Is there a report that shows my Robot/SCHEDULE security setup?
Yes, if you are running Robot/SCHEDULE 9.25 (or higher). Here’s how:

* Make sure the ROBOTLIB library is in your library list

* Go to a command line and enter CALL RBT400

This command generates a report listing Robot/SCHEDULE’s current security setup.

How can I tell which libraries and objects Robot/SAVE is encrypting?
It’s easy:

1. Go to the Robot/SAVE Main Menu and select option 4 (Reports Menu).

2. When the Reports Menu displays, select option 1 (System Reports).

3. Print the report titled “Library and IFS Objects Selected for Encryption Report.”

Robot/SAVE generates a spooled file (RBS441P) listing all libraries and objects that are either set up for encryption globally, or are encrypted only for a specific backup set.

Can Robot/SPACE generate a list of duplicate objects on my system?
Yes. Create a Storage Audit for all libraries and objects. Add the task “List Duplicate Library Objects.” Make sure you select “Print Results of this task” to create a spooled file with the results.

How can I tell SEQUEL to calculate the last day of the current month?
Use this statement:

CVTDATE(YEAR(Current Date),MONTH(Current Date),01)+1 month - 1 day

Updated! Are Help/Systems products compatible with i5/OS V6R1?
Help/Systems is committed to making its products compatible with the new release of i5/OS. We began shipping V6R1-compatible code for most products at the end of April 2008. For more information, download the new Help/FACTS, “Compatibility information for Help/Systems products moving to i5/OS V6R1 (IBM i 6.1)” or contact technical support.

Can Robot/ALERT send text messages to cell phones?
Yes. Use Robot/GUIDE to help you set up a TCP/IP vendor. It works just like sending e-mail to any e-mail address with Robot/ALERT.

I have a job that runs every day. On certain days when the job completes, I want a Robot/SCHEDULE job to react to its completion. Can I create a reactive job and specify which days I want it to run?
If you have a reactive job and days to run specified, Robot/SCHEDULE looks for both conditions before it runs the reactive job. Therefore, if the prerequisite job completes and it is a day the reactive job is scheduled to run, Robot/SCHEDULE runs it.

If the prerequisite job does not run, the reactive job will not run. If the reactive job has a day and time specified, and the prerequisite job has not run, you get a W (warning) status on the reactive job indicating that, “Not all prerequisites have been met.”

How do I make a script run when I open a SEQUEL dashboard?
There are two ways to make a script run in a SEQUEL dashboard: automatically, or by pressing a button. Either way, you must add an Action Button to your dashboard.

1. Create a new dashboard or open an existing dashboard in design mode.

2. Select Insert > Action Button from the menu.

3. In the Action Button dialog, press the SEQUEL Object button and navigate to your script.

4. To make the script run when the dashboard is opened, check the “Autorun” box. (If this box is not checked, you must press the Action Button to run the script.)

All my SEQUEL reports are printing duplex. How do I change that?
You can turn off duplex printing by changing the SEQUEL/SQLPRT1 printer file. Use the following Change Print File (CHGPRTF) command:

CHGPRTF FILE(SEQUEL/SQLPRT1) DUPLEX(*NO)

I want to use Robot/ALERT to send e-mail messages, but my System i is not configured as an e-mail server. Is there a way around this?
Your System i doesn’t have to be an e-mail server for Robot/ALERT to send e-mail messages. If you use Robot/GUIDE for Automated Vendor setup, you simply specify the domain name or IP address of your SMTP e-mail server in the Outbound TCP/IP Host field. If you are using a two-way e-mail connection, specify the domain name or IP address of your POP3 e-mail server in the Inbound TCP/IP Host field.

I use Robot/SCHEDULE. When I set up a reactive job, it runs as soon as it gets the completion code for its prerequisite job. I would like the reactive job to wait a little while before it runs. How would I set this up?
You can attach OPAL code to the reactive job to do this. The OPAL must be submitted before the reactive job runs. Here’s an example that would delay the job for one minute. This code checks that the reactive job is not in a delayed status and then adds one minute until it will be submitted.

