Choosing a performance-management or capacity-planning tool largely depends on whether you think your bottlenecks are primarily caused by hardware, applications, or databases.

Written by John Ghrist

Let's face it; we're spoiled. If you look at computing strictly from the user point of view, we're all ready to call "slow" any application or system that can't keep up with human decision-making speed. If the computer isn't ready to take the next input on which we've already decided or doesn't provide the information we need the nanosecond we're ready to read it, we notice and we're unhappy.

When in doubt, throw it out. Back it up first, but yes…throw it out.

Written by Steve Pitcher

Irony can be a funny thing. Last week, with the subject matter of this article in my mind, I ran into a sticky situation when our little AS/400 Model 170 started sending messages to the QSYSOPR message queue stating that "a serious storage condition may exist." We do a nightly backup of production data on this machine to save files and then transfer them to our primary IBM i 515 server. Eventually, they get moved to the nightly LTO.

And how does that product relate to System i Navigator and Systems Director?

Written by Robert Bestgen and Tim Rowe

Managing your IBM i has been a focus item of IBM's for the past few releases. Users want a consolidated, easy-to-use, modern interface for managing their system. With the release of the new IBM i 7.1 version of the operating system, the development team has continued this theme, adding a number of important enhancements to the systems management console.

If monitoring your cache battery is a "back burner" task, you could be making a big mistake.

Written by Greer Hahn

Editor's Note: This article is an extract from the white paper "Four Things You Should Know About Cache Battery," which is available free at the MC Press White Paper Center.

The white paper "Four Things You Should Know About Cache Battery" explores the issues and challenges surrounding cache battery monitoring for users managing IBM i servers, including Power Systems and System i environments. Written by one of the industry's leading authorities on system and performance management, CCSS, the paper has been created as a response to the surge of interest flowing from data centers where the dependence on machine availability, the necessity for data integrity, and audit compliance regulations leave no margin for error.

IBM i provides a wealth of valuable system management information, but third-party tools are required to put it to effective use.

Written by Bill Hammond

Editor's Note: This article is extracted from the white paper "Executive Overview: Simplifying the Management of IBM i Environments" available free at the MC White Paper Center.

Despite being one of the easiest systems to administer, IBM i is neither self-managing nor self-optimizing. Consequently, even a formerly well-tuned IBM i system may develop bottlenecks over time.

Not sure you want to buy? Take it for a test-drive!

Written by Greg Hintermeister

When evaluating systems management software, it can be very easy to focus on the low-level technical details to decide if it can provide your business with what is required to make your data center run smoothly. However, at some point, you need to ask yourself the question: "Does this software support the real-world scenarios I need to make my business better?" In this article, I describe some of the features that IBM Systems Director provides to help you decide where it fits in your data center's future.

Eliminate expensive, error-prone manual checking of system health.

Written by Martin Norman

Editor's Note: This article is extracted from the white paper "51 Things You Can Automate on Your System i (iSeries)—and Prove Return on Investment," which can be downloaded free from the MC Press White Paper Center.

When you're running busy System i (iSeries) machines, many important events can happen that do not generate a systems message on the operating system. Because a message is not generated, these things are never brought directly to your attention. More importantly, these events can lead to holdups in processing or even that cardinal sin: unscheduled downtime.

Nearly 1,500 register to hear Soltis webcast where Vision Solutions introduces upgraded Vision Director.

Written by Chris Smith

Your system is running slower than it should and you're using up DASD faster than you can afford. What to do about it? a) Throw yourself on your spear and spend hours every week cleaning and optimizing your computer; b) Hire a consultant to come in and do it for you at company expense, or c) Find a reliable tool that will run constantly in the background and automatically optimize your system for you. Let's see—that's a tough choice! 

The problem of maintaining an optimized System i or Power System was addressed last Thursday by Vision Solutions and guest speaker Dr. Frank Soltis, considered the father of the AS/400, and a member of the Vision Advisory Board. The webcast, titled "Critical Tips to Get the Most from Your System i," was held to increase awareness of the need for system optimization in advance of the company's release next month of V8 of Vision Director, a system monitoring and optimization tool that has been significantly upgraded in the forthcoming release. Nearly 1,500 viewers registered for the webcast, which is available online for replay.