The implementation of software changes can be a hazardous operation as there are many pitfalls to the promotion of software. Some of these pitfalls can be prevented with better management using maxChange to avoid the high probability of user implementation error, combined with objects being missed or compiled over the wrong operating system.

Also some of your implementations will require the replacement of a large number of objects, this means the application is unavailable to users for significant lengths of time whilst you install the changes. An automated system will remove this problem and allow you to schedule implementations outside normal working hours unattended and fully automated.

Research has shown that software development and subsequent go-live for any application involves many skilled teams to ensure success, maxChange has been developed with this in mind to assist in keeping those cost to a minimum.

Software Environments
To allow accurate movement from one development stage to another the movement system must have knowledge of each of your software environments. maxChange regards environments simply as lists of libraries, which have specific attributes, and rules attached to them. These rules define the type of object, which normally resides in a library and any compilation command overrides that must be used when compiling objects into this environment. With optional levels of security that can be defined, ensures the integrity of your data.

You Control the Implementation
Data integrity is ensured due to the automatic re-compilation of all logical files related to any replaced physical file. Physical file data may be preserved and user programs executed to populate new fields with default values.

Security
maxChange has user definable security features that ensure that any movement can only take place with the approval of specified personnel. This approval is easily verifiable and provides automatic and comprehensive auditing features.

Tape Transfer
With maxChange’s Tape Transfer functions you can issue and/or install software enhancements from a tape by simply issuing the LODRUN command, and there is no need for any receiving software on the target machine.

Auditing
Every software movement is audited. The reports produced include not only the objects, that are moved, but also the commands executed in order to achieve the movement. A full history of each software movement is retained.

• Runs on any version of IBM OS/400
• Available in CISC or RISC Versions
• User defined rules for software promotion
• Automated movement no matter how complex your software application setup
• Fail-safe implementation with automatic restoration to its previously approved condition
• Built-in comprehensive security and approval system
• Complete movement history
• Override compile commands
• Fully Networkable
• Full Integration with all other Maximise modules and your existing environment both inbuilt and through shipped OS/400

In order to achieve fully automated operation of your iSeries machine, not only do you need to run jobs such as backups and other regularly predictable functions automatically, you need some method of coping with errors as they occur.

Any organisation running an iSeries machine will be aware of the volume of messages the system generates. maxMessenger automates the handling of such messages. Virtually every system event will generate a message that may need a response. If this task is automated then you will have the opportunity to manage your iSeries machine by exception and optimise your system management. With maxMessenger you can specify which message queues to monitor, which messages on each queue to react to, and what actions to take for each message received. You can even take different actions for the same message received at different times of the day or week. Actions taken can be, to reply to the message, forward it to another message queue and/or execute a list of commands, therefore introducing a higher level of automation within your environment and reducing errors initiated by a user.

Your team can spend a great deal of time monitoring message queues for messages, but a lot of these messages are informational only and may not be considered important.

Automation with maxMessenger can take care of these messages whilst ensuring system critical messages are not missed, therefore freeing up your personnel to undertake more productive tasks.

With maxMessenger you have the option to decide which messages do not need attention and those that do, you can then decide who is responsible for these messages. This will ensure the right member of your team is selected for the task depending on the priority of each message first time around, without delaying the process.

maxMessenger seamlessly integrates with maxAlarm’s SMS and Paging module to form a powerful solution that reduces the need to have your skilled staff in a static location, ensuring optimum productivity, and ultimately reducing costs.

Along with full network support inbuilt within maxMessenger, there is also a ‘Failover’ feature which automatically activates if one of your machines were to fail. This will give you piece of mind that no errors are going to be missed and you will be informed if anything goes wrong.

QSYSOPR Message Queue can be extremely busy and removing the unimportant messages and replying to the others can be extremely time consuming. maxMessenger will apply the rules you give it automatically to these messages reducing the time taken to respond from minutes and hours, down to just seconds. When unimportant messages are taken care of for you by maxMessenger then the clutter often associated with message cues is removed, leaving just the unexpected messages and those you wish to manage.

maxMessenger is extremely easy to define and works on escalation logic. Nodes are used to control message escalation and messages can be transferred between nodes and the console. Messages appearing on both the nodes and the console can be given the attention they require without returning to the message queue.

Node displays are used in conjunction with message escalation. When a message arrives on a message queue that message can automatically be sent to any node display and the node displays will refresh automatically. They can be set-up so that the operator must acknowledge the receipt of that message within a certain time period. Message management can therefore be allocated to those currently on shift, or in the active time zone for international organisations to handle 24 hour a day management.

If a message is not acknowledged within a time period it can then be escalated to another node or any action can automatically be processed. All the nodes can be monitored from the console to ensure all service levels and time scales are adhered to. The functionality of maxMessenger can be used over a network of iSeries machines: enquiry messages can be answered on node displays, and maxMessenger keeps a full audit trail of any messages received.

This functionality will ensure you achieve the quality and accuracy of work without any implications. maxMessenger is fully integrated with maxAlarm the SMS and Paging module to enable remote response to messages and with maxScheduler to include JOB submission within your defined rules.

