After some hair pulling due to a connectivity problem with our IBM i we have now completed another part of the HA4i status interface. One of the questions we are regularly asked is how do I know what is waiting to be replicated from the source system to the target, we store the requests as they occur and have a program carry out the relevant action (can be a command request or a save and restore request) to the remote system in the order that they are received. An object which has multiple requests will only ever result in a single replication request because the last request will always get all previous attribute changes so we should never see multiple requests to save and restore the same object in the queue together.
We created a link on the initial status page which listed the number of replication requests that are waiting to be actioned, from this link we create a list of the actual requests which are to be performed. The resulting list is displayed to the user in the following page
We are very happy with the way the new interface structure is developing, one of the big drawbacks with 5250 screens is the lack of space available to create a single display which provides all of the information required at once. using the browser we can deliver all of the pertinent information is a single page and the user experience is significantly enhanced.
Hope the new interface is appealing to others as much as it is to us, having been around the HA market space for sometime we have often looked at how people use the products and if a GUI based interface is really that important? Our intention with this interface is to make it simpler and not simply add lots of bells and whistles which are meaningless to the user. If you have any opinions let us know..
Chris..