Re: AS/400 Operation & Application Utilities

From Al Macintyre 405 CD mixed mode OS/400 V4R3

Part of the process of aquiring software that runs on AS/400 & growing the 
enterprise over time, is to maintain something called a SIZING 
QUESTIONNAIRRE.  This captures information like number of users, performance 
desired, types of software you are running, types of protections you want.  
If you are honest with your input to the questionnairre, if you keep it up to 
date as your business grows & changes, and if you are dealing with an IBM 
Business Partner of good quality, then the questionnairre will help your 
Parner, help IBM, help SSA, help whoever is helping you with BPCS, in concert 
reccommend the right model AS/400, the right CPU processor speed, the amount 
of memory, and other criteria to get you the level of performance your 
company wants.

However, a lot of companies do not keep their sizing data current.  A lot of 
business partners try to sell you wrong size so they can make more money.  A 
lot of managers get "sticker shock" when they see quoted prices, and they cut 
back on what is wanted, and this can sometimes lead to performance that is so 
poor that no one is happy.  If your sizing questionnairre has been correctly 
kept current, which is not an easy thing to do, you can share it with any IBM 
expert to get a second opinion on what your hardware sales reps are telling 
you.

I have seen some web site sizing engines in which you key in info from your 
sizing questionairre & it tells you what is the right model etc. AS/400 for 
your needs ... I do not remember a specific URL, but you might start by 
checking out Al Barsa's web site ... you can get his address from the vendor 
area of Midrange dot com.

It is not unusual for a company to have purchased an IBM AS/400 that is the 
WRONG model for the type of business they are doing.  You need to find out 
whether or not your employer is in that predicament.

IBM & SSA in worked in concert to produce an IBM Red Book that analyses how 
BPCS uses the AS/400 & provides information to help BPCS/400 users tune their 
AS/400 so as to get the maximum performance benefit for their BPCS.  This 
should be one of several IBM Red Books in your library of dead tree manuals.

You probably also want to get the BPCS Programmer's Reference Manual from
DS Solutions, Inc., P.O. Box 304, Mequon, WI 53092
Phone:  (262) 512-9035      Email:  dslic@aol.com

IBM OS/400 versions have evolved to work differently than earlier versions 
with respect to the programming language techniques of SSA.  This means that 
all BPCS users on recent versions of OS/400 need to have the IBM PTF that 
enhances data base performance.

BPCS is an extremely sophisticated ERP with a large number of modules & files 
& options to support any combination of answers that a customer might take 
via SYS800 & other places that we do tailoring.  This means that all of us 
will have a large number of files that are empty & a large amount of software 
that is not being used - they are the files & software for OTHER answers to 
SYS800.  This can have the effect of clogging your hard disk & wasting the 
potential for good performance. 

According to our native IBM disk space analysis tools, the amount of disk 
space needed to store the SOFTWARE to run BPCS is several orders of magnitude 
greater than the amount of disk space for the ACTUAL FILES, which is pretty 
amazing considering we have several files with over a million records.  When 
you see how library lists are used to manage BMRs & modifications, it becomes 
obvious that the whole software strategy assumes that money for disk space is 
never a problem.

There are several things you can do about this, if your BPCS is anything like 
our BPCS, depending on how much time & money you want to devote to the topic. 
 If your goal is the best possible performance for your end users, and have 
your MIS staff spending their time doing meaningful work that will add value 
to the company in the long run, a combination which in my experience is NOT 
what most companies say they want, then I suggest that you show this e-mail 
to your managers, make sure they understand what I am saying, then have them 
visit

http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/services.html
Check out Bells & Whistles / More / locate wherever BPCS LITE is explained.

AS/400 performance management is not a topic that is easy to learn.  IBM has 
several classes on the subject. 
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/lsweb/educationcenters/ 
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/community/as400/

I suggest you purchase a book on subject.  There is a fine bookstore on 
midrange dot com, and I assume you know about the 400 trade press.
http://www.as400network.com
http://www.midrangecomputing.com/forums/
http://www.forums400.com

Some of them also have forums on AS/400 performance topics.

