Resources

Astronauts Rely on Checklists (and So Should You)

By Kurt Thomas on Tue, 08/30/2016

What do astronauts and IBM i admins have in common? Checklists! These seemingly simple yet effective devices serve as our external memories and deliver process consistency, but they’re not without limitations.

Article

4 Reasons to Add VTLs

By Tom Huntington on Tue, 08/30/2016

Backup and recovery processes are among the unsung heroes of data center operations. Though end results may not be readily apparent on an everyday basis, natural and digital disasters have a way of humbling companies that do not take this risk management discipline seriously.

Blog

Is Your Boss an Automation Skeptic?

By Tom Huntington on Mon, 08/29/2016

There is little doubt among IT experts as to the potential benefits of implementing automation tools at deeper levels within the data center environment. Yet adoption rates have not always mirrored this optimism. Especially among the small business crowd, automation is still seen as something that is "nice to have" as opposed to mission-critical.

Article

Disks Busy vs. ASP Busy in Robot Monitor

By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 08/25/2016

Did you know that the Disks Busy monitor reports the average percentage across all your ASPs, not just System ASP? You could be teetering near an I/O overload and not know it! If you have multiple ASPs, use the ASP Busy monitor instead. Here’s why.

Article

High Availability Fail Tales (and How to Avoid Them)

By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 08/25/2016

Chasing a high availability state is a common goal for IBM i administrators and one that can be thwarted by a single issue left unattended. By sharing some of the most frequent tales of what went wrong from real-world environments, you’ll be able to avoid these same scenarios.

Article

Monitoring the Demands of Fast Disk

By Kurt Thomas on Wed, 08/24/2016

The IT industry is decisively moving away from traditional hard disk drives (“platters”) in favor of Flash-based solid-state drives (SSDs). It’s a welcome change; it makes much more sense to circulate only electrons instead of disks of metal with electrons on them.

Article

Small but MIGHTY: Controlling the *CLS Object Type

By Kurt Thomas on Wed, 08/24/2016

While the instinct for administrators and IT managers is to always hunt down a culprit – a rogue job, an inactive journal receiver, or something else – sometimes the very building blocks of a common process, or rather the specifics that define processes, can be where the trouble at hand resides.

Guide

IT Centralization and Robot

This paper makes a case for IT centralization on IBM i and explains the important role automated systems management technologies like Robot have to play in centralized IT environments.

Guide

Building a Sound Investment Strategy Through Technology

Combining IBM Power Systems hardware and reliable iSeries job scheduler software is a powerful investment strategy for companies that not only improves their bottom line, but enhances customer experience.

Article

Trigger Events with a File in Robot Schedule 12

By Tom Huntington on Fri, 08/19/2016

Robot Schedule version 12 makes monitoring for file events and setting them up as dependencies a very simple process.