Help/Systems Updates the GUI with Robot/SCHEDULE 10.0

Published: December 12, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Help/Systems last week launched Robot/SCHEDULE 10.0, the newest edition of its job scheduling software for i5/OS and OS/400 servers. With version 10, the Minnesota software maker has adopted a new Windows interface to make it easier for operators to configure and manage the software, especially when it comes to juggling multiple jobs.

Robot/SCHEDULE is designed to make IT shops more efficient by automating the scheduling of batch jobs to maximize the use of iSeries and System i resources. The software includes facilities for setting up tasks and routines to occur in an almost unlimited number of ways, with varying degrees of complexity and "reactivity," or the process of waiting to start one job until a dependent job or other iSeries action has ended. It retains close integration to other Help/System products, including Robot/CLIENT, Robot/REPLAY, Robot/NETOWRK, and Robot/ALERT.

It's been more than four years since the last major release of Robot/SCHEDULE, version 9, which was unveiled in May 2002. Allowing operators to view job flows in a graphical format, via a connector to Microsoft Visio, was one of the major enhancements with that release. Now the product's graphical capabilities have been boosted even more in version 10.

With version 10, Help/Systems has introduced a new Java-based management console, called the Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer. This new interface enables operators to access all of the product's job scheduling components, including those used to create job schedules, monitor jobs in process, modify a job's schedule, display the completion history of a job, and print reports.

Explorer replaces an older GUI console, and is now the product's primary navigation interface. While existing customers were generally happy with the old Visual Basic-based GUI first delivered with version 8, the new Java-based Explorer console will impress new users even more, predicts Tom Huntington, vice president of technical services for the Eden Prairie, Minnesota, company.

Robot/SCHEDULE 10 brings a new GUI console, called Explorer.

Explorer also forms the foundation for a range of other new capabilities the company delivered with version 10, including new Job Monitors, a new Job Schedule Blueprint, a new Job Schedule List (JSL), and a new Schedule Activity Monitor (SAM) component.

The main reason Help/Systems developed Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer was to deliver a look and feel that was similar to other Windows interfaces on the market, Huntington says. "It [also] allowed us to deliver on some new features that only a Java Interface could handle like graphing job relationships in the Job Schedule Blueprint," Huntington writes in an e-mail.

The new Job Schedule Blueprint provides users with a graphical representation of their job schedule that shows relationships between jobs and inefficiencies in the schedule. Previously, users had been able to view this info in Microsoft's Visio software, but the Blueprint is a big improvement over Visio, Huntington says. "It is so much easier now to just right click on a job and build the blueprint, versus using another product like Visio," he writes. "Many of our customers do not know Visio."

SAM was designed to give operators a broad "at a glance" view of all job activity scheduled for the system for certain time frames, including those forecasted to run, those that are already running, those that are waiting to run, and those that have already run and are done.

JSL is similar to SAM, but instead of restricting scheduled jobs according to time frames, JSL allows users to restrict the view to certain job types, with no regard to what is about to run or what is running.

Robot/SCHEDULE also gains more intelligence with this release thanks to the new Job Monitors, which enable users to specify an action if a job runs too long, completes too quickly, or starts late. Depending on the state of the job, operators can have a Job Monitor kill a job or send a message to an i5/OS message queue. It can also kick off an e-mail, text message, or pager message to the operator on call if it's hooked up to Help's Robot/ALERT product.

The new Job Monitors in Robot/SCHEDULE 10 can help adminstrators meet service level agreements.

While users can still access Robot/SCHEDULE from its green-screen interface, they may be asking themselves why. That's because there are some capabilities only offered through Explorer, including command prompting, drill-in to OS/400 job logs, and access to audit information.

Other enhancements delivered with version 10 include streamlined set up of jobs across multiple systems, and the capability to easily export jobs on one iSeries server to another iSeries server using XML and the PC-based Explorer interface. However, using Robot/SCHEDULE version 10 across multiple servers will require Robot/NETWORK version 10, which will also bring a new Java interface, and is slated to ship in the February timeframe.

Robot/SCHEDULE version 10 is available now and supports all versions of i5/OS and OS/400 back to V5R2. Pricing has increased just a bit, and now runs from $4,325 to $44,075. For more information, visit www.helpsystems.com.

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