SCHEDULE are not actually in production in the job setup of any system until you send them to a system.

Changing a packet that has been sent
If you send a job or object using packets and need to make changes to it, go into the Robot/SCHEDULE Product Master, make the changes, and send them. You can send the changes to all systems, or a selected group of systems. And, you can restrict the objects that will be sent with the job. For example, if you made changes to the environment only, you can avoid sending other objects that are attached to the job.

You can use the Product Master to remove or reverse changes you have made to jobs using a packet. If you move a change into production from the Product Master and it doesn’t work as expected, simply reverse that packet. Reversing a packet removes the changes made by that packet and returns the job to the way it was before the packet was applied. You even can delete a job created by a packet.

Sending an active job to the Product Master
Perhaps you have a production job set up on one system that you want to share with many systems. Use the command RBTNETNODE/RBNSNDRBT to send the job to the Robot/SCHEDULE Product Master. Once the job is in the Product Master, you can distribute it to as many systems as needed. In the future, you can make changes to it and distribute the changes to various sites.

Reviewing packet activity
When you send a packet from the Product Master, Robot/NETWORK keeps a record of the event. You can view this history online, or run the Packet History Report to see what objects have been sent from the Host to remote Nodes.

Sending jobs Node-to-Node
Using the Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer on the Robot/NETWORK Host, you also can send jobs Node-to-Node. When you right-click on a job on a Node system, a menu displays. When you select SEND, the job is sent directly to another Node system.

Note: When you send a job Node-to-Node, you bypass the Product Master and its benefits (such as the ability to share the job with other systems and the ability to maintain the job from a central site). Jobs sent Node-to-Node do not show up in the Packet History Report.

Working with green screen products
For green screen Robot products, such as Robot/REPORTS and Robot/CONSOLE, you create and send packets using the Robot/NETWORK 10 Product Master menu option on the Host system. From this option, you can create the Robot/CONSOLE and Robot/REPORTS objects you need to set up these products.

As with Robot/SCHEDULE, you create the object just as if you were in the actual product and distribute it to the remote Nodes from the Product Master. If your Report Set or Message Set contains OPAL, the remote system automatically compiles the code when the packet is applied.

Unlike working with Robot/SCHEDULE, you cannot send Robot/CONSOLE or Robot/REPORTS packets Host-to-Host or Node-to-Node. Distribution is limited to sending packets from the Robot/NETWORK Host to its attached Nodes.

You can send existing Message Sets and Report Sets from a remote system to the Product Master. For Robot/REPORTS, use the command RBTNETNODE/RBNSNDREP, and for Robot/CONSOLE use the command RBTNETNODE/RBNSNDRBC. These commands put the objects in the appropriate Product Master and let you change and distribute them to multiple systems.

Summary
Once you discover how easy it is to use packets, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been using them all along! Packets are a great way to maintain multiple products across multiple systems from a central site. And, with Robot/NETWORK’s security system, you can control access to the Product Master. You can limit access to a single user or a group of users who are allowed to create packets.

Contributed by Terri Preston, Technical Consultant

Do I have to convert all of my Nodes to Robot/NETWORK 10 when I convert the Host?
No, Robot/NETWORK 10 supports limited functions to back-level Nodes. Nodes must be at Robot/NETWORK Node 9.62 to be supported.

The following functions are supported:

• Robot/SCHEDULE jobs you have set up with cross-system reactivity will continue to work. However, you cannot set up new cross-system reactive jobs. Event statuses continue to be sent to the Host.
• Robot/CONSOLE messages with cross-system redirection will continue to work, but you cannot set up new ones. Messages still will be redirected to the Robot/NETWORK Status Center and replies will be posted on both the Host and the Node.
• Robot/REPORTS event statuses will be posted to the Robot/NETWORK Status Center.

The following functions are not supported:

• Packets for Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/CONSOLE, and Robot/REPORTS.
• The RBNSNDRBT, RBNSNDRBC, and RBNSNDREP commands.
• New Robot/NETWORK 10 Graphical User Interface (GUI) options, such as server options, are not supported in relation to a Robot/NETWORK 9 Node.
• Robot/SCHEDULE 10 is not supported on a Robot/NETWORK 9 Node.

