Author: Admin Clear

Managed Services for IT Infrastructure

Posted on by Admin Clear
Managed Services make IT more strategic

Clear Technologies provides Managed Services to clients to allow their IT departments to managed servicesfocus on the business’ strategic initiatives.  In today’s business environment, IT departments are challenged to not only maintain their current infrastructure, applications, and operations but also make strategic contributions.

Companies Challenge IT to:
  • Free up IT resources for strategic initiatives
  • Improve their cost structure
  • Provide optimum service levels to the business
  • Mitigate infrastructure and system risks

IT departments increasingly require help to maintain IBM iSeries and other technology infrastructures.

Managed Services provides an answer

Managed Services provide external resources to plan, operate and optimize IT infrastructures.  Service providers have developed systems and procedures to constantly monitor performance, proactively diagnose issues, and resolve problems.  A primary element of an effective service program is easy access to infrastructure, systems, and applications expertise.  Key components of service agreements include:

  • 24x7x365 support
  • Real time monitoring
  • Infrastructure and application specific expertise
  • Contingency and emergency plans
  • Life cycle and upgrade planning and implementation

These solutions help companies free up resources from day-to-day operations.  Managed Service solutions include: systems management, operations management and support, device management, and recovery services.

The core benefits of Managed Services are:
  • Economies of scale
  • Operational efficiency
  • Minimized downtime
  • Reduced cost
  • Specialized expertise
  • Access to the latest IT technology
Clear Technologies Managed Services

Clear Technologies provides a comprehensive suite of Managed Services for IBM iSeries, System I, and AS/400 infrastructures.  Under Managed Services from Clear Technologies, mission critical systems and applications do not go down.  Core Managed Services include:

  • Database hosting
  • Server allocation
  • Remote technical operations management
  • High availability solutions
  • Data recovery
  • 24x7x365 support

Clear Technologies provides expertise and effective cost management that creates operational efficiencies, trouble-shooting capabilities, system and application updates and recommendations on emerging technologies.

Clear Technologies uses Managed Services to turn IT infrastructure into a competitive advantage for companies.

3004-010 Failed setting terminal ownership and mode

Posted on by Admin Clear

3004-010 Failed setting terminal ownership and mode

Hopefully you or someone else is only encountering this while trying to login to an AIX system. If you already have a login session open on the system it may be an easy fix, if you don’t, and NO ONE else does either, it’s a bit more complicated.

Backstory

This is based on a real world customer experience I had on Halloween night 2019. Though I did find some online info to help it took a while. I’m doing this in hopes that it’s another hit that will help others with more detail.

So customer’s users started getting this error when trying to login, though all had been working fine all day. The short story is, it was the result of the /etc/group file getting overwritten by mistake with another file.

Before reading on, IF you have encountered the 3004-010 error AND you still have an active login somewhere on the system, you can simply open the /etc/group file and cut/paste contents from another /etc/group file from another system, or restore it from a mksysb, and save a lot of time and grief. Remember right now you can’t do any new scp or anything remotely to the box.

The long story, after the problem was encountered it was decided to reboot the system for reasons I am unaware. It was hard rebooted via the HMC. Upon bootup, many messages, 0513-012 and 0481-002, about failures to start daemons/process were encountered because of user id and no recognized group in /etc/group. This is the point in which I got engaged via an SOS call. Specifics shown below:

Recovery

In this case it required another bootable AIX image and boot into SMS mode to use it. The typical options are boot from a mksysb or AIX install ISO of the same level via either a NIM server, VIOS virtual optical, or physical DVD. In this exact case, the machines were full system LPARs w/o a NIM server or VIOS, we actually resorted to physical media.

Via Media

We did this by activating the profile, via HMC, then chose advanced, then SMS, then ok (twice). After a few minutes we get a prompt to press 1 for console and hit enter, then 1 for English, then on next menu chose 3 to enter single user mode.

Chose the rootvg disk (or what you think it is) and it will it show lvs that belong to that vg and if it looks like rootvg then chose that one. If not, repeat until you find it. Then Chose #1 to access root volume group. This mounted filesystems for us.

We ran /etc/methods/cfg64 so our commands would work right. We copied /etc/group to /etc/group.orig. We did find the contents of /etc/group actually had /etc/sudoers contents in it. It would appear the sudoers file was copied over the group file some how. But what it was wasn’t as important as what it wasn’t. In this case they had some previous copies of /etc/group so we copied one over from a couple days back simply to get the system bootable again.

Once booted, we were able to login as root, then scp a prod version of the group file over and all was well again.

Via Clone

However, another potential option is, if available, booting from an existing clone of rootvg. In my case the customer did have a clone, however, it really didn’t come to light they did until AFTER we were able to successfully boot and login. That got me thinking we could’ve booted into SMS mode, and chose the clone rootvg disk instead, and finished normal booting. Then we could wake up the original rootvg, copy the cloned /etc/group file over, put the original rootvg back to sleep, set bootlist and reboot from the original rootvg again. So I tested this theory and proved it to be successful as follows.

