An old saying referred to unusual things as "neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring." This meant an item could not be classified because it would not fit into the usual categories. The term itself was an allusion to the eating habits of the time: Monks and those in religious orders ate fish, the common people subsisted on flesh (i.e., the meat of animals), and the poor had to be content with red herring. In time, this old saying evolved into our modern clich? "neither fish nor fowl" and became a spiritual big sister to an even more common designation?D) none of the above.

AS/400 system management software is neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring. It encompasses a category of software so big that it almost defies categorization. The term itself overlaps and squeezes and folds and shimmies into so many different subcategories that it is sometimes difficult to define precisely what it is.

In this Buyer's Guide, I'll delve into the mystery of system management softwareand offer you some clues on what to look for when making a purchase. I'll look at some common types of products and some of their features. By the time I'm finished, you'll have a good idea about what to expect when you take that first bite out of a system management software package.

OK, So What Is It?

System management software simplifies the administration of one or more AS/400s. It covers packages as diverse as automatic paging systems, resource tracking and chargeback systems, job schedulers, UPS monitors, security auditing, network administration, and automatic PTF distribution. A system management package can be run from an AS/400 or a PC operating on the network.

The biggest single characteristic of a system management package is that its primary user is the MIS department. It's a budgetary gift for you instead of your users and, if integrated into your shop correctly, it will make your life happier (i.e., you can go home after 10 hours of work instead of 12, as you usually do).

The criteria used to select a package depends on your current needs. Let's look at a few options and see what you might want to think about when shopping for yourself. To simplify matters, we are going to look at only three specific types of system management software: automatic paging software; resource tracking packages; and operations management software. That way, you can get a taste of what's available and use our vendor list to find one that offers the type of package you're looking for.

Fish?Automatic Paging Systems

A popular package for the AS/400 is automatic paging. With this type of software, your system can automatically page any number of people when certain events occur.

The advantages are obvious. When your job goes down in the middle of the night, the AS/400 can make the decision on which expert to call without having a night operator monitoring the system. If your operations staff works on an hourly basis, automatic paging might decrease the time they need to be in-house, allowing them to be on call and reducing your payroll. The minute something happens, a page is sent out and the appropriate people are alerted.

Before buying a paging package, there are six areas to consider.

Equipment?Will the paging software work with your current equipment? Can it be set up to use your Electronic Customer Support (ECS) line or a Hayes-compatible modem? Most ECS lines are seldom used, so, if you can leverage its purchase by adding paging capability, you will come out ahead. This also speaks to whether you need to buy extra hardware in addition to what you already have. MIS budgets being what they are, the more you can squeeze out of your existing capabilities, the better.

Message Queue Monitoring?To what extent can the software monitor your message queues? Can it monitor any queue, including QHST? Can other options, such as responding to a CL message, be selected instead of automatically paging someone? The more flexible a package is in dealing with message queues, the better off you'll be.

Escalation and Page Monitoring?If an important event happens that needs to be responded to now, how will the package help you? Many packages offer escalation tables that give instructions on what to do if a page is not answered. Pager batteries often die unexpectedly or?and we all know this would never happen in our own shops?an expert may ignore a page. How often will the package repage? Does it have capabilities to monitor if it's been answered and to page other experts if the first page is ignored? What happens after the page goes out can be as important as actually sending the page out.

Desktop Paging?Does the package allow users to send pages directly from their terminals or workstations? Can the users maintain their own list of people to page? By offering users desktop paging, you make the package do double duty. It can help you automate your internal AS/400 operations and help your users by providing an easy-to-use paging system.

Compatibility and Capability?Is the package compatible with the pagers and paging system your company uses? What type of messages can be sent to the pager and how many characters can an individual message contain? Can it attach sender information, such as the creating job or user, to the page? Again, the more flexible a package can be in this regard, the better off you'll be.

Scheduling?Can reminder pages be sent out at a specific date and time? In certain instances, this feature may come in handy for noncritical functions. Can the software handle this?

Flesh?Resource Tracking Systems

In the eyes of your company, the AS/400 is a resource. For many of us, it's an extremely limited resource that has to be allocated, prodded, examined, and tweaked to run correctly. You may have an undersized system that needs every trick in the book to make it run right. Which jobs are using too much CPU? How many printouts does each function produce monthly? Why is the system running so slowly? These are all questions you have to answer.

Resource tracking and chargeback systems examine your system from a usage perspective. They identify the most active users and the resources they are consuming. This information helps you plan for expansion and you can also use it to charge individual departments according to time and materials, just like an auto mechanic. They are also helpful in identifying system bottlenecks that hold up your other production jobs.

Resource tracking packages serve three functions: 1) to categorize system usage by users or departments; 2) to provide a billing program for charging individual departments and users for their AS/400 usage; and 3) to report on system usage so that you can back up requests for expanded hardware and software expenditures with solid facts.

