New Systems Director Navigator Service Packs Bring New Enhancements to 6.1

If you’re on IBM i 6.1 and have not yet started to use IBM Systems Director Navigator for i, there’s never been a better time to start using it! With the recently released Service Pack 8 PTFs (SI42186, SI42187, SI42188), you’ll find many new enhancements that were previously available only in 7.1.

The following are the significant updates now also available in 6.1.

1.    Multiple Sessions Allowed

You can now have more than one IBM Systems Director Navigator for i session active for the same user. Prior to this PTF, only one session could be opened for the same user ID.

2.    5250 Emulation

 You can now access the same 5250 Emulation portlet that is included with IBM i Access for Web from the System welcome page within IBM Systems Director Navigator for i. Note: Customization of the 5250 Emulation portlet is not supported from within the Navigator console.

3.    Set Target System

You can now select another system to manage, besides the IBM i system where you're running IBM Systems Director Navigator. You can select to manage another 6.1 system, or you can also manage 7.1 and 5.4 systems as well. Select the "Set Target System" task in the task navigation area to specify the system you want to manage.

 4.    Database

• On Demand Performance Center: Support has been added for a new centralized authority model when working with all the SQL performance tools. SQL Details for a Job now has the capability to start a SQL Performance Monitor from the jobs lists. Index Advisor now includes a column with the time that an index was first advised. The Show Indexes list now includes columns for SSD and In Memory values.
• Health Center: New SQL0901 category has been added to the Environmental Limits tab to help log situations where the database engine has an unknown error and more data is needed to be collected.
• Database Management: Several usability enhancements to lists including saving list contents to various output formats and ability to filter lists.
• Maintenance Category: A new Maintenance category helps to organize database maintenance lists for check pending constraints and index rebuilds.
• Omnifind Text Search Functions: Support has been added for managing Omnifind text search servers and indexes.

 5.    Journal Management

• Show Journaled Objects action was added for a journal.
• Change Receivers action was added for a journal.
• Remote Journals action was added for a journal.
• Add Remote Journal action was added for a journal.
• Properties action was added for a journal receiver.
• Activate action was added for remote journals.
• Deactivate action was added for remote journals.
• Remove action was added for remote journals.
• Properties action was added for remote journals.

 6.    Integrated Server Administration

• The Create Server task was added for creating the IBM i hosting environment for an iSCSI attached BladeCenter or System x server.
• The Delete Server task was added for deleting the IBM i hosting environment for an integrated server.
• The Launch Web Console task was added for launching the service processor Web console for an iSCSI attached integrated server.
• Added support for iSCSI software targets.
• Several iSCSI configuration tasks were simplified.

 7.    File Systems

The user can now remove Integrated File System (IFS) objects listed in the Folder Attribute Information Report panel.

 8.    Disk Management

•  The graphical view is now enabled
•  Install Disk Unit is now supported in graphical view.

 9.    Performance

•  Improved Performance Data Investigator (PDI) integration with Active Jobs, System Status and Disk Status. New menu actions and new buttons on these interfaces will allow a user to access relevant Collection Services performance data charts or tables found in the Investigate Data task. Options to start applicable performance tools such as Disk Watcher or Job Watcher are additionally provided on these interfaces.
• You can now view the QAPMJVM Collection Services database file from the Investigate Data task.

10. IBM Tivoli Directory Server for IBM i (LDAP)

All the LDAP management functions are now enabled. Please apply PTF SI43345 before you are willing to access IBM Tivoli Directory Server Web Administration Tool.

 

Go ahead – check it out! There’s nothing to install; just point your browser to the following URL for your desired IBM i 6.1 system: http://IBMiSystemName:2001

 

Here are some valuable resources on IBM Systems Director Navigator:

• Information Center 
• IBM Systems Director Navigator Redbooks publication  
• IBM Systems Director Navigator Web site

 

I'd like to thank Stacy Benfield and Tim Kramer for this week's blog. Tim is the lead developer for IBM Systems Director Navigator and Stacy is the lead developer for the Performance Data Investigator. Thanks, Stacy and Tim!

 

Comments

[Ralf M Petter]

I have tried the IBM Systems Director, but it is so slow on our Power 5 machine that it is impossible to use it. I do not know, if our machine is to slow to run this software or if we have a faulty configuration?

[Dawn]

Ralf,
First, I assume you mean IBM Systems Director Navigator, because IBM Systems Director is related product. See this blog post that describes them - http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/i_can/2010/03/i-can-direct-the-use-of-navigator-or-is-that-navigate-the-use-of-director.html

First, make sure you are up to date on all your PTFs.

The following are some basic HW requirements to ensure good performance:

For a single user:
.5 uncapped processors
Minimum of 2 GB of memory in the *BASE pool (more is always better)
Minimum of 3 disk arms, unprotected

For multiple users:
2 uncapped processors
Minimum of 6-8 GB of memory in the *BASE pool (more is always better)
Minimum of 6 disk arms, unprotected

Also, networking issues, such as DNS problems, will also result in very poor performance and should also be checked.

If you have sufficient hardware resources and no networking issues, performance should not be an issue. If it is, you can call contact the IBM Support Center for assistance in determining why your performance is slow.

Dawn

[Satid]

Ralf

I believe System Director Navigator for i functions run on very many threads in the memory pool. So, it may help to set sufficiently high MAX ACTIVE value (in WRKSYSSTS screen) for the pool (*BASE by default. I would go for a value of 200 as a start.

[Tom]

Ralf,

In addition to Dawn's comments above; Also check the knowledge base article 'IBM System Director Navigator, Navigation Missing or Unresponsive'

http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase.nsf/1ac66549a21402188625680b0002037e/b9e677063f24f859862575ee006b1881

That did the trick for me.

[Dawn]

Satid,
You are correct - the activity level for the *BASE pool must be set high enough. Our general recommendation has been to set it to at least 1000 if it is not that high. It's also important to ensure that the *MACHINE pool is large enough too. With Java, you do not want threads to go ineligible.

We have not done any experiments with changing the QHTTPSVR subsystem configuration to run in its own storage pool. If any readers have done this, I would be interested to learn about your results.

Tom - thanks for the link to that knowledge base article.

Dawn

[Chris]

I have been struggling with getting this working for some time, we have a small 8203-E4B with 4GB memory (3GB in *BASE) but only 2 disk arms (we are 12% utilization though).

We moved to 7.1 and the performance was acceptable (not good or even passable) but it did work. That was until we turned on SSL and then everything stopped working again (very slow). So we have turned it off again and we can access the pages again albeit very slowly. Our average page display is counted in multiple seconds even after its been running for some time. We will contact IBM at sometime to try to sort out the SSL issue but its not the top priority.

Chris..

[Dawn]

For anyone that has performance problems when using IBM Systems Director Navigator, we at IBM do want to address these concerns. It would be very helpful if you could work through the problem by contacting IBM support.

Also, please provide some details on the area(s) where you are having problems, such as:

- Waiting for the console to appear?
- waiting for lists to appear?
- Navigating within lists?
- Going back and forth between tabs in the console?
- Performing actions on items in lists?
- Other?

Thanks.