• Runs on any version of IBM OS/400
• Available in CISC or RISC versions
• Full visibility across your network as standard
• Automated message reply/escalation
• Monitor multiple networked iSeries message queues on a single display
• Monitor messages by message ID (shipped with predefined example message lists)
• Complete audit trail of all messages received
• Completely user definable, unlimited actions on receipt of any type of message
• Automatic fail over procedures
• SMS Security on message reply: None, user profile or user profile & password
• Message escalation via a pager or mobile SMS (maxAlarm)
• Reply to messages remotely via two-way SMS (maxAlarm)
• Automatically action spool files on job completion (maxSpool)
• Submit predefined schedule jobs on receipt/escalation/unanswered message
• Full Integration with all other Maximise modules and your existing environment both inbuilt and through shipped OS/400 commands.

If your system is down for longer than it needs to be then your business is suffering. Both backing-up and recovering data can be a time consuming task unless it is automated.

The back up strategies you can choose from are basically no different from the choices you would have without using maxRecovery. The product will support whichever approach you choose, automate the process and also provide benefits in several areas. Tape usage is automatically tracked and catalogued, no program maintenance is required, the backup jobs are submitted automatically by the built in scheduling function and major improvements in your recovery strategy are provided with very little initial setup.

Each backup produces reports detailing the libraries that have been saved and the tape volumes used. If the object level catalogue is being used this report also identifies all the objects which have not been saved if the job fails to execute normally. This function is invaluable in calculating our exposure when a backup fails, allowing you to decide whether you need to correct the error immediately or if it is acceptable to continue normal working. To investigate this by other means could take a great deal more time.

If the back-ups are run and catalogued successfully then you can be reassured that the recovery process will be a very simple and easy one. Once the recovery process is started it will inform the operator which volumes are required to be mounted. With several recovery scenarios fully documented after each backup you can be reassured that maxRecovery will have you up and running in no time.

Whether you choose to save everything or a restricted list of libraries with maxRecovery, the specification of your requirements is very straightforward. One of the advantages of the system is that, if you choose a restricted list of libraries, you can also include any new libraries automatically. Obviously if you choose to save everything the new libraries are automatically included. This will ensure you save those new things that you have not yet made a strategic decision about. This ability to take a ‘fail safe’ approach is one of the features of maxRecovery, which makes particularly suitable for any installation.

Each save procedure in maxRecovery can also initiate other functions both before and after the save is executed. This gives you the ability to prepare the system for saving, by holding job queues or ending interactive subsystems, or to make the system ready for normal operation, by releasing job queues and restarting subsystems after the save is completed. There is no restriction on what these commands can do, or the number of commands you can execute, because of maxRecovery's flexibility.

The level of cataloguing can be adjusted if required: a library level is always kept, a requisite for the automated recovery procedures, but you can also request an object level catalogue to aid in a partial system recovery.

The object level catalogue in maxRecovery also allows you to take advantage of the ‘Protect Latest Versions’ function. This function could be of major benefit on some of your libraries, as it will ensure that the product does not overwrite a tape that contains the latest off-lined version of an object. This situation would rarely arise but could be disastrous if it does, and very difficult to prevent without maxRecovery.

The scheduling of back up jobs is based on a cyclic approach which is used to determine the times and dates the back ups should run, how many sets of tapes are required, and when the tapes are reused. These cycles are easily defined and adjusted.

This module shares the scheduling and run book functions with maxScheduler, so more complex schedules could be used if you utilise both applications.

The job submission times are calculated by the product and the ‘Real Time Run Book’ is updated with the forward plan for the future. This gives us an extremely easy way to view what is going to be submitted in the future, all the jobs appear, in submission order, on a display screen. This has always been a bugbear with the native iSeries scheduling capability. This Run Book is maintained automatically every time any scheduling information is changed.

Several useful inquiries are available from the run book, access to the catalogue for completed back up runs is provided, as is access to the list of tapes required for a future back up. With maxRecovery’s flexibility it is a simple matter to change the time for any individual submission of a back up job in the Run Book without having to reschedule and then undo the change after the job has run. This would be very advantageous, especially when you consider that we don’t have to be there to initiate the job any more.

The catalogue can be maintained at the object level if required and consists of a record of what has been saved on the tapes and when. It can be viewed from many different perspectives, by object name, library name or save run, and drill down facilities are offered to find members in files, objects in libraries and tapes on which an object may be found. Restore options are available at each level. This makes maxRecovery extremely useful in partial system and individual object or file member recovery situations.

maxRecovery is based on the catalogue as what maxRecovery refers to as ‘System Restore Groups’. These groups are user defined and basically specify the sequence in which we wish to restore the libraries in a system recovery situation. It should be borne in mind that this sequence is also used, by default, in the save routine to aid in the speed of recovery. The definitions of the restore groups, together with the library level catalogue are automatically saved at the end of the save run. This gives you the ability to use the products' automated recovery functions, which begin with the simple restoration of these pieces of data and a few programs, which have been saved with them. You are effectively predefining your recovery strategy to maxRecovery, and then loading onto your disaster recovery machine so recovery can be automated and therefore quicker and more reliable.

