Thinking about the US Healthcare.gov website issues, it reminded me that people don’t always know what “performance” means.  When we talk about performance we think it means “slow” or, if we think about our car, maybe we think it means “it works or it doesn’t work”.  Well, already we have two different definitions of performance and we haven’t really begun to look deep into it.  Having 17 years of experience in the performance business, I know that performance means the end... [More]

Monday's work: Migrating a Maximo server, Part Two. Yesterday's list looks really neat, doesn't it? I revised yesterday's list of to-do's extensively, in light of what actually happened during the migration. For one, I had to keep checking where I was storing my databases. I created a diagram on my white board to keep them all straight. Listed below are the databases and instances affected by the move. The new server is called MAXNC3082 .   Maximo instance Admin Workstation DB Name DB server App... [More]

Tags:  maximo ibmeam maximosystems asset-management migration maximoupgrade virtualization

What happened on Friday: Migrating a Maximo server, Part One.   Migration Planning I have a bit of an advantage with this migration. My source and target servers are ideally suited for each other: they have the same operating system and bitness - Windows s008 R2 64-bit. What's moving : one Oracle database server with three databases: max62, max71, sccd75 one WebSphere 6.1.0.35 server with four Application servers: max62server, max62SQLserver, max71server, RMIregistry one Maximo Asset Management 7.1.x... [More]

Tags:  migration asset-management ibmeam maximosystems maximoupgrade maximo virtualization

My group's infrastructure manager (let's call him Jon) Sametimed me the other day, and asked when I'd be able to give up my desktop server. My physical server is an old ThinkCentre, 8 GB RAM, Windows 2008 Server, Maximo 7.1, Oracle 11g. This server has been good for me over the past five years. No matter how many times it lost power, it came up like a champ. Sometimes I had to turn on the Oracle Listener, but that's all part of doing the job. Then there was the time the hard drive just up and died. But I had a backup, and plenty... [More]

Tags:  maximoupgrade maximo ibmeam maximosystems asset-management migration virtualization

As I was recently speaking to a customer, it dawned on me that this customer was suffering from the same issue that other customers have expressed. This was the frustration of not knowing the process of escalating a PMR. Navigating the IBM waters at time can be confusing to a new customer as IBM has myriads of products and product families that we support. Each one with its own set of support sub-processes and procedures. But fear not, the answer to this dilemma is very simple. Within the IBM Software Support Handbook you will... [More]

Tags:  handbook procedure escalate support pmr escalation

Firstly, let me introduce myself - my name is Sina Whiston and I am the Smarter Infrastructure L2 (Level 2) Support Manager in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Today I want to talk (or rather write) about product maintenance and hotfixes... Let's get the terminology out of the way: Fix Pack: refers to regular IBM Fix Pack releases, such as the newly released Maximo 7.5.0.5 Fix Pack IFIX: Interim Fix - a cumulative hotfix pack - a bundling of various hotfixes in one pack, such as... [More]

How well do you understand IBM Support? Did you know that you can log, view and update PMRs (Problem Management Record) electronically via the SR (Service Request) tool? Did you know that a Severity 1 PMR is defined as: Critical Impact/System Down: Business critical software component is inoperable or critical interface has failed. This usually applies to a production environment and indicates you are unable to use the program resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution. Did you know that... [More]

The current Migration Group, CLASSIFICATIONDATA, does not migrate the Attributes and Measure Units. This can result in missing descriptions on Attributes and Measure Units which can be confusing for the end user. The solution is to add two new Migration Objects for these two objects so that they can be migrated and then to create a new Migration Group containing the exisitng DMCLASSIFICATION Migration Object and the two new created Migration Objects for Attributes and Measure Units. Creating the two new Migration Objects Go to the System... [More]

Tags:  maximo migration_manager tpae ibmeam maximo7.5

New mapping capabilities were introduced in Scheduler 7.5.1 that allow clients to view assets, locations, tickets and work orders on a Google, Bing or Spatial map within Maximo. By default when you go into these applications you see only one marker in the Map tab based on the main record.  This functionality then leads to the question ‘How do I view multiple markers on a map?” The Map Control in the Scheduler product is available in Application Designer.  Using the control properties along with a data source, the ability... [More]

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One of the key features of Maximo Asset Configuration Manager (ACM) is its ability to dynamically calculate the life (meter totals) of any asset. Meter values can be derived and viewed for any point in time in the history of the assets life cycle. This "active life cycle accounting" provides improved compliance for regulated industries, while helping to increase reliability and accountability. The calculation itself incorporates the configuration history of an asset. Ie where it has been installed and between what dates and is derived... [More]

Tags:  acm configuration ibmeam calculated life asset meter maximo manager

"Before you can race, you must qualify". As a fan of Motorsports (Formula 1 in particular) I hear this phrase on many weekends throughout the season. The phrase basically means that to have the highest chance of being successful in an endeavor you must prepare adequately. In this article I shall take this same idea and show you how to apply it to a successful Maximo installation. If "qualifying" is preparing for a race then careful planning of your IBM Maximo Administrative Workstation is along the same lines. Many of us... [More]

Tags:  installation performance workstation maximo admin

Recently, I encountered a use case of crossover domain that worth blogging about.    The concept of crossover domain is simple. It is a way to trigger something to happen when an attribute is being populated. That something is to copy one or more attributes from a related object to the current object that is involved in the operation at this moment. For example, you want to “crossover” the item’s description when you are putting the item on the purchase order that you are creating.    Crossover domain is a... [More]

Tags:  database object domain attrributes ibmeam maximo crossover

Stored procedures are either a loved or hated feature of enterprise database technologies on the market today.  They are usually loved by Database Administrators and hated by everyone else.  Creating even a simple stored procedure can be a daunting task to an experienced database analyst.  Yet, chances are if you are developing custom reports in Maximo, you may have access to a wealth of stored procedures and never realized you could use them to drive your business intelligence outputs until now! For the purposes of this write-up, the focus... [More]

Tags:  ibmeam report maximo custom scripted_data_sources birt

You have probably noticed more embedded user assistance in recent releases of the product. User assistance in the product helps you complete tasks where you are working. We also provide an extensive library of technical topics in the information center and lots of great interactive blog and forum content here in Service Management Connect! Did you know that you can add your own embedded content? You can even link from any content (ours or yours) to information center topics! Here's how to make these changes with Application Designer. Your... [More]

Tags:  ibmeam help_grid field_help help ua doc user_assistance maximo