Halcyon Tidies Up Journal Receivers, Tightens Up QAUDJRN

October 22, 2013 Alex Woodie

Halcyon Software last week unveiled a new version of Systems Operations Suite (SOS), its software for monitoring and automatically responding to IBM i messages, applications, and processes. A new object monitor debuted with version 5.0 that gives customers more control over journal receivers. The update also delivers finer-grained monitoring of the system audit journal to detect potential security events, and brings customers a new custom task monitor.

Systems Operations Suite sits in the lower half of the totem pole that is Halcyon’s complete collection of IBM i systems monitoring and management tools. The Level 2 offering has all of the message, outqueue, FTP, and device monitoring capabilities that the Level 1 Message Management Suite product brings, and adds to it the capability to automate responses to certain events. On top of that, Level 2 brings performance monitoring capabilities, although not performance management features, which can be found in Halcyon’s Level 3, or the Advanced Automation Suite. The Level 4 suite, called the Operations Center Suite, adds a job scheduler to the mix.

As you go further up the Halcyon stack, the level of IBM i operations automation increases accordingly.

The big news in Systems Operations Suite version 5 is the addition of a new object monitor module that can check any object in IBM i. According to Halcyon, one of the most common uses of this new object monitor will be tidying up journal receivers, which can add up quickly.

Specifically, users will be able to locate and delete journal receivers based on age or when they were last used. The company says that users will be able to set up rules to automatically delete journal receivers after a certain period of time to free up disk space.

Admins can monitor their IBM i environments remotely via Halcyon’s Enterprise Console, which is available for iOS and Android devices.

Closely related to the new journal receiver functionality in version 5 is the capability to automate the monitoring of the QAUDJRN. Halcyon says the software will automatically send alerts whenever system values are changed or new entries are written, eliminating the need for human eyes to monitor it manually. QAUDJRN monitoring will also give users the capability to track failed logon attempts, and to ensure that important user profiles remain enabled.

Halcyon also added a new Custom Task Monitor to the suite. The vendor says this is an optional plug-in that allows users to schedule IT tasks, such as calling a program or calling an API, to ensure that operations are going smoothly. Halcyon says the tasks executed can be either simple or complex. If something doesn’t as expected, the SOS suite will automatically send alerts and take corrective action, if configured to do so.

The UK-based firm reminds us that SOS activities can be monitored from the comfort of a mobile device, via the iOS and Android apps that Halcyon developed for its Enterprise Console product. The Enterprise Console app can be downloaded for free from the respective Android and iOS app stores. For more info, see www.halcyonsoftware.com.