Built into the product is the ability to perform any and all restricted state tasks in an unattended mode. Previously these tasks have required either out of hours attendance by operators, system down time during working hours, or they have not been performed as often as should have been. maxRecovery would make it much more likely that best practice is adhered to in this regard.

• Automated Recovery & Back-up
• Cyclic and ad-hoc back up
• Unattended restricted state tasks
• Object/Library/Application Recovery
• Object level tape catalogue
• Tape/box/location Management
• Restore tapes report
• Prompt for restore tapes on screen
• Real Time Run Book
• Full Integration with all other Maximise modules and your existing environment both inbuilt and through shipped OS/400 commands.

Use of maxSpool will improve the management of your iSeries machine and reduce your operations department's workload. It will also protect you from some hardware faults, and make your disaster recovery more comprehensive. In a business environment auditing can often require duplicates of reports to be sent to different locations and on a regular basis. maxSpool will assist with this by copying or moving files to these locations ensuring your reports are where they need to be. Along with these functions you can also import, archive, delete, protect and change your spool files giving you the flexibility you need in a fully automated solution.

It should also be borne in mind that while a spool file exists, the iSeries machine regards the job produced as a current job. The more current jobs it has to manage, the more of its resources are dedicated to the task. Reducing the number of spool files held will reduce the system management overhead as well as the disc space occupancy.

Spool files can be automatically selected for processing by any combination of several functions:

• Archive to tape
• Import to database files
• Copy to a different Output Queue
• Move to a different Output Queue
• Delete from the system
• Protect from deletion
• Change spool file attributes
• Email Spool file

The specification of rules for the selection of spool files for processing is extremely flexible and comprehensive, as well as being easy to use and understand. It is based on combinations of conditions for which a spool file can be tested. The Output Queue, User, Form Type, File Name and Age are among the spool file attributes that can be used to specify spool file selection. Additionally each set of selection rules is given a Rule Group Identity and this Group Identity is associated with the spool files selected under it for ease of use.

Within each Group, selection criteria can be compounded with ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ to support almost any level of simplicity or complexity required. maxSpool’s enquiry suite of programs offer re-print options so that archived or imported spool files can be easily recreated.

For auditability, the product offers optional history recording and, for safety, a ‘dry run' feature, which prints a list of proposed actions that can then be adjusted before processing is initiated. There is also an integral user/function level security system to protect against unauthorised use, a neccessary task which would be performed by the operations department on a daily basis.

Many spool files are produced and never printed: they are referred to when required but usually left online when finished with. Other spool files are created with the SAVE attribute in case they fail to print successfully, these too are not deleted in a timely fashion.

With the flexibility offered by maxSpool in selecting spool files for deletion by several different criteria, this daily tidy up task can be completely automated.

There are several reports in our applications that demand some effort and expertise in order to reproduce, in some cases this would also inconvenience the users due to the manipulation of the applications required. You could use maxSpool’s ability to convert reports to a database and reproduce them at will to alleviate this problem.

This ability would be particularly useful in protecting you from hardware faults. Since the product can operate in real time mode the sensitive reports could be copied to a database before they are sent to the network printers. As these reports are now in database format they lend themselves to being backed up, ensuring you are able to fully restore your iSeries machine when a disaster strikes.

Often you are required to keep some of your reports for significant lengths of time. With maxSpool you can store them off line and maintain an index of them for ease of reproduction in the event it becomes necessary. At present these reports are kept on line and, therefore, not subject to back up, as mentioned earlier.

You may have some reports that can only be printed on certain printers, those with 198characters per line for instance, using maxSpool these reports can be automatically routed to the correct output device. This can be actioned within your incumbent software, however the change control process is costly in terms of time and manpower, for what is clearly a simple requirement.

The same argument applies for situations where a user requests a copy of a report produced for someone else. You could change the software or you could simply program maxSpool to perform the task.

We can also make use of maxSpool’s facility to allow reports to be stored in save files, with an index, and sent to other iSeries machines, by email or across the network. The prerequisite is that our spool file management module is required on both machines. There is the option to save to a specified target release of the operating system so the machines do not have to be at the same operating system level.

maxSpool has a spool file finder that can search by date spool file opened, spool file name, job name, user who created spool file, user data, actioned date and output queue so that spool files that have been imported, archived or saved to tape can quickly be located. The restore option selects the quickest way to restore the spool file required.

With maxSpool’s email functions you can define a group of recipients and even send specific pages. Users can demarcate certain pages of the spoolfile, the last page, the first page or specify page ranges for emailing. maxSpool sends emails using the standard OS/400 SMTP server which can be linked to any email server regardless of operating system.

• Control spool file management with real-time information
• Actions performed automatically based on user specified criteria. These are: Delete; Archive; Compress; Move/Copy; Import; Reproduce old reports; Locate; Audit; Identify; Secure; Email; Distribute any or all spool files.
• Full Integration with all other Maximise modules and your existing environment both inbuilt and through shipped OS/400 commands.