Users are raving about Robot/SCHEDULE’s new job monitors

Robot/SCHEDULE Job Monitors are designed to help you identify job schedule problems. You specify the jobs you want to monitor for the following Job Monitor events:

* A job that runs too long

* A job that completes too fast to have run properly

* A job that starts later than its scheduled time

The Robot/SCHEDULE 10 job monitors help you monitor critical jobs for specific events such as jobs that run too long, complete too quickly, or start later than scheduled. (Click on the thumbnail above to enlarge.)

When a Job Monitor event occurs, Robot/SCHEDULE can end the job automatically and notify you by sending a message to the job’s message queue; sending a text, e-mail, or pager message via Robot/ALERT; or sending a status to the Robot/NETWORK Status Center.

If the message queue specified on the Robot/SCHEDULE Control Options panel for a job is a message queue monitored by Robot/CONSOLE, the Job Monitors also can interface with Robot/CONSOLE.

Contributed by Jeanne Thiesfeld, Technical Consultant

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

I am planning an operating system (OS) upgrade. How do I find out what I need to do for Help/Systems products?
Call us before you update your OS to a new level. Some product versions may not be compatible with the upgraded OS. Each product needs to be reviewed to see if it needs updates before you update the OS.

What is the easiest way to set up a Report Set in Robot/REPORTS?
Use Robot/GUIDE. Robot/GUIDE ensures you don’t make typos when defining comparison information and prevents you from missing steps in the setup procedure.

When our System i was put into restricted state, several critical jobs did not run. We have monitor jobs that notify the operator if these jobs are not running, but since Robot/SCHEDULE was not active they didn’t work. How can I make sure that doesn’t happen again?
Robot/SCHEDULE provides two ways of working with jobs that are missed while it is inactive. On the General System Defaults panel there is an option called “Run Autowork at Startup of ROBOT.” When this is set to Y (Yes), Robot/SCHEDULE automatically runs all missed jobs for the current date (since 12:01 a.m.) as soon as it is restarted. If you want more control than running all missed jobs, you can run the Autowork function manually using Option 4 of the Control Menu. If you select the option to display missed jobs, you can control which ones to run and go back to the prior day as well.

I am using Robot/SAVE to back up the IFS. Can I omit QNTC servers from the backup?
Unfortunately, you cannot omit these servers. However, you can use the following command to expedite the process of connecting to the servers for SAV command processing:

ADDENVVAR ENVVAR(QZLC_SERVERLIST) VALUE(’1′) LEVEL(*SYS)

Note: You may want to to check with IBM before implementing this environment variable.

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

Not many companies can say they manufacture fun, but that’s exactly what Polaris Industries, Inc., does. A leader in the motor-sports industry, Polaris designs, engineers, and manufactures ATVs, snowmobiles, RANGER utility vehicles, and Victory motorcycles. The common denominator for these vehicles is that they let people escape from their busy lives to a world of freedom and fun. Since 1954, when the first Polaris snowmobile made its appearance, Polaris riders have been finding “The Way Out.”

Polaris is headquartered in Medina, Minnesota; with manufacturing facilities in Roseau, Minnesota; Spirit Lake, Iowa; Osceola, Wisconsin; and a distribution facility in Vermillion, South Dakota. Mark Haanpaa, the Lead System Administrator for Polaris, explains a little of their IT history. “In the early 1990s, Polaris brought in an IBM AS/400 and installed MAPICS. At about the same time we started using Help/Systems’ Robot products. Today, we’re on the IBM System i, running two systems with many partitions—including two production partitions that are replicated. One system houses our manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution, and the other one houses our distribution facility.”

