Resources
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 too much over the...
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. Performance Navigator...
Article

The Many Ways Robot Supports SNMP

By Chuck Losinski on Fri, 02/23/2018
Many devices send status updates using SNMP or simple network management protocol. Make sure you’re getting the message. Read on to see how Robot supports SNMP.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring
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.
Monitoring