Vision Shares i OS Management Tips and Techniques

Published: May 13, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Vision Solutions, a developer of high available and systems management tools for i (formerly i5/OS) has launched a new blog at visionsolutionsinc.blogspot.com where it will dispense technical tips and advice for managing i OS-based Power Systems servers (formerly System i).

i OS, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year, is a mature and stable operating system with a rich collection of commands and controls for manipulating nearly every aspect of i-based Power Systems servers. In many circumstances, the operating system provides multiple ways to accomplish a given task, each with its own benefits and caveats.

That richness can complicate things, however, making i OS navigation seem like a intricate undertaking, especially for beginners who haven't yet mastered the basics (or are having trouble getting over the whole "greenness" of the OS). This is where experienced systems administrators with a wealth of domain knowledge can be a huge asset to newbies, who will hopefully grow up to form the backbone of the i-based Power System server user base well into the future.

To that end, Vision Solutions last week announced its own contribution to the furtherance of i understanding with System i Management Tips, a new blog that will disseminate hard-won i OS domain knowledge to anybody with a Web browser and an Internet connection.

"We're taking an enormous collective wealth of systems management knowledge residing among the nearly 200 technicians at Vision Solutions and sharing it with the System i community," says Paul Wade, director of SMB products for Vision Solutions and the main editor of the blog.

Vision is committing to adding a new tip every week--and sometimes more. In the five weeks the blog has been up, Wade has already posted seven tips, ranging from how to view the duration of the last reclaim storage operation to ensuring that jobs create job logs when they end.

Users can also view the weekly or bi-weekly tips from their favorite RSS reader--a required channel for garnering younger eyeballs in a Web 2.0 world--and Vision is also working on widgets and gadgets that will deliver new tips to their Google Desktop or Microsoft Windows Vista environments.

Vision also launched a new Web resource called World Pages where potential customers from around the world will be able to download white papers, case studies, and other technical and marketing material on the topics of disaster recovery and high availability, Vision's primary business. World Pages can be accessed at www.visionsolutions.com/world/world.aspx.

Vision will make this information available in Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, and Portuguese, which it says is a sign of its commitment to growing its business around the world. "International companies prefer success stories from names they know and trust. When visitors to our site can read about other local companies who have had success with Vision, and do so in their native language, decision making is easier," says Ed Vesely, senior vice president of marketing at Vision Solutions.

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