I am looking for a program to add to my System i shutdown program that will end Robot/SCHEDULE gracefully.
We recommend using the RSLSHUTDWN command. It ends all installed Robot products automatically and then ends the RBTSLEEPER subsystem.

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

How can I prepare for converting to Robot/NETWORK 10?

You must have the following software installed on your System i:

For more information about converting to Robot/NETWORK 10, download the following Help/FACTS:

• Instructions for converting Robot/NETWORK Version 9.0 to 10.0
• Robot/NETWORK 10 compatibility with other Robot products

I have a report with an account number in the same position on every page. It seems like I could use Robot/REPORTS to burst the report by account numbers. However, I have over 100 different accounts. Can I burst the report that many times?
Yes, you just need to create a bursting segment for each account number.

As part of the introduction of Robot/NETWORK 10, Help/Systems sent a mailing to selected customers describing the new release as “putting the entire world at your fingertips.” This mailer included the option to enter a sweepstakes to win a Magellan GPS system (another cool tech gadget that puts the world at your fingertips). Entrants had to read the mailing carefully and enter the correct answer on a special landing page on the Help/Systems Web site.

When the sweepstakes closed on July 25, all the entries with the correct answer were put in a hat. The winner is:
John J. Egan
Director, IT Operations

Our congratulations go out to John. When informed he had won, John commented “Great! Thank you. Now, ROBOT not only helps me at work, it helps me get to work.”

We thank everyone who entered the sweepstakes. And, in case you were wondering, the correct answer was SYDNEY.

You can view the Status Center many different ways

Robot/NETWORK 10.0 represents a big advance in network management. Let’s take a look at some of the major changes.

Robot/NETWORK Explorer
The Robot/NETWORK Explorer, a new PC interface, replaces the previous GUI and green screens. In Robot/NETWORK 10, you access all product functions through the Explorer (except for a few Product Master features).

The Explorer uses an expandable tree format to display all the Nodes for each Host. Click a Node to work with the Robot products installed on that Node. Right-click a product to view the Status Center for that product on that Node.

Right-click a Node to view the Status Center for that Node, stop or start the Node, or view jobs and output queues and system status for each Node. And, if needed, you can Telnet directly to the Node from the Explorer.

You can view the Status Center a number of different ways, depending on where you select the View Statuses option in the Robot/NETWORK Explorer. You can display the statuses for Hosts, Nodes, Robot products, or applications. Each status (for that product and Node) has a severity level that you can use to sort the statuses. You also can use a new filter option to sort the Status Center display.

Now, you can access Status History through status properties. These show when a status arrived on the Node, when it arrived on the Host, and when it was acknowledged, and by whom. If the event is a Robot/CONSOLE inquiry message, Robot/NETWORK also shows when, how, and who replied to it.

In addition to working with the Nodes and their products, you can use the Explorer to access Product Masters, packets, system setup, and other areas.

Map Center
In the Map Center, you see a representation of each system in your network and its current status. If you have multiple Hosts, you can view them all, or only a specific Host and its Nodes. You can tell at a glance if a system stops communicating with the Host, and you can stop or start it directly from the Map Center. By moving your cursor over a system, you see how many events are waiting for an action on a Node. You can access the Status Center for that Node directly to handle the events.

The Map Center also lets you view jobs, output queues, and system status for each Node and to Telnet directly to the Node to resolve issues.

You can choose the background display from a range of maps that come with Robot/NETWORK, or you can customize the background image using your own file.

Robot Product Maintenance
When you have several systems in your network, and a number of Robot products on each one, doing product updates can be quite a job. With the new Product Maintenance Wizard, you can download, distribute, and install Robot product updates for all your systems.

Robot Product License Manager
Use the Product License Manager to maintain your Robot product license codes across all your systems. You can key them in manually from the Product License Manager or request an XML file that contains license codes for all products on all systems. This XML file updates the codes across systems automatically. You don’t even need to sign on!

