CLIENT PRESENTATION
The highlight of the scheduling track was hearing from existing TWS user Yorkshire Building Society, about their experience of using TWS. YBS provided an overview of the set-up and history of their TWS environment, and outlined the way in which they utilise both Processor Value Unit (PVU) and Per Job Pricing (PJP) licensing models, discussing the benefits of each. A huge thank you to Nigel Jowett from YBS for taking the time to join us and share his knowledge and experiences with the group. You can download Nigel’s presentation here. We are looking for more users to present at the next Tivoli User Group meeting in 2016, so if you are interested please drop us a line.

IBM WORKLOAD AUTOMATION STRATEGY AND ROADMAP
We were lucky enough to be joined Alexandra Thurel, IBM Workload Automation Product Manager, and Xavier Giannakopoulos, from IBM’s Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure Tiger Team (and all round Workload Automation guru), who talked to the group about IBM’s Workload Automation portfolio strategy, deployment models & future releases roadmap. You can download their presentation here. Additionally, as a result of the session, we are working with Alexandra to understand IBM Workload Automation clients’ use of the product, where any gaps are, and what IBM can do to fill them in terms of product development and end user education. We would therefore be very grateful if you could spare 5 minutes to fill out IBM’s survey, which will ensure future product development is in line with customer needs and expectations.

InterConnect offers a unique educational experience tailored to delegate needs with more than 2,000 sessions across 11 streams. From technical and business content to deep-dive technical sessions, the InterConnect curriculum is designed to help organisations quickly and easily realise the full value of their investments. And with hundreds of hands-on labs and certification opportunities, and unlimited peer and expert networking, InterConnect provides the best in education, networking and exhibits, and all at a single event. Elyzium has been asked to present two sessions at the event; “Consolidated Workload Automation isn’t nearly as expensive, risky, or complex as you may think!” and “Reduce Development & Implementation Times of Oracle Retail Environments with IBM Workload Automation”. We will provide further details nearer the time.

Who should attend?
IBM InterConnect 2016 is for those who are building new business models, transforming industries, and creating better outcomes. Whether you’re a C-suite executive, IT leader, developer, designer, architect, or cloud expert, we all have one thing in common—we strive to build better businesses. The relationship between IT and business is changing. As a leader, builder or innovator of technology, the decisions you make today will have an increasingly greater impact on your company’s bottom line tomorrow. To remain successful, it’s critical that you transform along with this ever-changing environment.

If that’s not enough to tempt you to come along, then you’ll also have the legendary InterConnect main evening event to look forward to. Previous years have seen the likes of Maroon 5, Carrie Underwood, Elvis Costello and Aerosmith take to the stage of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, so we can’t wait for the 2016 act to be announced in the next few weeks! For further information, including full agenda details, and to register please visit the Interconnect website. Plus, if you register before the end of 2015, you will receive a discount of up to $500. Watch this space for further details in the New Year, and we hope to see you there!

If you need any further information or have any questions then please don’t hesitate to ask.

“I recently visited “The Jungle” refugee camp in Calais, France. During the visit I worked in a warehouse run by the charity L'Auberge des Migrants International helping to sort out donations. What really amazed me was the amount of people (predominately from the UK) giving up their spare time to help ease the plight of the migrants. After spending about 5 hours shifting boxes we made a trip to the camp. Seeing first-hand the plight the refugees face there on a daily basis was a truly humbling experience, which drummed into me just how fortunate we are. I was struck by the migrant’s positivity despite the unsavoury conditions in which they are living, and the horrendous events many of them talked about that had left them no choice but to flee their home countries to ensure the safety of their families.”

The volunteer group is now also turning its attention to the plight of migrants in Greece, doing all that they can to raise money to purchase and ship a container of much needed winter supplies. Just last week, a fellow member of the group visited Greece, and we would like to share with you his account of his first few days:  

Day One:
Visited the camp to distribute sleeping bags and blankets. Very busy, only had four hours sleep.

Day Two:
Longest day of my life. Jumping into the sea time and time again to save lives. Helping people coming off rubber boats and guiding them to where they can change into dry clothes. We hired two mini-coaches and ferried them to the bus station from where they can make the journey to camp. More than 40 boats arrived through the day, around 2000 people.

Day Three:
Same routine again. Helped injured children, taking them to the medical bus. At 23:30 we were told that a boat had crashed against a steep cliff. Refugees were stranded. So we went to help them and found one acutely ill person, the others were ok to walk. We searched further in the dark trying to ensure that we had found everyone and there were no more people stranded or coming. We need more manpower here, and urgently need trousers, socks, shoes and children's sleeping bags.

As you can tell from his words the situation really is very serious. To help raise money for this very worthy cause, on the 28th November Suhail will be cycling a full 26.2 mile marathon, with uphill resistance, to raise money through sponsorship. If you would like to help out by sponsoring Suhail, you can do so here. We understand that this is a very expensive time of year for most people, but whatever you can afford makes a difference – as little as £1 will buy a warm hat so every little bit really does help.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. You can find out more by visiting the groups Facebook page, and reading this newspaper article published after one of the groups visits to Calais.

ANSWER
Download the zip file or Unix shell script attached below, extract the contents, execute the script on the machine with the TWS instance, and then upload to the support file server using one of four available methods – email, Service Request Tool, Enhanced Customer Data Repository or FTP.

STEP 1, GATHERING THE DATA

UNIX Usage:
tws_inst_pull_info_v93.sh -twsuser

Optional flags:
[-twsdir ] [-date ] [-outdir | -log_dir_base ] [-nodbdefs] [-nowas] [-db2support] [-debug] [-u]

NOTE: Launch the script as the TWSUser unless otherwise instructed by TWS support.
NOTE: The UNIX version requires only one flag and argument: -twsuser

Windows Usage:
tws_inst_pull_info_v3_6.cmd -twsuser -twsver

Optional flags:
[-date ] [-twsdir ]

NOTE: Copy the ntprocinfo.exe to the %WINDOWS%\system32 directory.

NOTE: The Windows script, tws_inst_pull_info_v3_6.cmd, supports versions 8.2.0 through 8.5.1. TWS 8.6 installs tws_inst_pull_info.cmd to the \TWS\bin directory. Use the installed script for TWS 8.6 on Windows.

NOTE: On Windows, the resultant collection files and folders are not automatically packaged. Package the resultant files and folders using a tool such as zip or tar to prepare for sending to Tivoli Support.

STEP 2, UPLOAD TO TWS SUPPORT USING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR METHODS:

1. EMAIL:
If the file to send is less than 10 MB in size, send as an attachment to an email to tivoli_support@ecurep.ibm.com with the PMR number in the subject line.

For example:
Subject: PMR 12345,BBB,CCC

- or if the file to send is greater than 10 MB in size:

2. IBM SR (Service Request):
Access the SR Tool at http://www.ibm.com/support/servicerequest/

- or -

3. Enhanced Customer Data Repository (ECuRep):
Access the Ecurep Secure Upload tool https://www.secure.ecurep.ibm.com/app/upload

4. FTP: to ftp.ecurep.ibm.com:
Rename the file to send to the PMR number.

For example:
# mv TWS_20100202_098433.tar.Z 12345.BBB.CCC.tar.Z
# ftp ftp.ecurep.ibm.com
username: anonymous
password:
ftp> cd /toibm/tivoli
ftp> bin
ftp> put 12345.BBB.CCC.tar.Z
Where:
12345 = First five digits of the PMR number.
BBB = Branch value
CCC = Country code (US code is 000)

You can find additional information, including sample usage and flags on the IBM Support website. If you require any assistance, or have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact us.