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IBM iSeries (AS/400)

Learn how to monitor IBM iSeries (formerly known as AS/400) using the IBM iSeries ActiveGate extension.

Prerequisites

  • IBM iSeries (formerly AS400) 7.2+ host
  • IBM iSeries user account with system privileges is typically sufficient, as the extension needs to query system tables (QSYS2), create (CRTPFRDTA), configure (CFGPFRCOL) and start performance collection services (STRPFRCOL).
  • An Environment ActiveGate (version 1.155+) that has the ActiveGate plugin module installed and isn't used for synthetic or mainframe monitoring
    • 1 environment ActiveGate can typically support 30-50 iSeries hosts
  • An ODBC driver manager installed on the ActiveGate host
  • Required open network ports
  • IBM iAccess installed on the ActiveGate host. iAccess is an IBM software package that contains all the libraries needed to communicate with iSeries—including the ODBC drivers that are the core of this extension. You may download the Linux (IBMiAccess_v1r1_LinuxAP.zip) or Windows (IBMiAccess_v1r1_WindowsAP_English.zip) version of iAccess directly from IBM.com. IBM iAccess is free, but requires an IBM account. Follow the installation instructions and note that a restart may be required for the OS to recognize the new settings.

Interested in iSeries monitoring with DESK?

The IBM iSeries ActiveGate extension is available as a preview. To enroll, contact a DESK ONE product specialist by clicking the chat button in the upper-right corner of the DESK menu bar.

Environment ActiveGate installation

ActiveGate version 1.175+ has the plugin module installed by default.

ActiveGate plugin module installation

ODBC driver manager installation (Linux only)

  • If your ActiveGate is running on a Linux host, install the unixODBC driver manager based to your environment type:
    • Red Hat: yum install unixODBC
    • Ubuntu: apt-get install unixodbc-dev unixodbc-bin unixodbc

Extension installation

  1. After successful enrollment in the preview, you'll be provided with the extension install file (custom.remote.python.iseries.zip). Don't rename the file.

  2. Unzip custom.remote.python.iseries.zip to the plugin_deployment directory of your ActiveGate host.

  3. If the resulting directory structure isn't .\plugin_deployment\custom.remote.python.iseries\, please make the necessary changes.

  4. Restart the DESK Remote Plugin Module service.

    • On Linux, restart the service using the following commands with admin rights:
      • systemctl restart remotepluginmodule.service
    • On Windows, run these two commands in a Command Prompt launched as Admin:
      • sc stop "DESK Remote Plugin Module"
      • sc start "DESK Remote Plugin Module"

  5. Return to the DESK web UI. Click Settings, the Add new technology monitoring button, and finally the Add ActiveGate plugin button.

  6. Click the Upload plugin button and upload the zipped file used in step 2.

  7. Enter the endpoint information requested for connecting to the iSeries host:

    • Endpoint name: Type a meaningful endpoint name.
    • Username: The username for connecting to the iSeries host. The account needs sufficient privileges to query and connect to system schemas. User with QPMCCDATA authority to Create/Use aliases to member files of Performance Collection objects *COL and to query members of QPFRDATA and QMPGDATA collection libraries.
    • Password: The user's password.
    • Host: The hostname/IP of the host.
    • Name of the group: If the host is part of a cluster, type the name here to group the devices in the GUI.
    • Comma-separated job filter: Criteria for monitored jobs (enter up to 100 values)
    • Run Performance Collection Services: This checkbox creates the Performance Collection Service job and starts collecting comprehensive 1-minute aggregated data about disk, system, memory pools, and jobs. The data retention of this job is 24 hours. Starting it will cycle collections and start anew. Checking this box overwrites any existing Custom Performance Collection tasks that are currently running.
      • The exact command the plugin will send to iSeries to configure this Performance Collection profile is: CFGPFRCOL CYCTIME(000000) CYCITV(24) ENBSYSMON(*YES) SYSMONRET(1) CRTPFRSUM(*SYSMON) SYSMONCGY((*SYSLVL 1) (*DISK 1) (*JOBMI 1) (*JOBOS 1) (*POOL 1) (*SYSCPU 1))

    iSeries

Troubleshoot ActiveGate plugins

Metrics

System

  • CPU Utilization %
  • Interactive CPU Utilization %
  • Scaled Speed Vs. Nominal %
  • Physical CPU % consumed in shared pool
  • Virtual CPU % consumed in shared pool
  • Disk ASP Used %
  • Disk Temporary Used %
  • Total Jobs
  • Active Jobs
  • Total Active Threads

CPU

  • Virtual CPU Utilization %

Memory

  • Page Faults
  • Fault rate
  • Current number of threads
  • DB faults
  • Non-DB faults
  • DB fault rate
  • Non-DB fault rate

Jobs

  • CPU %
  • Suspended time
  • I/O operations
  • Page faults

Disk

  • Busy %
  • Response time
  • Total I/O operations
  • Read operations
  • Write operations
  • Total operations rate
  • Read operation rate
  • Write operation rate
  • Total KB Read size
  • Total KB Write size
  • KB Read size rate
  • KB Write size rate
  • Read cache hit ratio
  • Write cache hit ratio
  • Avg. service time
  • Avg. wait time