These packages work on the basic premise that you must understand your system before you can control it. Their primary purpose is to identify where your AS/400 resources are going.

Most packages collect usage data from a job and user viewpoint. They report on disk, CPU, and printer usage, and the information can get pretty detailed. Resource reports can show you total job time, response time, CPU time, transaction counts, and printout production in a number of different sort sequences (including by user, department, accounting code, library, or object type).

Getting this information can be a real boon to your shop. In the past year, for example, paper pulp prices have increased significantly. In addition to making comic books and newspapers more expensive, they've also shot giant holes in many MIS managers' paper budgets. If you can identify the key users of reports in an organization and then shift that information from hard copy to display screens, you can make a pretty good reduction in your operating budget. On another angle, if specific users and jobs are slowing down your system, you can plan projects to reduce their usage of the system, such as scheduling memory-intensive reports and update procedures during off hours.

In this way, a resource tracking program can be a departmental planning aid, showing you the areas that can be improved to reduce costs and speed up the system. Most packages give you flexible reporting choices so you can back up your capital requests with some hard statistics about what is happening and why you need to change it.

But the real reason most people buy these packages (and the one that lights up a corporate controller's eyes) is that they can be used to actually bill users for AS/400 resources used. The theory here is that, if people are being charged for computer access, they'll be less likely to waste resources. After all, it's coming out of their budgets. Many packages allow you to slice, dice, and accumulate charges in a variety of ways. This can be an effective way of financing your MIS function as well as making people aware of how they and the company are using the system. On the negative side, it can adversely affect automation efforts if users avoid using the AS/400 to keep their departmental expenses down. It can also cause resentment of the MIS function as users have to budget for computer access (which is considered an inalienable right by most people).

Good Red Herring?Operations Management Software

Each system management package plays its own role. Paging systems are purchased for emergency technical assistance. Resource tracking packages are management systems that tell you who is gobbling up resources and how to plan for the future. But our last category, operations management software, is valuable because it automates those day-to-day functions that must be accomplished or your business stops running.

This subcategory covers a lot of ground. A job scheduling system is an operations package. So are network control and monitoring packages, file and object distribution programs, and report distribution software. Their primary user is neither the MIS manager nor the technical professionals; it is the operations staff that actually runs the jobs, distributes the reports, backs up the disk drives, and deals with the constant demands of your users who, by the way, can never seem to get their output fast enough. The primary goal of this subcategory is to get the work done.

One of the more popular types of operations management packages is job scheduling software. Virtually every AS/400 shop in the world would like to automate its operations schedule and save on staff and overtime while ensuring consistent system performance. A job scheduler automates the process for submitting jobs to the AS/400. Jobs can be started or stopped according to different parameters and a number of different scheduling schemes can be used.

There's much to consider when choosing a job scheduling package. Some of the more common features follow:

Calendar Scheduling?A series of calendars in the software lists the different jobs to run that day. With this feature, you can enter different schedules for holidays and for your fiscal month and year end. This feature allows you to tailor the package around your company's working schedule.

Conditional or Complex Scheduling?This feature allows you to schedule for unknown and unusual events. Many packages allow you to schedule jobs based on the successful or unsuccessful completion of other jobs. If a job gets put on hold or canceled, all of its successor jobs will be held as well. Different sets of jobs can be scheduled based on different events happening. It allows you to set up a series of domino chains in which the deciding factor in running a job is whether all its required predecessor jobs have run and completed successfully. This offers you the flexibility to schedule your shop according to its own unique factors and to run your jobs accordingly.

Automated Schedule Creation?Most packages allow you to build your automated schedules one piece at a time, through manual input. Some of the newer packages, however, provide a learning function in which the system will create a schedule based on the jobs you entered manually. The software will watch you as you submit jobs and build an automated schedule based on what you did. This schedule can then be run "as is" or it can form a template for further improvements to your automated system.

Report Distribution?This feature allows you not only to automate your job scheduling but also to automate your report distribution. This means you can automate the routing, monitoring, and control of all output reports, saving your staff time and money in trying to keep up with these changes themselves.

Bon App?tit

In this Buyer's Guide, I've barely scratched the surface of all the features and functions that system management software offers. However, by knowing who the vendors are and what some of the issues are, you'll be in a better position to evaluate packages against your organization's needs when the time comes.

Joe Hertvik is a freelance writer and a system administrator for a manufacturing company outside of Chicago.

Vendor Information

Advanced Solutions

Integration Corporation

2320 Carson Dr.

Waxhaw, NC 28173

704-843-6844

fax: 704-843-6843

ASIC offers System Automator, Message Director, Network Harmonizer, and Resource Accounting application programs for the AS/400. Features include job scheduling, batch procedures, and centralized management for networked environments. Automated Touch-Tone and alphanumeric paging functions include flexible message filtering with automated routing, replies, and command execution. Resource accounting offers budget and capacity planning, chargeback tracking, and resource management.

Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.

1300 Woodfield Rd., Suite 310

Schaumburg, IL 60173

708-605-1311

fax: 708-605-1912

STATUS is a resource tracking and chargeback system to help track system usage by determining who is using a system, when it is being used, and how much of its capacity remains. STATUS allocates charges by providing a chargeback option to assess charges for systems resources such as application processing, development time, and printer usage. STATUS evaluates system capacity by determining if system resources need to be increased, decreased, or re-allocated.

ASNA

P.O. Box 1668

Big Bear, CA 92315

800-321-2762

fax: 909-866-9009

ELIMIN8 is a multipurpose tool for AS/400 system management. ELIMIN8 provides unattended operations, system monitoring, and security, and it helps operators manage jobs and users. These tasks are accomplished using a single command. Custom job management functions can be written in CL. With ELIMIN8, you are assured of the integrity of critical system functions such as SAVOBJ and SAVLIB.

Baber Information Services, Inc.

2311 Texas Dr., Suite 108

Irving, TX 75062

214-257-1878

fax: 214-252-2699

Baber's Systems Management Tools include Job Scheduler, for scheduling and job control organized by job dependencies, date and time, or file arrival. Baber's Pager program allows automatic paging from the AS/400. Message filtering and message escalation come built-in. Disk Manager analyzes AS/400 disk usage and charts disk growth. The Computer Assets Manager provides information on existing devices, maintenance providers, and expiration dates of service contracts.

Bytware, Inc.

11471 Sutton Way, Suite 204

Grass Valley, CA 95945

800-932-5557; 916-273-4595

fax: 916-273-4593

Bytware's Systems Message Management and Paging software monitors any number of message queues, including QHST, on multiple remote and local AS/400s. The software contains flexible message filtering and pager scheduling features. It can route messages to another workstation or remote AS/400, and it optionally responds to messages on remote and local systems. The software offers immediate message notification to one person or a group of people through alphanumeric pagers and supports automatic problem escalation, broadcast lists, and on-call paging.

DDL Systems Consulting, Inc.

184 Wexford Rd.

Valparaiso, IN 46383

219-465-7333

fax: 219-531-0493

ACO Pager Version 2.1 provides AS/400 users with 24-hour system monitoring with paging capabilities. Network administrators are immediately notified of system and application events as they occur on your AS/400(s). Version 2.1 offers new list panel maintenance programs, expanded pop-up windows, delayed paging functions, UIM field level help, enhanced message history, and the ability to send broadcast messages to group call lists. The program can also perform AS/400 command prompting and control message queues.

Generic Software, Inc.

P. O. Box 1604

Madison, MS 39130

800-698-5669

fax: 601-853-1152

Generic Software, Inc. offers two solutions for AS/400 system management: PageWay, an AS/400-based paging product; and Schedule Master, a flexible, batch job scheduler. PageWay allows users and applications to send pages directly from an AS/400 to both numeric and/or alphanumeric pagers, using local or national paging companies. Schedule Master allows users to automate repetitive batch jobs. Schedule Master handles complex scheduling requirements and can schedule around holidays, nonworkdays, and completion status of previously scheduled jobs.

Help/Systems, Inc.

210 Baker Plaza

6101 Baker Rd.

Minnetonka, MN 55345

612-933-0609

fax: 612-933-8153

Robot/NETWORK 5.0 is network control software. With Robot/NETWORK 5.0, any network application can send status information to the host system in the event of a problem. Help/Systems, Inc.'s products and user-defined applications appear on the status center sorted by the severity level of the status. Robot/NETWORK 5.0's graphical user interface (GUI) displays a system's status, decreases clutter, utilizes distinct sounds as alerts, and lets the user select the icon displayed for each application.

IBM

800-426-2255, or see your IBM representative.

The AS/400 offers system management functions under the SystemView for OS/400 name. The SystemView System Manager/400 provides central site distribution, remote operations, and software and problem management. Managed System Services/400 receives and executes operations from a central site. Job Scheduler for OS/400 allows unattended and automated operation. LANServer/400 enables LAN-based file serving on the AS/400. IBM Omegamon/400 provides network monitoring and task automation. Manageware/400 automates the management of client software.

Informaticus International

625 Overton St.

Newport, KY 41071

606-581-1800

fax: 606-261-4541

Scheduler lets you run your AS/400 in an unattended mode and lets you establish a schedule of when jobs can be run. Jobs may be run on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis at any time of the day or night. You may also select to have a job run on a particular day or days of the week. After a job is submitted for processing, the job is rescheduled for the next processing cycle.