Consolidated Reports
Two new consolidated reports in Robot/NETWORK let you view information about events across the network.

The consolidated Good Morning Report displays status and packet information for all active Hosts and Nodes, over a specified date range. The report lists statuses by type and severity, by system. It also lists packets by status, user, and Node distributions.

The consolidated Status History Report displays the status history of events sent by Nodes to the Host system. You can select all Nodes and products, or a specific Node and product, for a date range.

Contributed by Anna Deuel, Product Manager

I am using Robot/NETWORK to centralize the management of the partitions of a single partitioned system. Can I implement this configuration using a virtual LAN?
Yes, this configuration is ideally suited to using the virtual LAN. With a virtual LAN, you don’t need additional hardware and it’s faster.

If you plan to connect this system to other systems (multiple physical systems) using Robot/NETWORK, you must use Ethernet connections throughout. You can’t use a combination of virtual LAN and Ethernet.

When we did a restricted state backup over the weekend, we put Robot/ALERT on hold. When the system was restarted, Robot/ALERT moved from HELD to INACTIVE and stayed there. As a result, we missed a pager message. How can we prevent this from happening again?
When you execute a restricted state backup, we recommend that you end all the Robot products by executing the RSLSHUTDWN command. This command puts Robot/ALERT on hold, ends all active Robot products, and ends the RBTSLEEPER subsystem. After the restricted state ends, restart the RBTSLEEPER subsystem. Robot/ALERT releases itself and becomes ACTIVE automatically.

To be sure that Robot/ALERT has returned to ACTIVE status, incorporate the RBASNDMSG command in your start up program. This pager message will inform you that the restricted state backup has completed and Robot/ALERT is active.

I use the SEQUEL Web Interface (SWI). I want to format the HTML results so they look like my company’s Web site. How would I go about this?
Depending on your knowledge of HTML, you can format the output of the results pages almost any way you want. The SWI library contains two default source members, HEADER and FOOTER, that control the results page layout. The default HEADER member contains a company logo and other formatting, plus a number of cascading style sheet (CSS) entries that control the appearance of the results table section. You can modify the font size, style, colors, and other attributes used in the results to suit your preferences.

Offers graphical, centralized monitoring and control of
System i events

Help/Systems, developer of the Robot Automated Operations Solution for the System i, announces the release of Robot/NETWORK 10, the newest version of its network control, monitoring, and management software. Robot/NETWORK 10 offers a new, easy-to-use graphical interface that allows users to consolidate operational events so they can monitor and manage their network of System i servers from a central location.

The Robot/NETWORK Explorer is the primary navigation tool for Robot/NETWORK 10. It displays the current network configuration as an expandable tree of Hosts, Nodes, products, packets, reports, and other system items, with menus and toolbars for fast access to network control options. New Robot/NETWORK Wizards help users connect to Hosts, configure Nodes, and apply product updates and license codes. From the Explorer, users can distribute and manage both updates and license codes for all of the Help/Systems products on their systems.

For complete visual detail, the Robot/NETWORK Map Center allows users to customize their own graphical view (map) of the entire network, or any portion of it, to display both status traffic and network communication between Hosts and Nodes.

Users can display the Robot/NETWORK Status Center from either the Explorer or the Map Center to display and respond to Host and Node statuses quickly. Users can respond to statuses for the products on a system, a specific product and system, or across all systems and products. Users also can escalate status issues by sending a pager, text, or e-mail message using Robot/ALERT; issuing an SNMP trap; or calling a user defined program.

Robot/NETWORK interfaces directly with the other Robot products to provide complete, centralized control of all of the operational issues in the network. Using the graphical Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer with Robot/NETWORK, users can monitor and manage the job schedules on any system in their network from their PC, making it easy to standardize and control their network job schedule. Robot/NETWORK also offers network-wide control of automated report management, message management, and system monitoring through its Product Master interface with Robot/REPORTS, Robot/CONSOLE, and Robot/MONITOR.

Robot/NETWORK 10 works with i5/OS security to offer enhanced security for internal objects, including both predefined and user-defined security roles.

