Let’s face it: IBM i experts and RPG programmers are retiring from the workforce. These folks have been managing all areas of your business—often manually and behind the scenes—for decades, everything from IT operations to data and documents to cybersecurity. Are you prepared to handle their departure? Our panel of IBM i experts—Chuck Losinski, Robin Tatam, Richard Schoen, and Tom Huntington—outline strategies that allow your company to cope with IBM i skills depletion by adopting these strategies that allow you to get the job done without deep expertise on the OS: -Automate IBM i processes -Use managed services to help fill the gaps -Secure the system against data loss and viruses IBM i skills depletion is a top concern for IBM i shops around the world. The strategies you discover here will help you ensure that your system of record—your IBM i—continues to deliver a powerful business advantage, even as staff retires.

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How to overcome the operations obstacle when
your IBM i talent retires
Operations on IBM i:
Where Do I Start?

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Broadcasting live from Eden Prairie, Minnesota USA
Your Hosts
Chuck Losinski
Director of Automation Technology
HelpSystems
Tom Huntington
Executive Vice President of
Technical Solutions
HelpSystems

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Top IT Concerns from 2016 Survey

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• IBM i architecture and command structure
• Subsystems and memory pools
• Jobs and how the work gets done
Agenda

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Integrated storage management
• Two pieces that are inseparable (like the transmission and engine of
your car; if one isn’t working, your car doesn’t run)
– Primary storage (RAM)
 Random access memory
– Secondary or auxiliary storage (DASD)
 Direct access storage device
 Spinning disk or solid state
IBM i Architecture

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Single-level storage
• Also called virtual memory
• First appeared in the 1960s
• Allows programs larger than
available RAM to run without
being broken into pieces
• Programs and data are swapped out to disk (called a page fault)
• The operating system handles all this so programmers don’t have to
think about it
IBM i Architecture

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In-House Outsourced In-House MSP
Power Systems Growth

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Processor Technology Roadmap
POWER5
130 nm
2004
POWER6
65 nm
2007
POWER7
45 nm
2010
POWER8
22 nm
Starting
2014
POWER10
or whatever
it’s named
Future
POWER9
or whatever
it’s named

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IBM i Past, Present, and Future

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Library Structure vs. Directory Structure
How are files stored
on the system?
• Library(s)
– Object (Files/programs)
 Member
Integrated File System (IFS)
• Emulates the PC/UNIX
directory structure
– Open source (HTTP, Java, Ruby, PHP..)
– Directories/subdirectories/files
– Image data
– Unix/Linux app support
– File shares
Library
Members
Object

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IBM i Commands and Menus
• Control Language (CL) is the
language on IBM i
– Defines requested actions
• Used to navigate without
using menus
• System commands stored
in library QSYS
• A CL programs
• Use GO CMDnnn to find what
you need
– GO CMDSAV
Command = Action + Object

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IBM i Commands
 Prefix – Action
– Create CRT
– Display DSP
– Work with WRK
– Send SND
– Change CHG
– Copy CPY
– Start STR
– Delete DLT
 Suffix – Object
– Library LIB
– Object OBJ
– Job JOB
– Message MSG
– Password PWD
– User Profile USRPRF
– Writer WTR
– Status STS
• Nouns:
Attributes A Queue Q
Description D Entry E
File F

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Prompting a Command (F4)
CRTUSRPRF, F4

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• Your OS level
• Finding commands
• Command prompting
• Keywords
• F9 – Recall
• Call QCMD
Online Demonstration

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• Work is performed by jobs
• Jobs run in subsystems
• A memory pool allocates main memory
• Processor resources are consumed by the job
How Work Gets Done
Subsystem
Scheduler
Interactive screen
External SQL
Request website
Memory
poolJob
Job
Job
Processor

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• A single, pre-defined operating environment through which the
system coordinates workflow and resource use
• Typically, there is a separate subsystem for:
– Controlling subsystem
– Batch
– Interactive
– Spooling
– Communications
– Servers
• WRKSBSD or DSPSBSD allows you to work with the subsystem
definition (or WRKSBS command)
What Is a Subsystem?

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• WRKACTJOB
– Show all jobs in all subsystems
• WRKSBS
– View all active subsystems
• STRSBS
– Start subsystem
• ENDSBS
– End subsystem
Subsystem Commands

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Subsystems and Memory Pools
WRKACTJOB command

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WRKSBS
WRKSBS

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• Logical area of RAM where jobs process
• Maximum of 64 pools
• Memory can be changed dynamically
– By interactive commands
– By dynamic tuning
• Separate work into different pools
– Batch
– Interactive
– Web
• Something the Windows folks can only dream of!
All About Memory Pools

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• *MACHINE = System Pool ID 1
– Machine programs and licensed programs
• *BASE = System Pool ID 2
– All main storage not allocated to other pools; it is the common pool
Every System Has *MACHINE and *BASE Pools

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WRKSYSSTS command – F11 twice
WRKSYSSTS

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DSPSBSD
DSPSBSD Menu

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WRKACTJOB
WRKACTJOB command

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• Show WRKSYSSTS
• Show QBATCH subsystem description
• Show WRKSHRPOOL and *SHRPOOL1
Online Demonstration

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What Identifies a Job?
• Each job has a unique identifier
made up of 3 parts:
– Job number
– User
– Job name
• Example:
085314/QPGMR/QPADEV0001
• Example jobs:
– Batch
– Interactive
– Server (HTTP, FTP..)
– Pre-start
– Writers