There are many 3rd party products that take the AS/400 performance data & put 
it into a form that is intelligible for individuals who recognize that it 
will take a while for us to become proficiient in this, but I suggest you 
first exhaust the resources that are free from IBM ... check out 
www.ibm.com/services/electronic section "How do I get started"

Your question was about performance, but other answers can be relevant.
If you look at the nature of the work done by MIS staff, an awful lot of it 
is taken up by repetitive tasks that could be done by a lower paid person, 
and an awful lot of it is programming in an inefficient manner because we do 
not have the best tools for the job.  If MIS personnel could spend more time 
more productively helping end users performance, then that would be to the 
benefit of the total enterprise.

Michael Ozanne wrote:
> ROBOT is a set of utilities which makes system management and job
>  scheduling amazingly simpler.
The URL for this is  http://www.helpsystems.com

A long time ago on BPCS_L, I posed the question to the group.
For a company that has a limited budget for enhancements to an AS/400 and to 
the MIS staff, and considering that we at Central do not have (we STILL do 
not have) ROBOT, TAATOOLS, or AS/Set ... where should limited funds be placed 
to get the most bang for the buck in terms of MIS productivity & end user 
satisfaction?

ROBOT is a collection of tools that in my opinion are not much for 
PERFORMANCE which was your question, but more for relieving MIS staff of 
having to spend most of our time doing repetitive brain-numbing tasks, when 
some computer software could be doing it a heck of a lot better than we 
humans can do it.

TAATOOLS is a collection of tools for programmers that help us do our job 
with a greater degree of proficiency & efficiency that without them.  When 
you get in your car to drive to work, do you do safety walk around, then just 
get in, turn ignition, fasten seat belts, check mirrors, and drive off, or do 
you have to spend 1/2 hour with your hands getting dirty in the engine before 
you can go any place?  The latter story is for folks who do not have 
TAATOOLS.  http://www.midrange.com/resources/jump.pl?ID=38

AS/Set is a fake-CASE-generator that SSA uses to create the software that 
runs on BPCS.  Without it, I have to spend several hours, if not several 
weeks, trying to figure out the inner workings of software my users want 
modified before I can begin to make any progress.  If I had it, and had 
learned how to use it properly, my programming productivity would jump by 
several orders of magnitude.

Now ROBOT, TAATOOLS, AS/Set, by themselves, do not do one thing for your 
AS/400 performance, but by changing MIS staff from a bunch of struggling 
mechanics into Jedi Masters, THAT will do miracles for your AS/400 peformance.

In my opinion the stuff that is most constructive in maximizing AS/400 
performance for end-users of BPCS is:
1. Upper management exposed to ERP education.
2. Correct application of sizing questionairre.
3. There is no such thing as too much education for MIS.
4. Put some BPCS User Manuals into the hands of your users, such as those 
available from UPI http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/bpcsconsulting.html
5. PCs given sufficient Gas that they are not constantly stalling.
6. Active Participation in BPCS User Groups & Conferences.

I can go on, but think this is more than enough to get you started.

> From: ayusuf@saudicement.com.sa (Ahmed Hussain)
>  
>  Hi to all,
>  
>  Please provide or give recommendation of any utilities for AS/400 
operation 
> and application that will improve services to end users and enhanced AS/400 
> system and application performance. Your output is highly appreciated
>  
>  We are basically cement producing company, and running BPCS 6.1 and 
BPCS/MMS 
> ver 6.1.01
>  on AS/400 under v4.2.0.
>  
>  
>  Thanks in advance
>  
>  Ahmed Hussain

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
MIS Manager Green Screen Programmer & Computer Janitor of BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 
running on AS/400 V4R3 http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies
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