Are You Using These Apps, Mainframers?

Are you using apps for mainframe? Yes, we have apps related to mainframe.  Don’t be surprised.  Mainframes are no longer what you think.  Age-old dinosaurs that occupy entire rooms, use card punch input, and require bits and bytes programming. Mainframe came long way in modernization.  They are now size of your typical refrigerator, super-fast , running top industries critical data  day in and day out.

                                                                                            photo Credit: pcquest.com

Today we talk about some of the best mainframe apps that every mainframe professional should know about. Search for these apps in your App store or Google play store to install.

IBM Redbooks                                                                                                                                                                             Redbooks app lets you access Redbook publications. Redbooks offer excellent information on various mainframe topics such as new Solution Guides, Product Guides, Point-of-View publications, blogs etc. Get more IBM resources at your fingertips!                                                                                                                                                                                 Link: https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks.nsf/pages/mobileapp?Open

IBM Doc Buddy                                                                                                                                                                                       If you ever wanted to lookup quickly about a message, then Doc Buddy is your best buddy.  This app enables to retrieve z systems message documentation.  The newest version V2 add some nice features.  Aggregates IBM Z trends, updates, and other top news. Provides product overviews and product basics information that helps new IBM z users understand a product quickly. Support online and offline message search for 119 releases of 59 products.                                                   Link: https://ibmdocbuddy.mybluemix.net/

IBM myHMC                                                                                                                                                                               myHMC is app that lets you connect and monitor your HMCs. The dashboard on this app lets you quickly review the health of your machine.  You can monitor LPARs, Resource Groups, etc.                                                                             Link: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/0196fd8d-7287-4dff-8526-102b5bcf0df5/entry/The_myHMC_mobile_app_is_here?lang=en

EventsXD                                                                                                                                                                               Technically EventsXD is not a mainframe app.  As its name says its Event management app. The reason I listed here is Computer Measurement Group (cmg.org) conferences (CMG conferences has mainframe wing with excellent sessions) are available on EventsXD.  So if you are mainframe professional attending CMG conferences then you need to use this app. It saves lot of time in planning days while at conference.                                                                                                       Link: http://www.eventsxd.com/download

SHARE, inc                                                                                                                                                                                   SHARE is an independent volunteer drive information technology association that provides education, professional networking especially on mainframe area.  This app give you all the details you need about SHARE including sessions information etc. Must have app if you are frequent SHARE conferences.                                                                            Link: https://www.share.org/page/san-antonio-mobile-app

IBM zEvent                                                                                                                                                                                         IBM zEvent is a notification and monitoring app for IBM z/OS systems that enables to quickly react to critical system messages, failures and resources shortages.                                                                                                                              Link: https://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/features/zevent/zevent.html

IBM HMC Mobile                                                                                                                                                                               IBM HMC Mobile for Z and LinuxONE allows you to manage your system through this app.  You can receive alerts, notifications as well.                                                                                                                                                                         Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ibm.research.ibmremote&hl=en https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibm-hmc-mobile/id418366483?mt=8

IBM zServiceAdvisor                                                                                                                                                                           This app is for z systems admins to keep an eye on systems.  Z service Advisor can reduce the amount of time needed to optimize DB2 and CICS.                                                                                                                                                              Link: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/358ba26e-d9d7-4005-86d5-868f690b664c/entry/IBM_Announces_the_IBM_zServiceAdvisor?lang=en

There are some terminal apps like TN3270 that I haven’t used it. I personally use Redbooks, Doc Buddy, SHARE and EventsXD apps for my needs. Did I miss anything? What other mainframe apps you use? Please leave a comment for everyone benefit.

About the author: Hemanth Rama is a senior software engineer at BMC Software. Hemanth is a mainframe expert specializing in performance, z software costs and workload manager and he holds 3 patents. Hemanth is recipient of IBM z Champion award 2018. Hemanth writes regularly for many popular IT web sites and also on his personal blog. He passionately speaks about mainframe technologies at various conferences, symposiums and user groups.  He worked on BMC Mainview for z/OS, CMF Monitor, Sysprog Services performance monitoring products and currently works on Intelligent Capping for zEnterprise (iCap) product which optimizes MLC cost.