When I think of great duos, several pop into mind: Batman and Robin, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Brooks and Dunn, peanut butter and chocolate. If your shop happens to be one in which a single tape device is shared among multiple LPARs, and you have been pounding your head against the wall trying to automate your backups, there is a dynamic duo that might make your day or maybe your year.

Having only a single tape device and a DVD drive that are switchable between LPARs is a great way to save money on the hardware bill, but it soon becomes apparent that automating the movement of the devices between LPARs is difficult. The amazing duo that can help with this problem is none other than the IBM Advanced Job Scheduler for i5/OS (AJS) and the IBM i5/OS LPAR Toolkit (Toolkit). AJS is licensed program product (LPP) 5722JS1. It has been around since V3R6 and is light-years ahead of the job scheduler that comes with i5/OS. Many customers have called it "IBM's best kept secret." Some of its more popular features are dependencies, report distribution, and network jobs, as well as its many ways to schedule a job. Many customers like to use its 5250 interface, whereas others take advantage of its GUI in iSeries Navigator. AJS might come preloaded on your System i, or you can install it from the LPP CD with the Restore Licensed Program (RSTLICPGM) command. More information about installing the GUI plug-in is in the V5R4 Information Center.

The Toolkit was written by IBM Systems and Technology Group Lab Services (formerly The IBM Rochester Custom Technology Center — CTC). The Toolkit was originally developed in 2001 as a project for a large customer consolidating many footprints into several 24-way LPARed systems. The customer wanted to be able to quickly and easily move a tape drive from one partition to another. The Toolkit has evolved over the years into a product that, with simple green-screen commands and menus, allows movement of resources (e.g., devices, processor, memory, CPW) between partitions.

Two versions of the Toolkit exist: one for 8xx systems and one for Hardware Management Console (HMC)-based systems. Basically, the Toolkit takes care of building all the XML strings (8xx version), the HMC commands (5xx version), and the communication between either a system API or the HMC. The Toolkit's main advantages are

• simplicity — operators no longer need access to critical DST or HMC functions
• security — operators can be locked out from certain functions
• automation — move resources programmatically and automate with AJS

Installing the Toolkit involves restoring a library and setting up communications. The Toolkit is continually being enhanced, and the ability to change virtual processors will be added soon (perhaps even by the time this article is published). Toolkit customers are supported by the developers who wrote it, under a service contract.

Putting the Dynamic Duo to Work

As for our backup dilemma, let me give you some details about the environment that I used for testing. I have an i520 with three LPARs. I have an I/O processor (IOP) and an I/O adapter (IOA) that has an autoloader tape device and a DVD drive attached. They have been set up in the HMC to be switchable. I want to do a backup on each LPAR every night with no human intervention. This scenario is common, so I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.

AJS is responsible for automatically running all the commands necessary to move devices and do the backup on each LPAR. AJS must be installed on each LPAR, and the GUI plug-in must be installed on a PC. The Toolkit is responsible for providing a set of CL commands for moving the devices between LPARs. I need only one copy of the Toolkit installed for this scenario, but there might be other reasons to install a copy on all LPARs. After the Toolkit is installed, it is simple to configure. For the sake of time and space, I won't explain how to configure the Toolkit; suffice it to say that I created two devices within the Toolkit. One device is the IOP, and the other is the IOA that has the tape device and DVD drive attached. I named them IOP and TAPOPT, respectively. It is a good idea to get this environment working and tested before trying to set up AJS.

Let me summarize what I am going to demonstrate setting up in AJS. I create a series of scheduled jobs to run on three LPARs (i.e., SYSA, SYSB, and SYSC) to vary the tape device on or off, move resources, and run the backup program. These jobs run consecutively in a predetermined order within an AJS Job Group created on the LPAR that contains the Toolkit (SYSA). Things might get confusing as I describe the steps, because I create the same jobs to vary the tape device on or off and run the backup program, with the exception that each runs on a different LPAR. When a command ends abnormally, that causes the job to end abnormally, which causes the Job Group to stop at that point. Avoid this problem by adding messages to monitor. The use of the Monitor Message (MONMSG) command is invalid in the command list of a job, but you can add messages to monitor by clicking the Messages button on the Command Properties screen of the iSeries Navigator GUI. Here are the steps, using the GUI, to set up AJS. The first thing I do is create IP address entries for each LPAR. On LPAR SYSA, I create an entry for SYSB and its IP address and an entry for SYSC and its IP address. I do the same type of thing on the other two LPARs. To add an IP address entry, perform these steps:

1. From Navigator, expand Work Management.



2. Right-click Advanced Job Scheduler and select Properties.



3. In the Advanced Job Scheduler Properties dialog box, click the IP Addresses tab.



4. To add a new entry, click New.



5. Enter the following information for the new IP address: IP Address, Description, System Name, and Network ID. A job uses the system name and network identifier to determine the IP address of the remote system on which the job is run. The system name and network identifier should be the default local location name and the local network ID found using the Display Network Attributes (DSPNETA) command. Keep in mind that each LPAR needs to know about the other LPARs.