Robot/SCHEDULE, Help/Systems’ job scheduler and batch management system, was the first Robot product Polaris implemented. When they started using Robot/SCHEDULE, they used it primarily as a placeholder for all of their jobs. Mark explains, “With MAPICS, you have an ERP manufacturing environment that involves lots of Material Resources Planning (MRP) runs and forecasting, taking place weekly. It seemed to us that that kind of setup needed to be manual. Our operators would see the job, plug in a lot of values, and kick off the job manually.”

Mark admits they are a bit more savvy with their operations now. “We completely automated those jobs, both on the regular weekly schedule, and ad hoc in the middle of the week. We just select one job to run and, using group and reactive jobs, we run the entire MRP process, taking advantage of the event-driven scheduling available in Robot/SCHEDULE.”

By Mark’s calculation, Polaris has 350 to 400 jobs in Robot/SCHEDULE, including nightly, weekly, and end-of-the-month jobs. How automated does he feel their schedule is? Mark explains, “When I first came to work at Polaris, we had four operators at our manufacturing facility and two operators at our distribution facility. When we upgraded the system to a more robust infrastructure and got some operators more involved with the Robot tools, we eliminated four operators and moved them to a different part of the company. We now run those two systems with just two operators.”

For the last few years, Polaris has been running without a night operator. Mark explains, “We work a schedule from 5:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; but jobs run around the clock. Using Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/REPLAY, Robot/CONSOLE, and Robot/ALERT, we run our jobs and let our programmers know if something is wrong, so they can sign on to the System i and make corrections. If there is a standard solution for an error, we program the solution in Robot/CONSOLE to automate the response.”

Another benefit of automation was the ability to easily page Polaris programmers for problems without involving anybody else. “You don’t like to use your operators or your on-call staff as an answering service for your programmers.” Mark explains, “In the past, a problem would display a message on the QSYSOPR message queue, the operators would see it and call the programmers. Then, the programmers would tell the operators what to do. It was terribly inefficient and a waste of time. Now, with Robot/ALERT and Robot/CONSOLE, we go right to the source of the problem—the code.”

From an IT management perspective, moving operators into different roles is a positive step. Mark explains, “As the company expanded—since 2000, we have added more than 400 employees—administering our desktop systems and the more sophisticated equipment on the floors in the manufacturing facility has absorbed several of our former System i operators. We have reduced our System i administration overhead and redeployed our operations support to the desktop and the shop floor without having to increase our head count.”

In addition, errors from manual entries are down now that Polaris has automated their schedule. As Mark points out, “Certainly, there is always some human error when people manually enter values, variables, and so forth. By using Robot/REPLAY and Robot/SCHEDULE, we have been able to be more consistent and not have those errors.”

When asked what features of Robot/SCHEDULE they use the most, Marks thinks of group jobs, reactive jobs, and override codes. “As things juggle around on the weekends—a manufacturing line is going to be offline—using Robot/SCHEDULE’s Schedule Override Codes to omit and hold jobs is really useful. We use that a lot.”

As a publicly traded company, Polaris must deal with the compliance requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, and Robot/SCHEDULE helps with that also. “I am the Sarbanes administrator for the System i and for a lot of the other IT functions,” Mark says. “We use Robot/SCHEDULE to run our daily Sarbanes matching report. We run a program that looks for changed objects and produces a report every day at 7:00. We match that against what should have changed based on our programmers’ project completion forms. If they don’t match, we have to reconcile the differences.”

As a final note, Mark encourages everyone to visit their Web site, www.polarisindustries.com, to look at the new Polaris products. “We’re very proud of our Victory motorcycle. JD Powers recently released their ratings for motorcycle manufacturers and the Victory ranks in the top five in every category listed.” It’s the latest in a line of products that help Polaris provide an escape into a world of freedom and fun. A line of products that offers ‘The Way Out’, courtesy of Polaris, Help/Systems, and Robot/SCHEDULE.

By Cheryl Lewis

Use the available tools to make the conversion smooth and painless

Robot/SCHEDULE 10.0 is a great new release with many wonderful new features and Help/Systems has some tools to make the conversion process run smoothly.