JBA International

3701 Algonquin Rd., Suite 100

Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

800-522-4685; 708-590-0299

fax: 708-590-0049

JBA's System 21 System Manager contains application and machine management functions that allow businesses to unlock the full potential of their hardware and software investment. These functions reduce the effort required to install, configure, and manage software and hardware environments. JBA System 21 Manager has five components: Application Manager, Machine Manager, Housekeeping, Network Manager, and Administration Functions.

Kisco Information Systems

40 W. Main St., Suite 6B

Mt. Kisco, NY 10549

914-241-7233

fax: 914-241-9140

Remote Batch Control (RBC) facilitates communications between AS/400s. RBC provides important functions such as automatic report routing between attached systems, starting a job on another system, including passing parameters, and sending or retrieving files from remote systems. RBC can distribute objects to remote systems and send messages to any user on remote systems with no Systems Network Architecture Distribution Services (SNADS) overhead and no confusing SNADS commands or configuration.

LXI Corporation

222 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Suite 1455

Irving, TX 75039

214-444-2323

fax: 214-444-2350

LXI provides a full suite of system management software for the AS/400. The Console is a real-time interactive message managing program that automatically answers system messages, executes job streams based on a specific message, and performs restricted functions such as SAVSYS and NONSYS. LXI Job Scheduler maximizes AS/400 processing capabilities of your operations by automating day-to-day tasks. MasterPage is an AS/400 unattended message monitoring and paging system that provides automatic notification when system or application messages occur.

Macro 4 Inc.

35 Waterview Blvd.

Parsippany, NJ 07054

201-402-8000

fax: 201-402-5656

AutoJob manages, controls, and maximizes the operation of all AS/400 batch work, including unattended backups, overnight reports, updates, and report distribution. Jobs can be triggered as a result of a specific event, or they can be time-sensitive. AutoJob will automatically hunt for empty job queues at scheduling time and submit jobs to those queues. An automatic pager monitors system messages when no one is in the office and alerts staff to problems as they occur.

Macro 4's AS/400 Automated Operations System Management Software manages, controls, and maximizes the operation of all batch work, making unattended operations possible.

MBA

810 S. Cincinnati, Suite 105

Tulsa, OK 74119

918-587-1500, ext. 104

fax: 918-587-1526

AS/Manager products ease routine operational tasks and offer a set of automated operations tools for the AS/400. These products provide full automation of activities for job scheduling, backup and recovery, media management, AS/400 paging, help desk problem management, UPS power monitoring, and OV/400 document archival and retrieval. All of the products provide menu options for tailoring to the user's specific operating environment, are fully SAA/CUA-compliant, and are offered on a 30-day free trial basis.

Metropolitan Systems Inc.

100 Sheldon Dr., Suite 40

Cambridge, Ontario, Canada N1R 7S7

800-388-8397

fax: 519-622-8344

PagerLinK monitors your AS/400 message queues and notifies you of error conditions by sending the message to your pager or telephone. JobTraK's Help Desk feature allows you to monitor and maintain batch and interactive jobs. It monitors unattended workstations and disconnects or signs off inactive users. Schedulist provides easy-to-use, full-featured job scheduling on your AS/400. Features include job dependencies, sophisticated report distribution, and transparent scheduling across a network.

PAE, Inc.

7 Riverway Rd.

Salem, MA 01970

508-744-8612

fax: 508-745-7945

PAE Inc. offers Timer, a fully functional job scheduler.

Petree Technologies

810 Upper Henbree Rd.

Roswell, GA 30076

404-667-5663

fax: 404-667-5652

ScriptMate works in conjunction with 5250 emulators from Attachmate, IBM, NetSoft, and Wall Data to allow users to automate routine 5250 sessions. Automated jobs can include file transfers, running reports, or scheduled maintenance. Jobs can be run on demand or scheduled with our full-featured job scheduler (included). ScriptMate is emulator-independent and ships with versions for DOS, Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2 PM. It requires HLLAPI/EHLLAPI support provided by your emulator.

Premenos Corporation

1000 Burnett Ave.

Concord, CA 94520

800-426-3836

fax: 510-602-2024

EDI/400 Job Scheduler is an optional module for Premenos EDI Management System for the AS/400. Its unattended operation schedules and runs single or multiple jobs, allowing organizations to take advantage of off-peak system usage with reduced network costs and phone rates. It also provides flexible scheduling, management reports, and easy installation and maintenance. It is compatible with Premenos EDI software and all third-party application software.

Software Architects International

P.O. Box 690

Marstons Mills, MA 02648

508-420-5079

fax: 508-428-1215

Executive Assistant is a network job scheduler that not only performs operational backups, IPLs, UPS monitoring, and report distribution, but also provides local and remote reactive and dependent procedures based on impromptu conditions. Executive Assistant can utilize all user-created and third-party commands and utilities in addition to operating system commands through a unique CL interpreter.

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