Resources

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
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.
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
Article

Monitor, Capture, and Send Log Events With Powertech SIEM Agent for IBM i

By Robin Tatam on Sun, 08/21/2016
In recent years, regulatory initiatives like Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, PCI, and GLBA have placed increased emphasis on the need to monitor and secure sensitive information. For example, The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard dictates one of the most stringent requirements of all—logs must be reviewed daily, and a minimum of three months of logs must be available for analysis.
IBM i Cybersecurity
Blog

IT Security Compliance 101

By Robin Tatam on Sun, 08/21/2016
In this compliance 101 primer, we'll look at three high-profile breaches from the past year, each of which shows what can go wrong when data oversight isn't up to snuff. Along the way, we'll discuss some basic fixes that can help shore up network defenses.
Compliance
IBM i Cybersecurity
Guide

13 Tips to Write Secure Applications and Boost IBM i Security

Barely a day passes without new headlines reporting another cyber attack, policy violation, or data breach. Secretly, we breathe a sigh of relief that it happened to someone else, but most of us know that we’ll all eventually feel the impact in some capacity.
IBM i Cybersecurity
Guide

Download “How IT Professionals Can Navigate PCI DSS Compliance” Guide

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) applies to every organization that processes credit or debit card information. This includes merchants and third-party service providers that store, process, or transmit credit card data.The launch of PCI DSS helped expose serious security shortcomings, failures to follow security best practices, and a...
Compliance
IT Infrastructure Protection
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.
IBM i Automation
Guide

Self-Audit: Checking Assumptions at the Door

Sysadmins, devops engineers, and cybersecurity personnel are often kept awake by a number of questions. How should I monitor my monitoring to be sure it will alert me when there is a security issue that needs my intervention? How can I be sure that the servers and processes in the environment haven’t been rooted already? In the quest to get better sleep, it is a good idea to self-audit your...
Compliance
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.
Automation
Monitoring
Case Study

Bank of Stockton Turns to Fortra for Reliable, Error-Free Operations

Founded in 1867, Bank of Stockton has always been at the forefront of banking technology innovation. With 17 branches in five counties across central California, Bank of Stockton is known as a community bank with a reputation for continually investing in new technology-based products and services to better serve its customers. Whether working to attract and retain customers, protect privacy, or...
Automation