Run the pre-checker program
The first tool is a pre-checker program. The pre-checker program checks to see if the conversion will complete successfully. We highly recommend running this program to help you identify issues that need to be resolved before you can have a successful conversion.

If the pre-checker fails, execute the WRKSPLF command and locate the RBTINSTP log. Read the log and look for statements marked F (for failure). Determine why each statement failed, correct the issue(s), and rerun the pre-checker program until it runs successfully.

Why might the pre-checker fail? A common reason is that there are locks on Robot/SCHEDULE files. Execute a WRKOBJLCK command on the library ROBOTLIB. There should be no locks.

If you don’t see any locks, consider whether or not you are mirroring ROBOTLIB. Mirroring programs may lock files intermittently. Or, they may share files rather than lock them. Either way, active mirroring is likely to prevent a successful conversion. We recommend that you turn off mirroring while converting. You may need to get permission from upper management to do this.

When the pre-checker completes, review the output for warning messages. Warning messages are not fatal errors, but you should review the information and consider if any additional actions are appropriate.

No Robot/SCHEDULE jobs with a status of R (Running) or S (Submitted to Queue) can be running during the conversion. The pre-checker program looks for these jobs and notifies you if there are any jobs in either status. You can either end these jobs or wait for them to complete.

Make all of the Robot products inactive during the conversion by running the RSLSHUTDWN command.

If you use auditing
If you use Robot/SCHEDULE auditing, the conversion process calls a program to convert your audit log journal receivers. The maximum number of journal receivers allowed is 500. If you have more than 500 journal receivers in the RBTJRN journal, you must save and delete them before the conversion. (The pre-checker program indicates how many journal receivers you have over the limit of 500.)

The Display Audit Log (RBTDSPAUDL) command has changed in Robot/SCHEDULE 10. If you have Robot/SCHEDULE jobs or CL programs that use this command, review the following items:

• Use the new parameter, Print Field Legend, to print the field legend used in the audit log.
• The *OUTLIB value was removed from the Output parameter. In version 10, audit log data is stored in a physical file instead of a journal receiver. You can display the audit log or create a spooled file.

Installing the GUI
In previous versions of Robot/SCHEDULE, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was optional. In version 10, if you don’t install the GUI you miss out on major features such as the following:

• The Job Creation Wizard provides on-screen instructions for creating a job. If you are familiar with Robot/SCHEDULE, you can use the Job Creation Wizard to create basic jobs quickly. After you create a job, you can select it from the Explorer and use the Job Properties window to specify unique job information or advanced scheduling options. All instructions for using the Job Creation Wizard display online as you set up your jobs.
• The Schedule Activity Monitor (SAM) provides a visual reference to assure that your jobs are running as expected. Whether you’re new to Robot/SCHEDULE or an experienced user, SAM can help you monitor your job schedule.
• Shared Command Sets allow multiple jobs to run the same set of commands. During conversion, any jobs with the same name are changed to have a shared command set. Although shared command sets are visible from the green screen, you can modify them only through the GUI. If you need to modify a command parameter, maintenance is simple. You just change the command once in the command set—you don’t have to update every job that uses the shared set.

Another great reason to install the GUI is that you can start multiple instances of the GUI on the same PC, each connecting to a different System i. Then, switch between systems to monitor jobs or make job schedule changes quickly.

Note: If you quit at any time during the installation of the GUI, a partial install occurs. To resolve this, just restart the installation process. All existing files will be replaced and the product will be installed correctly on the PC.

Additional resources
Download the following Help/FACTS:

• Instructions for converting Robot/SCHEDULE Version 9.0 to Version 10.0
• If you used Robot/SCHEDULE security in version 9.0, refer to Robot/SCHEDULE 10 Secured Object Cross-Reference, when setting up security for the Robot/SCHEDULE 10 graphical interface. This document helps ensure that you have the proper authority in place for objects in the new interface.

Contributed by Jerry Stenzel, Robot/SCHEDULE Product Manager

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.