Newly centralized data processing relies on the Robot Products

For over 30 years, Tree of Life has provided retailers throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and now Canada, with the products, services and the marketing edge that adds to their bottom line. As the nation’s leading distributor of natural, organic, specialty, ethnic, and gourmet food products, Tree of Life has helped thousands of retailers, from the smallest independent stores to the largest supermarket chains, meet the constantly growing demand for products that help Americans to “live well.”

In the data center at company headquarters in St. Augustine, Florida, John Kinnaird, National Operating Center Manager, is responsible for supporting both hardware and software for their IBM System i. John notes that there’s been a great deal of change in how IT is set up and run at Tree of Life since he was hired. “When I started working for Tree Of Life about seven years ago, everything was decentralized. Each of our distribution centers had its own data center, ran their own AS/400, and ran their own copy of the software.

“Shortly thereafter, we started the Regional Operating Centers project that consolidated all of the processing into two regional centers in St. Augustine and Dallas. Now, we have consolidated all the processing onto a partitioned System i Model 570 in St. Augustine, where we run all of the warehousing, distribution, and financial applications for 12 distribution centers. The System i also hosts a production partition for our Canadian operations as well as a data warehouse partition and a development partition.

“Our core system is a warehousing and distribution system called NTS, the National Tree System that was written in-house. We have several other applications such as JD Edwards World for financials and E3 for purchasing.”

Getting started with operations automation
When the divisions were decentralized, some facilities were using the Robot products and some were not. Among the divisions that were using the products, there were various degrees of success. As Tree of Life began to consolidate the processing to one centralized system at their headquarters, the company soon realized that Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/ALERT, and Robot/NETWORK would help make the company a true 24/7 operation.

John works with Jennifer Weatherly, Operation Analyst. Jennifer spoke about centralizing Robot/SCHEDULE jobs, “We had several different jobs set up on different partitions. We wanted to convert all jobs from all partitions to a master system [on the Robot/NETWORK Host], where we put the jobs in one location and then send them out to the appropriate partition. [Help/Systems] Tech Support was instrumental in teaching us how to send the existing jobs—including OPAL code, library lists, job environments, date objects, reserved command variables, and so on—up from the Nodes (partitions) to the Host to create the master. Now we set up new Robot/SCHEDULE jobs, and changes to existing jobs in the master, and then send the job or jobs back to the Nodes. This setup helps us work efficiently with jobs that we maintain on a regular basis. At one time, if we had a job that existed on more than one partition, we had to change the job on each partition. Now, we change the job once and send it down to the node or nodes. With 12 divisions running 8,000 jobs on a daily basis, this is a big help.”

The next step: automating report management
Tree of Life also implemented Robot/REPORTS to manage their reports. Jennifer explains, “Tree of Life had Robot/REPORTS, but the company was not utilizing the product when I started six years ago. I began by reading the manual and trying to set up reports. Whenever I ran into a roadblock, I’d just pick up the phone and call Help/Systems Technical Support. I was pleasantly surprised to find someone always available. I didn’t waste valuable time on hold. Even after normal support hours, you usually get a call back in a half hour or less.

“Because of the 12 divisions, we have a lot of reports. We are trying to eliminate printing so many reports. We have about 80% of our reports available for online viewing and we use Robot/ALERT to e-mail reports to users, customers, field sales support, and others.”

John adds, “We have had a tremendous reduction in printed reports since we started using Robot/REPORTS. Not only are we saving paper, but people have a lot better access to the reports now—especially people who are out in the field. We had no way of getting printed reports to a lot of our salespeople. Now they can view the reports online. That’s a big benefit for us.”

Jennifer explains another project they are completing, “We have to get monthly reports out to our customers. In the past, a group of employees would come in on a weekend, print cover statements, and break down a 700-page report by customer for mailing. Now we use Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/ALERT, and Robot/REPORTS to accomplish the same task. We’re saving on printing, postage, and overtime.”

Jennifer and John prove that the Robot products help them live well in the data center, just as Tree of Life products help people live well at home.

By Barbara Davey