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Five Cool Things You Can Do with OpsNav
by Shannon O'Donnell
Ever since IBM first introduced Operations Navigator, way back in 1995,
many of us have been wondering just what the heck to do with it. Truth be told, there wasn't a whole lot you could
do with the early version of OpsNav; it was very limited in functionality, and the ability to add functions to the
OpsNav client was virtually nonexistent. Today's incarnation of OpsNav, which comes with V5R1 of
Client Access Express, is very different from that first, early tool. In fact, it’s hard to believe they share the
same roots.
V5R1 of Client Access Express Operations Navigator allows you to perform so many functions that, once
you get accustomed to using it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. Perhaps the best way to
get your feet wet with such a complex and remarkable tool as the V5R1 OpsNav client is to have someone
point out some of the cool things you can do with it. That's what I'm going to do here. By the time you're
done reading, you'll be armed with knowledge that will enable you to amaze your family and friends. Well,
your coworkers will be impressed, anyway.
For the following tips, I'll assume you have V5R1 of OpsNav installed and that you have created and
opened an OpsNav session to your V5R1 iSeries.
1. Copy Spool Files to Your Desktop
One question I get asked over and over is, "How can I get an iSeries spool file to my PC?" The easiest way
to accomplish this is to use Operations Navigator. Here's how you do it.
Double-click on the Basic Operations tree, in the left-hand pane of the OpsNav
GUI (shown in the figure below). Next, click on Printer Output. If the user profile with
which you are logged on to OpsNav has any associated spool files on the iSeries, they will
appear in the right-hand pane of the OpsNav GUI. If no spool
files appear, log on to your iSeries and create some.
To copy the iSeries spool file to your PC's desktop, you can do one of two things:
You can right-click on a spool file in the right-hand pane of the OpsNav GUI and select COPY from
the pop-up menu. Next, right-click on your PC's desktop and select Paste from the pop-up menu. The spool
file will be copied to your desktop.
Your other option is to click once on the spool file in the right-hand pane of the OpsNav GUI to select
a file. While holding the left mouse button down, drag the spool file to your PC's desktop. The spool file
will be copied to your desktop.
2. Create an OpsNav Shortcut to Frequently Used Items
One of the pitfalls of using OpsNav is that, because there are so many things you can do with it, you may
forget where something can be found. For example, you might know that you can work with the DDM
Server by clicking on the Network/Servers/TCPIP tree items and then selecting DDM, but because the tree
item you need is buried deep in the tree, you may forget where it is.
You can create a shortcut to any OpsNav item and store it on your PC's desktop very easily. Then, each
time you want to use a function, such as changing the properties of the Telnet server, all you'll need to do is
click on the shortcut itself rather than drilling down through the OpsNav tree.
To create a shortcut, click on any OpsNav item, such as the TCP/IP tree item found under
Network/Servers/, and drag that item to your PC's desktop. When you let go of the left mouse button, you
will be prompted to create a shortcut. Select this menu item and a shortcut to the TCP/IP servers will now
exist on your desktop.
Alternatively, you can right-click on any item in the OpsNav tree and select Create Shortcut from the pop-
up menu that will appear.
3. Edit Privileges for FTP Users
Before OS/400 V5R1, the only way to control what your FTP users were doing on your iSeries was to write
an exit program and attach it to the FTP Exit point. This process worked (and still does work on V5R1), but
it required a programmer to implement it. And if you were not familiar with how to use exit points, the
process quickly became very confusing.
With V5R1 of Client Access Express and Operations Navigator, you can now very easily edit FTP
privileges at both the system and the user levels.
Here's how to edit FTP privileges for individual users (please note that this only works if you have V5R1 of
both Client Access and OS/400):
In OpsNav, expand the Users and Groups tree item.
Click on the All Users tree item.
Right-click on a user profile whose FTP privileges you wish to edit, and select Properties from the pop-
up menu.
On the Properties panel for that user, click on the Capabilities button.
Click on the Applications tab.
Click on the down arrow next to Access for.
Select Host Applications.
Expand the AS/400 TCP/IP Utilities tree item.
Expand File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Expand FTP Server.
Expand Specific Operations.
Place a check mark in those FTP actions you want this user to be able to
perform, and uncheck the ones you don't want the user to be able perform:
4. Generate SQL from a Logical File
If you've ever had to write SQL from scratch, you know what a pain it can be to get the syntax correct--
especially if you're not familiar with SQL. With V5R1 of OpsNav, generating SQL from any iSeries file is
as simple as selecting a few menu options. (Please note, however, that this only works if you have V5R1 of
both Client Access and OS/400.) Here's how:
Expand the Database tree item in OpsNav.
Click on Database Navigator.
In the taskpad, at the bottom of the OpsNav GUI, double-click the Map your Database wizard. (If you
don't see the taskpad at the bottom of your OpsNav GUI, click on the OpsNav menu item View and select
the TaskPad option.)
In the Database Navigator Map wizard, you'll see a list of iSeries libraries. Expand this list until you
find the library containing the physical or logical file you want to generate the SQL from.
Expand Indexes and then Views, under the Tables tree item.
Select the Index (logical file) you want to generate the SQL from.
Right-click on that logical file and select Generate SQL from the pop-up menu (see the figure
below).
You can now view the SQL that will create that logical file, or even modify it and run it if you wish.
5. Configure iSeries Security Using the Security Wizard
If you're not an iSeries security expert, don't be ashamed. Most of us aren't. In fact, most of us barely know
what all of our Security options are, let alone how to use them. That's why having a wizard to do most of
the grunt work for you is such a great thing. IBM has integrated its
extremely useful AS/400 Security Wizard into the OpsNav GUI, thereby making it both easy and convenient to use.
(Please note, again, that this only works if you have V5R1 of both Client Access and OS/400.) Here's how to find
the wizard:
Expand the Security tree item in the OpsNav GUI.
Double-click the Configure the Security of this Server wizard item in the taskpad.
The AS/400 Security wizard will appear. You can now step through a series of easy and understandable
questions about how you use your iSeries. When you're finished, you will be presented with a set of
recommendations you can use to best protect your system. Even better, if you so desire, you can
immediately apply these changes to your system, thereby instituting a security policy that will allow you to
sleep at night!
But Wait, There's More
I only had a finite amount of space to write in here, so I didn't get a chance to tell you about some of the
other cool things you can do with OpsNav. For example, I didn't tell you how you can display a graphical
view of your iSeries DASD, or how to propagate User Profiles across systems. I'll just have to save those
tips for another issue of Midrange Programmer. So stay tuned!
Shannon O'Donnell is Director of New Technologies for Jano Justice Systems and co-editor of
Midrange Programmer, OS/400 Edition. He can be reached at sodonnell@itjungle.com.
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