Tivoli Systems was founded in 1989 to provide scalable, cross-platform systems management solutions. If you worked exclusively with AS/400 servers, you may have missed the IBM purchase of Tivoli in March 1996. Back then, Tivoli had no products to manage your AS/400 environment; it was focused on providing management solutions for large configurations consisting of UNIX and Intel-based servers. But all that has changed. Today, Tivoli provides a wide range of capabilities for managing your AS/400 environment, including capabilities that complement Operations Navigator (OpsNav) and Management Central.

How does Tivoli define systems management? How is Tivoli’s definition different from the usual AS/400-centric definition? To comprehend the difference, you need to think about the AS/400—or any networked computing system in your organization—as an asset. This is a key conceptual element of the Tivoli design. By using the concept of an asset, Tivoli is able to create a powerful definition of systems management: It is the ability to manage a single IT asset, a group of networked assets, or the entire IT infrastructure throughout the life cycle of the assets. Tivoli automates the labor-intensive tasks inherent in the configuration and the management processes associated with networked computing assets. Why is this important? For any computing environment—small or large—that has become complex due to heterogeneous servers or distributed servers and clients, Tivoli provides a powerful strategy that makes everything more manageable. This ability to centrally survey and interact with all clients and servers in a networked environment improves ease of use, uptime, performance, asset management, and security, all of which can significantly reduce the total cost of ownership.

AS/400 Systems Management Strategy

You’re probably already using some of IBM’s systems management tools and products such as Management Central and Performance Management/400. With Tivoli, you can have enhanced functionality that will extend your ability to manage your AS/400 environment. To understand where Tivoli fits, let’s first look at the AS/400 strategy for systems management. IBM calls it a three-pillar strategy. It consists of the native AS/400 systems management functions that are an integral part of the OS/400 operating system (e.g., Management Central and Operations Navigator), Partner Solutions that are targeted at specific areas of systems management, and Tivoli solutions for AS/400. Together, the three

components of this strategy provide a wide range of complementary systems management capabilities with functionality that has increased with each new OS/400 release.

Let’s look briefly at the first two pillars and compare them to what Tivoli has to offer. We will focus on the AS/400 environments that can be managed and the functionality provided by systems management applications.

Management Central

Management Central provides systems management capabilities for AS/400 servers. These AS/400 servers may be the primary servers in large complex networks, standalone servers, multiple AS/400 servers in small- and medium-size business environments, or distributed AS/400 servers. Management Central is integrated with OS/400 and, therefore, comes preloaded on every AS/400 system. However, it can not manage heterogeneous systems.

Management Central alone offers object and file distribution, PTF management and distribution, remote command execution, real-time performance monitoring and performance data collection, and inventory management for hardware and software resources. You can apply management operations and administrative functions to a single system or specified groups of systems. These functions include the scheduling and execution of repeatable unattended management tasks, automated actions based on threshold conditions, and the deployment of vendor solutions via OpsNav plug-ins.

Since it is delivered with OS/400, Management Central is an integrated part of OpsNav, the GUI version of the system console that runs on a PC client. Management Central also allows a central AS/400 server to manage one or more endpoint AS/400s. Central system and endpoint function can reside on the same AS/400.

Partner Solutions

The Partner Solutions program extends systems management on the AS/400 by enabling IBM Business Partners to create additional functions to work with OS/400 starting with V4R3; new and enhanced solutions were added with V4R4. The purpose of this program is

to fill systems management needs that were not addressed by Management Central. Current solutions include extensions in performance and availability monitoring, paging and messaging, job scheduling, and security auditing and control.

As good as they are, Management Central and Partner Solutions are aimed entirely at AS/400 systems management only. But what if you need to manage different server platforms, such as Microsoft Windows NT, along with the AS/400 in your environment and you desire a consistent management scheme across all the platforms? Enter Tivoli.

Tivoli Fundamentals

In the years since its acquisition by IBM, Tivoli has come a long way in providing open, scalable, cross-platform solutions for managing heterogeneous networks for a mix of server and client workstation platforms—including the AS/400. Tivoli offers three product suites: IT Director for small and midsize businesses; Management Suites for midsize and large organizations; and Tivoli Enterprise for large, global enterprises.

How does your AS/400 environment fit into a systems management scheme with Tivoli products? IT Director is built on a two-tier architecture. The components of IT Director’s two-tier architecture are shown in Figure 1:

1. Management Server, which resides on an AS/400 or NT server and provides the management functions and tasks associated with the resources, or objects, being managed.

2. Management Agents, which consist of three supported types: PCs, network devices
(e.g., printers and routers), and systems that run IT Director native agent code (e.g., AS/400, NT, and NetWare). Agents are the source of management information and data.

Management Console supports this two-tier architecture but is not itself considered a tier. Management Console provides the user interface to all IT Director functions and runs on the Windows desktop as well as from a Web browser. When users activate the Management Console, they will see three panels. The first panel consists of logical sets of resources that need to be managed. This is called Groups. For example, all systems running Windows NT might comprise one group. The second panel contains Group Contents, which provides a view of the resources in a selected group. For example, this panel lists each system running Windows NT. The third panel contains the tasks, which are lists of management activities or functions that an administrator can perform against groups or individual resources. For example, these functions may be security or maintenance.

Compared to IT Director, Management Suites and Tivoli Enterprise are built on a three-tier architecture, which includes Management Server, Management Agents, and Gateways. In these two products, Gateways comprise the third tier and provide the basis for scalability and openness.

With IT Director, an AS/400 can be a management server that supports the management agent. IT Director for AS/400 can scale up to 1,500 seats.

