Article
Insight On Demand: One-Click IBM i Performance Investigations
By Kurt Thomas on Mon, 10/10/2016
In a manual monitoring environment, for every issue that arises, there is often a multiple-step investigation process to accompany it.
Article
The Commercial Power of SQL-Based Monitoring
By Kurt Thomas on Thu, 09/15/2016
The SQL-based monitoring feature in Robot Monitor means organizations can now apply the valuable insights, analysis, and real-time notifications that they use for system information to information from broader business applications.
Blog
Big Data? BIG DEAL!
By Kurt Thomas on Tue, 08/30/2016
With the dawn of the big data era upon us, what can IBM i systems administrators expect in terms of the demands that will be placed upon them and what kind of resources will be required to cope? Find out what the managed services industry can teach us today about what the future holds for us tomorrow.
Article
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
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.
Blog
Who's Afraid of IASPs?
By Tom Huntington on Tue, 08/16/2016
As IASP technology continues to grow, so will its uses for high availability (HA) and backups. The result of that will be shrinking hardware costs and complexity and increased redundancy.
Article
Robot and FlashCopy
By Tom Huntington on Tue, 08/16/2016
Last month, Chuck Stupca (retired IBMer) and Chuck Losinski (Fortra) presented a webinar discussing FlashCopy for IBM i. Based on the attendance, it looks like this is a very important topic for many of you so I wanted to explain how FlashCopy ties to Robot products.
Article
Robot Best Practices
By Tom Huntington on Mon, 06/27/2016
Wondering about best practices for automating your IBM i processes with Robot systems management solutions? Take a look at this list and get off to a good start.
Article
Is the i Ready for the Three Vs of Big Data?
By Tom Huntington on Mon, 06/27/2016
The three Vs of big data are volume, velocity, and variety, but in order derive value from big data, IT departments need tools to store massive amounts of data (volume) and make sure it is always available for quick analysis (velocity).
Case Study
Fortra Automates Report Delivery at Ullico
Reports are an essential part of all businesses. Among other purposes, they help organizations to better manage and control their operations. But what if managing those documents placed an unnecessary burden on the enterprise? Paper-based reports do exactly that.
Case Study
Robot Space Tracks Data Growth Across 10 Banks for Heartland Financial
With a goal of doubling in size every five to seven years, Heartland Financial needed a tool to help them track, manage, and control their disk growth as their business expands.
Case Study
Fortra Makes Proactive Monitoring Child’s Play for Mattel
Robot Monitor helps Mattel avoid a system crash with immediate visibility. Find out how proactive IBM i monitoring means system issues never toy with Mattel.