Resources

Article

Virtual Tape Considerations for IBM i

By Tom Huntington on Mon, 06/28/2021
This article examines some of the most popular IBM VTL (virtual tap library) solutions for IBM i and other platforms. You'll also learn what to consider to determine if VTL is right for you.
IBM i Automation
Interview with Steve Finnes
Article

IBM on IASP for PowerHA Implementations

By Chuck Losinski on Tue, 03/03/2020
You’ve heard about IASP technology many times over the years, but you’ve been ignoring it, haven’t you? Steve Finnes confirms that it’s past time we “get to know it, understand it, and not be afraid of it.”
IBM i Automation
FlashCopy: Pros and Cons
Article

FlashCopy: Pros and Cons

By Tom Huntington on Wed, 02/26/2020
IBM System Storage FlashCopy might seem like magic. But do the benefits for IBM i business continuity outweigh the hidden costs? Read on to find out.
IBM i Automation
Article

Backup Basics: Saving Your Data and Your Job

By Tom Huntington on Mon, 02/24/2020
You need a backup strategy to test your company’s disaster recovery plan and, despite its reputation for reliability, administrators still need to back up their IBM i. A sound backup strategy should also restore individual user objects to account for human error.
Automation
Article

Mobile Dashboards for IBM i Monitoring

By Chuck Losinski on Wed, 08/07/2019
Robot Console leverages the power of Fortra' dashboards containing browser access! Mobile-friendly dashboards allow you to combine key message summary and resource status data into a single, intuitive view. Read on to learn more.
Monitoring
Article

Two-Way Message Response with Robot

By Chuck Losinski on Wed, 05/01/2019
You have the afternoon off—but not the responsibility of monitoring your system for issues. This includes responding to application and system messages as they occur on your production IBM i jobs. You don’t want to carry your laptop around just in case you need to VPN back to answer a message that is waiting on your month-end process. What option do you have?
Monitoring
Article

Interacting with Powertech SIEM Agent for IBM i

By Robin Tatam on Thu, 03/21/2019
Your organization has invested in a security information event manager, or SIEM, to receive and analyse security and event log information from a variety of servers. Now they want to also get this information from their IBM Power Systems server.
IBM i Cybersecurity
Article

If It Has Moving Parts, Someday It's Going to Fail.

Sat, 11/03/2018
Check out IBM's new READ INTENSIVE SSDs. This is a note to highlight some of the pros and cons - and dig a little deeper into one of the cons - of IBM's recently announced new class of solid state disk drives, "read intensive" (RI) SSDs. The new RI-SSD comes in one flavor, a 1.86 TB drive. The new concept to wrap your head around is that the drive will "wear out" if you write...
Powertech Compliance Monitor for IBM i
Article

Managing Your IBM i Audit Data

By Robin Tatam on Wed, 08/01/2018
Let’s face it; system administration remains a largely thankless task. From scheduling jobs to balancing workloads to answering messages in QSYSOPR, administrators and operators work diligently behind the scenes to ensure that IBM i servers are available to run mission-critical applications.
Compliance
Article

How to Download an ODBC Driver

Wed, 07/25/2018
Performance Navigator® requires an ODBC connection to connect to your IBM i system, but it does not come with your PC’s operating system. IBM has a downloadable they’ve titled Access Client Solutions, which we recommend our customers use to get that ODBC connection.
Article

FAQs about Performance Navigator

Thu, 07/12/2018
Will this product hurt the performance of my IBM i®? You will not even notice that the product is working. The data gathering software is already part of the OS. I currently have a subscription to IBM's PM for Power service. How is Performance Navigator compared to PM? Glad you asked... Performance Navigator uses exactly the same input as PM for Power, Collection Services....