6. Click OK.



7. Perform steps 1-6 for each LPAR.

Next, I create the Job Group to run every weeknight at 11:00. I call it LPARBKUP. The jobs will come later. To create a Job Group, do the following:

1. From Navigator, expand Work Management.



2. Click the plus sign (+) to expand Advanced Job Scheduler.



3. Right-click Job Groups and select New Job Group.



4. Enter a name and brief description of the group.



5. Click the Schedule tab to go the Schedule page.



6. To select days of the week for the schedule, select Weekly under the Frequency parameter in the Dates to run box and choose the Monday box under Details.



7. Enter 11:00 p.m. as the time and click Add to add the time to your list.



8. Click OK.

This is where it starts getting good. It is time to start adding the jobs to the Job Group. I add five jobs to this group (Figure 1 [2]). Here's a rundown on each job.

The first job, BKUPSYSA, will run on the system on which the Toolkit is installed (SYSA). It is assumed that the tape and DVD drives will already be varied off on whichever LPAR contains the resources. The job will move the IOP and the TAPOPT devices to this LPAR using the Toolkit's Move LPAR Resources (MOVLPARRSC) command. The LPAR name is the name defined in the HMC and the Toolkit. Next, the job will delay for 300 seconds to give the process enough time to finish moving the resources before trying to vary the tape drive on. The job will then vary the tape device on, do the save using Backup, Recovery and Media Services (BRMS), and vary the tape device off (Figure 2 [3]). The System to run job field is on the Batch Information tab.

Job name: BKUPSYSA
System to run job: Use local system
Commands:

QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSA)
   RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(IOP)
QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSA)
   RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(TAPOPT)
DLYJOB 300

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*ON)
STRBKUBRM CTLGRP(*BKUGRP) SBMJOB(*NO)

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*OFF)

The second job, MOVSYSB, will also run on the system on which the Toolkit is installed. It will move the devices to LPAR SYSB.

Job name: MOVSYSB
System to run job: Use local system
Commands:

QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSB)
   RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(IOP)
QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSB)
   RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(TAPOPT)

The third job, BKUPSYSB, will run on LPAR SYSB. It will vary the tape device on and off and do the backup. The System to run job is the name used for the IP Address entries I discussed earlier.

Job Name: BKUPSYSB
System to run job: APPN.PBSSYSB
Commands:

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*ON)
STRBKUBRM CTLGRP(*BKUGRP) SBMJOB(*NO)

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*OFF)

The fourth job, MOVSYSC, will also run on the system where the Toolkit is installed. It will move the devices to LPAR SYSC.

Job Name: MOVSYSC
System to run job: Use local system
Commands:

QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSC)
    RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(IOP)
QZRDLP5/MOVLPARRSC TOPART(SYSC)
   RSCTYPE(*DEVICE) DEVICE(TAPOPT)

The fifth job, BKUPSYSC, will run on LPAR SYSC. It will vary the tape device on and off and do the backup.

Job Name: BKUPSYSC
System to run job: APPN.PBSSYSC
Commands:

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*ON
STRBKUBRM CTLGRP(*BKUGRP) SBMJOB(*NO)

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAP01) CFGTYPE(*DEV)
   STATUS(*OFF)

The tape and DVD drives will be left on the SYSC LPAR. If needed, another job could be added at the end to move the devices to a different LPAR. You could eliminate varying on and off the tape drive in each job if you were to use the BRMS Shared device feature.

Almost As Good As Peanut Butter and Chocolate

After all these steps are completed, I have a Job Group that contains all the jobs needed to move the tape device from LPAR to LPAR and process the backups automatically. I think you will agree that the setup process was easy. I hope you can see that automating the movement of a tape device from one LPAR to another can free up much time for the operations staff.

I admit that this dynamic duo might not rank up there with peanut butter and chocolate, but it is a great software combination that helps automate critical tasks within your shop. Other worthy possibilities are to automatically move memory, processors, and interactive CPW between LPARs. I only scratched the surface of both products, with each having many features that I'm sure your shop could utilize. And be aware that both products can be tried before purchasing. So take the dynamic duo for a spin.

For detailed information about AJS's capabilities, visit ibm.com/iseries/jscheduler [4]. To learn more about the Toolkit's capabilities, visit ibm.com/systems/services/labservices [5] or contact the developers at lparspt@us.ibm.com [6].

The author would like to thank Chris Ernest for helping write this article. Chris is a software engineer with IBM Systems and Technology Group Lab Services System i. You can reach Chris at goalie@us.ibm.com [7]

Brian Younger is product manger for Pinnacle Business Systems, Inc. His responsibilities include product development and customer training for the IBM Advanced Job Scheduler for i5/OS. You can reach Brian at brian.younger@pbsnow.com [8].

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