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Common job commands:
• SBMJOB
– Run a batch type job
• DSPJOB
– Display a job
• CHGJOB
– Change job
• WRKJOB
– Work with job
• DSPJOBLOG
– Work with logging information
Working with Jobs

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SBMJOB
SBMJOB, F4
CALL PGM(SLSRPT101)

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Subsystems manage system resources
• Main memory and CPU
• Coordinate job processing through JOBQs
Subsystems and Job Queues
Subsystem
Scheduler
Interactive Screen
External SQL Request
Website
JOBQJob
Job
Job
Memory
Processor

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Jobs are prioritized within the job
queue to determine which job will
run first based on:
• Submit time
• Priority on the job queue
(called JOBQ priority)
• Maximum number of active jobs allowed
Job Queue

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WRKJOBQ
WRKJOBQ JOBQ(QBAT*)

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Subsystem Description
WRKSBS, option 5 on QBATCH

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Job Queue Entries
WRKSBS, option 5 on QBATCH, option 6 – Job Queue Entries

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WRKJOBQ
WRKJOBQ JOBQ(QBATCH)

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• WRKJOB
– By name; will show all instances of job active or not
• WRKSBMJOB
– Displays a list of jobs that have been submitted
– *JOB lists jobs submitted since sign-on
• WRKJOBQ
– HLDJOBQ – Hold the JOBQ
– RLSJOBQ – Release the JOBQ
– Move jobs between JOBQs
• WRKUSRJOB
– Work with all jobs for a user
Managing Batch Work

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Having issues getting a job to process?
• WRKACTJOB – look at the job status (MSGW); check job run priority
• WRKJOBQ – is the JOBQ held? Can the job be moved elsewhere?
• WRKSBS/DSPSBSD – what is the maximum jobs allowed to run?
• WRKACTJOB/WRKSYSSTS – is the CPU maxed out?
Troubleshooting

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• Submit a job to a JOBQ that is held
• To what subsystem is the JOBQ allocated?
• Release the JOBQ
• Find the job
• Watch the system performance
Online Demonstration

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Message Management Webinar
https://www.helpsystems.com/resources/on-demand-webinars/how-confront-your-ibm-i-message-queues

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Additional Information
https://www.helpsystems.com/resources/on-demand-webinars/primer-ibm-i-user-profiles-and-how-deploy-them

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Backup and HA Workload automation
Report management
Partition performanceAutomated monitoring
and notification
Where Is Robot Monitor Positioned?

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We Solve Everyday Business Needs
How can we help you?
• Workload Automation
• Business Process
Automation
• Network Monitoring
• Message & Event
Monitoring
• Performance
Monitoring
• Data Backup
Management
• Remote Monitoring &
Management
• High Availability
• Enterprise Data
Access
• Executive
Dashboards &
Reporting
• Mobile Data Access
• Data Warehousing
• Risk Assessment
• Anti-virus
• Security Event
Monitoring
• Identity & Access
Management
• Compliance
Reporting
• Professional Security
Services
• Automated Process
& Workflow
Management
• Document Scanning
& Digital Storage
• Data Capture &
Forms Management
• Document Creation &
Assembly
• Signature Capture &
Approval
Management
• Document
Distribution

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• Enterprise scheduling and business process automation
(IBM i, AIX, UNIX, Linux, Windows)
• Monitoring (IBM i, AIX, Linux, Windows)
• Security and compliance (IBM i, AIX, Linux, Windows)
• BI and data warehouse (IBM i)
– Modernize your data access
• Document lifecycle management (any platform)
– Electronic forms, signature, workflow, distribution
• Network monitoring (anything with an IP address)
• Backup and HA (IBM i)
• Managed file transfer
What IT Problems Do We Solve?

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Command Reference
Category Commands Menu
Subsystems WRKSBS, WRKSBSD, DSPSBSD,
STRSBS, ENDSBS
GO CMDSBS
Memory pools WRKSYSSTS, DSPSYSSTS,
WRKSHRPOOL
GO CMDSHRPOOL
Jobs WRKJOB, DSPJOB, CHGJOB,
SBMJOB, WRKSBMJOB, WRKUSRJOB
GO CMDJOB
Job queues WRKJOBQ, HLDJOBQ, RLSJOBQ GO CMDJOBQ
User profiles WRKUSRPRF,
DSPUSRPRF, CRTUSRPRF,
CHGUSRPRF, DLTUSRPRF
GO CMDUSRPRF
Spool files WRKSPLF GO CMDSPLF
Output queues WRKOUTQ, CRTOUTQ, CHGOUTQ,
HLDOUTQ, RLSOUTQ,
CLROUTQ
GO CMDOUTQ

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Recap
Questions? Comments?
• Recap:
– IBM i Architecture and command structure
– Subsystems and memory pools
– Jobs and how the work gets done
• Training coursework:
– Operations 101 online education
• Additional free resources:
– IBM i Message management guide
– Getting started with IBM i Security on-demand webinar series

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Thank you for attending!
Contact information
Website:
www.helpsystems.com
Telephone:
800-328-1000 sales
+1 952-933-0609 support
Presenters:
chuck.losinski@helpsystems.com
tom.huntington@helpsystems.com
Chuck Losinski
Director of Automation Technology
HelpSystems
Tom Huntington
Executive Vice President of
Technical Solutions
HelpSystems