Convert your physical Windows XP workstation to a virtual machine.

Written by Jarek Miszczyk

Virtualization has recently become ubiquitous and is rapidly gaining ground in complex data centers as well as on personal computers. One concept that you may have encountered in the context of virtualization is physical to virtual (P2V) system migration. P2V boils down to a process that allows you to take a snapshot image of a fully functional physical system, inject the drivers and configuration artifacts required by the target hypervisor, and deploy the image in a virtual machine (VM). Here are some obvious benefits of running your workload in a virtual machine rather than on a physical system:

You simply don't know without Robot/SPACE.

Written by Tom Huntington

When you reorganize a file in IBM i, the operating system locks users out of the file, which could mean no access to an entire application. So, why reorganize files? You do it because deleted records take up extra space if files are never reorganized.

Analyze your iSeries performance more effectively.

Written by Sandra Chromey

Is your system running poorly and you don't understand why? Is the CPU underutilized, but customers are complaining about jobs taking too long? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the thought of managing your iSeries all on your own? Wouldn't it be great if you could talk to the performance experts and have them assess your situation?

Be secure with your data during FTP transactions.

Written by Tom Huntington

Do you feel like you have little control over the FTP processes that transfer data amongst your various systems in your network? Are these events coordinated, or do they happen whenever someone decides to send data? Do your night operators send data to other servers as part of their duties? Have you ever missed a critical milestone in your night processing because data was late?

Marketing wants Web analytics in a simple and modern view to validate campaigns.

Written by Floyd Del Muro

Perhaps your ISP gives you canned reports on Web site activity that don't show you what you need to know or don't offer very good historical reporting. Or perhaps you'd like a better way to do more in-depth or ad hoc analysis. If your organization would like to improve how it tracks, reports, and analyzes Web site activity, consider Help/Systems' SEQUEL for the task.

Save time by automatically opening tickets for hardware errors, job errors, application errors, security errors, device errors, backup errors, or software errors.

Written by Tom Huntington

Do your operators or help desk staff open problem tickets manually? Are there situations when opening these tickets automatically to cut time and effort would make sense?

Your business operations could be adversely affected by changes if you're not aware those changes happened.

Written by Donnie MacColl

For many system administrators, a big part of their IT team's challenge is to watch for critical changes that could impact business operations and report these back to the right people at the right time.

It depends on what kind of business you're running, but some examples might be stock levels falling below a critical level, or a share price falling or rising beyond a pre-set value, or the number of jobs or processes running in a critical ERP application at a specific time being less than what you expect.

Install IBM i over a Network File System (NFS) server using virtual optical media and enjoy the freedom of automation!

Written by Dan Boyum and Dave Snyder

The IBM i Network Install process uses virtual optical devices within a Network File System (NFS) network for installation. With new enhancements in IBM i 6.1, users now have the ability to perform installations and operating system upgrades across their networks to other IBM i partitions. In addition, users can also load PTFs or restore data via a Virtual Media Image (VMI), all without having to manually FTP the data to additional partitions. This huge advance in the IBM i installation realm will provide users with even more efficiency and flexibility in managing today's complex system environments.

Why should you use IBM i Network Install? It's quick, easy, and efficient.