IT Director’s Solutions to Business Challenges

There are many tasks involved in keeping your IT shop operational. Your business is highly dependent upon the availability of up-to-date applications and smooth-running equipment. IT must provide a high level of service to both its internal and external customers. The Internet has driven many corporations to employ much shorter delivery cycles and 24/7 operation schedules to stay competitive. It is no longer satisfactory to run IT via the sneakernet and hand-calculated spreadsheets. Today, IT managers must deliver timely business answers to the owner, president, chief operating officer, or chief financial officer. Managers increasingly find that business questions and daily fire drills stretch their staff to work 12-hour and 18-hour days. Today’s IT professionals must have answers to the following business questions at their fingertips:

• What equipment and software licenses do we have?

• How current is each asset?

• What is the availability of the asset for use?

• Is the asset healthy?

• Is the asset performing properly?

• Which assets need to be upgraded?

• Are there any outstanding problems?

• Can my customers get resource availability, information, and software downloads from a company intranet?

IT Director is designed to help your IT staff find the answers to these common business management issues, both efficiently and effectively, in one integrated product. Figure 2 describes some common business problems and indicates the technologies and solutions that IT Director offers.

IT Director Components

IT Director’s Tivoli Management Console is a graphical environment that presents several smart tools for solving business issues (see Figure 2). The console works with Tivoli Management Server to perform tasks on behalf of the user. These tasks can be configured to function automatically on the assets (hardware or software) shown in the captured inventory.

IT Director Functions

IT Director is a comprehensive set of tools that allow you to manage systems and applications that communicate directly with Management Server; this enables your IT staff to perform the following business tasks:

• Track assets. An asset can be any server or client that is attached to a host AS/400. IT Director allows you to create a database that will easily and accurately track the company’s assets throughout their life cycle.

In this way, you can get a good handle on your inventory so that you can better manage your IT infrastructure. This is accomplished with the Tivoli Inventory tool. IT Director supports basic queries and provides a mechanism to build custom queries. This reporting function allows your IT staff to create reports that assist in planning for business growth and asset upgrades.

• Prepare assets. IT Director can prepare an asset so that it can be automatically deployed, upgraded, and monitored. It allows application packages to be distributed to an asset, upgraded, and maintained. IT Director can also define software distribution packages, which can be applied using InstallShield or a Microsoft package definition file. In addition, IT Director can perform such tasks as file transfer, file manipulation, device driver updates, and system file replacement—on local and remote systems.

• Centralize operations. IT Director provides remote control of the GUI desktop of PCs and remote execution of commands on systems without a GUI (e.g., AS/400). The process management feature provides the capability to start, stop, and monitor applications and processes on remote systems. IT Director allows for faster and more accurate problem resolution by remotely controlling the desktop GUI on native managed systems and displaying the remote system’s desktop on the IT Director Management Console.

• Monitor resources. IT Director provides tools to automate problem detection, monitor resource health, view usage of critical resources, and automate execution of programs to resolve the situation. IT Director enables you to view statistics on critical system resources, the CPU, disk, and network protocols. You can monitor and record data, create graphs, and generate events when thresholds are exceeded.

• Automate events. IT Director handles automatic event detection and program execution. With event management, IT Director enables you to view the event log for a managed system and create event action plans to associate an event with a desired action such as sending an email and starting a program.

• Create access. IT Director takes advantage of Internet technologies by delivering systems management information to general users. A systems management home page allows users to query system status, request software distribution packages, and view resource events. You can send email and news group postings via Webcasting.

It’s a Wrap

IT Director plays a key role in making the AS/400 three-pillar strategy robust because it provides end-to-end management of all hardware and software. IT Director is an effective way to manage heterogeneous servers in small and midsize AS/400 shops. If you have a large IT shop with numerous resources and need a highly scalable solution, it is a good idea to take a look at Tivoli Enterprise. There is some overlap of function among IBM’s three pillars; thus, if you are considering the implementation of two or more of the pillar strategies, you should dig a level or two deeper to make sure you are making informed choices about which products best fit your unique environment.

It is imperative when making the decision to implement systems management, especially in an end-to-end design, that all important business and IT functions are identified. The size of the organization (like the number of seats), as well as the number and types of servers, are important factors; however, the complexity of the business environment, maturity of IT processes, size of the IT staff, and amount of high-end event correlation are also important and must be weighed.

REFERENCES AND RELATED MATERIALS

• AS/400 Partner Solutions: www.as400.ibm.com/sftsol/partners.htm
• AS/400 Systems Management: www.as400.ibm.com/beyondtech/ sys_mgmt.htm
• Management Central Functions: www.as400.ibm.com/sftsol/func.htm
• Management Central Overview: www.as400.ibm.com/sftsol/overview.htm
• Tivoli Web site: www.tivoli.com

Management Server

NT Server

Management Console

Management Agents

Network

Printer

AS/400 Servers

Figure 1: The systems management software resides in IT Director’s two- tier architecture.

Management Issue Technology IT Director Solution

Track Assets DMI, CIM, SNMP, Tivoli Inventory & Software Management

Native Agents, Microsoft Clustering Service, Multi-platform Manager

Prepare Assets Application Management Application Management

Specification (AMS) File Transfer

Software Distribution

Centralize Operations Command Execution Remote Control

Desktop Control Process Management

Monitor Resources SNMP, Tivoli Native Agents, Resource Monitors DMI, CIM, Microsoft Clustering Service, Multi-platform Manager

Automate Events Event Action Plans Event Management

Tivoli Native Agents Task Schedule

Create Access Webcasting Systems Management Home Page

Webcasting Email and News Action Handlers

Figure 2: Tivoli IT Director can solve many business management issues.

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