Now, Attachmate Waits Until After Dark
The middle of a weekday – when AS/400 utilization is at its peak – is a lousy time to try to manage PC-to-host connectivity issues. That’s precisely what Attachmate Corp. (Bellevue, Wash.) had in mind when it added remote administration tools to the latest version of its Rally! connectivity tool. "You don’t want to conduct automatic synchronization of data with other AS/400s or a backup database in the middle of the day," says Paulo Chow, senior director of product marketing for Attachmate. "You want to set those things up so they can run during off-hours."
The new version’s tools enable automated execution of recurring tasks and remote administration. Rally’s "Nite Apps" feature is a 32-bit scheduler that enables tasks such as file transfers to be run off-hours, Chow says. "Nite Apps is a scheduler that enables administrators to automate other tasks within Rally!, as well as launch custom applications."
Rally! also includes Remote Command, which permits administrators to manage AS/400 systems remotely through Attachmate’s remote command API. Nite Apps can also be configured with Remote Command, says Chow.
A DB2/400 ODBC driver, which was previously sold separately, is now bundled into the latest version of Rally!, Chow adds. A DBQuery tool is included to enable database query creation and rapid exchange of data between DB2/400 and Microsoft Excel or Visual Basic applications on PCs.
Rally! now also includes a 32-bit APPC router, for immediate access to AS/400 hosts. Since the router was developed by Attachmate, it is automatically installed with Rally!, rather than as a separate product, Chow points out.