Maxava has launched Maxava HA Enterprise+, a new version of its high availability solution for large companies, LANSA has announced Version 2 of its aXes 5250 web enablement tool, and Help/Systems has released Robot/SCHEDULE 11, the latest version of its automatic operator, job scheduling, and batch management software.
Maxava's new offering is available as a free upgrade to current Maxava HA Enterprise customers. Maxava HA Enterprise+ integrates the company's proprietary Command Scripting Functionality (CSF) with a new maxView Manager interface. CSF lets users build fully-scripted routines using any IBM i commands without the need to compile code. Users can run CSF routines and access command-line functionality directly from any web-enabled device. This allows users to monitor and manage Maxava HA Enterprise+ environments and certain IBM i functions remotely from their hand-held device.
New Zealand-based Maxava says that the new features incorporated into it Enterprise+ offering were customer-driven, especially in the light of recent earthquakes in its own country and Japan. The company says that the need to react quickly to disasters when normal access to systems and data centers is not possible became "acutely" apparent. It says that customers found themselves struggling to get direct physical access to systems as a result of their own circumstances or factors like emergency service cordons in the aftermath of the earthquakes.
Version 2 of LANSA's aXes 5250 web enablement tool includes the ability to set up what it calls a cloud gateway to provide browser-based access to i-based apps in either a private or public cloud.
The company says that firms can use the tool's aXes-Cloud functions as a gateway to provide their employees with access to different applications running on multiple servers. Hosting companies can use the cloud gateway to provide a switch connecting a customer's fixed and mobile users with browser access to its systems. ISVs can host their application with a hosting company and use aXes-Cloud to offer the application to their customers via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
LANSA says that it has also given aXes' browser-based query, access and reporting tools, DB2 Query and Spooled File Explorer, a complete overhaul. The new version also includes aXes-Robot, an API that developers access when creating applications that drive 5250 programs that comes in three flavours: .NET (which runs on Windows); Java (which runs on Windows and IBM i); and RPG (which runs on IBM i). Uses include data entry using a batch program, exposing data that is accessible only through a 5250 application as a web service or using a 5250 application as a back-end to a ASP.NET website.
Help/Systems' new Robot/SCHEDULE 11 includes several enhancements to its Schedule Activity Monitor (SAM).
Users can right-click a forecasted job and mark it as acknowledged, which SAM then displays with a green background for easy identification. The Forecast tab also puts job detail information in the background for submitted jobs.
Changes to SAM preferences include the option to exclude EVERY-type jobs from the Forecasted tab and the option to update the Forecast tab as batch jobs are sent to run. Users also can view OPAL-Delayed jobs in the Running/Waiting tab. A new filter, Group with Members, has been added to the tool's Job Schedule List that shows members of each group.