In this test I intentionally clobbered the /etc/group file and rebooted the system to produce the errors and problem as previously described. I did then SMS boot from the cloned disk. I woke up the “old_rootvg”, which is the real/original/current rootvg that the bad group file is on, via:

alt_rootvg_op –W –d hdisk0

This mounts the other rootvg filesystems with alt_inst in front of their paths. I checked both versions of the group file group existed. They did and differed greatly. I actually saw /etc/hosts info in the original version of the group file.  I simply copied the group file from my clone copy over the original version that is currently available in /alt_inst/etc as shown below. If though the group file is trash I still make a copy of it first.

cp –p /alt_inst/etc/group /alt_inst/tmp/group

cp –p etc/group /alt_inst/etc/group

Then I put the original rootvg back to sleep <VERY IMPORTANT STEP as you can corrupt it if you don’t prior to rebooting> and then change bootlist to boot from it as shown both below in text and screenshots. Then after successful reboot, login as normal and enjoy the rest of your day.

alt_rootvg_op –W –s hdisk0

bootlist –m normal hdisk0 hdisk1

shutdown -Fr

alt_disk_copy hangs on mkszfile

Posted on by Admin Clear

alt_disk_copy hangs on mkszfile

Backstory

This occurred after I created a clone of existing system, ultimately with the intent to test upgrade, and brought up a test lpar on the newly created clone. I also enabled ghostdev to eliminate it coming up with same IP, vgs, etc.

Problem

I wanted to update rootvg by cloning and updating the clone at the same time. When executing the command it just hung

# alt_disk_copy -b update_all -l /mnt/7232 -B -d hdisk1
Calling mkszfile to create new /image.data file.
^CCleaning up.

Solution

I learned that this was a by product of having the original systems /etc/filesystems file that still had the cloned systems filesystems in it. I have learned in the past, and failed to do so this time, that when cloning a system like this to make a copy of /etc/filesystems, remove all non-rootvg entries in the original before making the clone. Then of course copy the original back into place post clone creation. Once I removed the additional entries the command ran just fine.

Os level mismatch after update or upgrade

Posted on by Admin Clear

I’m positive I’ve used this tip many times over the years and pretty sure I even got it from Brian Smith’s blog which now seems to be MIA after the developerworks community was shutdown. So I figured I would put it here as reminder to me and hope it helps others find it.

After performing either an upgrade or an update the results from oslevel –s does not report the appropriate level. To find out what is missing do the following:

If the TL is right, but SP reported is wrong, run

oslevel -s -l `oslevel -sq 2>/dev/null | sed -n ‘1p’`

If the TL is wrong, run
oslevel -r -l `oslevel -rq 2>/dev/null | sed -n ‘1p’`

Welcome Mark Reynolds – New Director of Sales

Posted on by Admin Clear

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border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”no”][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

Mark Reynolds

Director, Sales

Clear Technologies, Inc.

469-360-4083

mreynolds@cleartechnologies.net

[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ spacing=”” center_content=”no” link=”” target=”_self” min_height=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” hover_type=”none” border_size=”0″ border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” border_radius=”” box_shadow=”no” dimension_box_shadow=”” box_shadow_blur=”0″ box_shadow_spread=”0″ box_shadow_color=”” box_shadow_style=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” background_type=”single” gradient_start_color=”” gradient_end_color=”” gradient_start_position=”0″ gradient_end_position=”100″ gradient_type=”linear” radial_direction=”center center” linear_angle=”180″ background_color=”” background_image=”” background_image_id=”” background_position=”left top” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_blend_mode=”none” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=”” filter_type=”regular” filter_hue=”0″ filter_saturation=”100″ filter_brightness=”100″ filter_contrast=”100″ filter_invert=”0″ filter_sepia=”0″ filter_opacity=”100″ filter_blur=”0″ filter_hue_hover=”0″ filter_saturation_hover=”100″ filter_brightness_hover=”100″ filter_contrast_hover=”100″ filter_invert_hover=”0″ filter_sepia_hover=”0″ filter_opacity_hover=”100″ filter_blur_hover=”0″ last=”no”][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]

As Director of Sales, Mark’s mission will be to grow the reseller division at Clear Technologies.  A key focus for the team will be on new client acquisition, growing the existing client base, bringing on new strategic partners, and working with the other leaders to create new sales processes to keep up with an ever-changing marketplace.  Mark will try to build on an already incredible workplace culture which lives by the Clear Technologies Way.  The Clear Technologies Way is comprised of 30 fundamental beliefs.  These are the values, behaviors, principles and practices that are the foundation for everything that Clear does.

Prior to joining Clear Technologies, Mark was most recently a District Sales Manager for Pure Storage which allows him to bring knowledge of an incredibly competitive, fast-growing segment of the hardware industry with him to Clear.  Mark also spent 5 years at Service Express, a third-party maintenance company, where he was employee number one in Texas and helped grow his TOLA team to the top producing region in the company.  He brings an extensive background of success in the telecommunications industry where he spent 6 years at Time Warner Cable Business Class and 7 years with Logix Communications.  Mark was also a member of the US Army where he served 4 years including deployments to Korea and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Those who know Mark attribute his success to his ability to get the right people on the bus and creating a culture that breeds high producing teams.  He puts the goals and needs of the client above his own and makes every decision revolve around doing the right things all the time.  He hates to lose more than he likes to win which drives him to not only write out goals but to work daily to achieve them.

Mark is originally from St. Paul, MN but moved to Texas at a very young age.  He received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of North Texas.  He is married and has 3 sons and a granddaughter which all reside in McKinney, TX.

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Using AI-Based Vision and Acoustic Solutions with Brian Murphy

Posted on by Admin Clear

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Former Clear Intelligence CIO, Brian Murphy, presented at CIO America in Chicago earlier this year on The Art of The Possible: Using AI-Based Vision and Acoustic solutions.  In this video Brian discusses facts, trends, and use cases for AI vision and acoustic based solutions to improve business models  in the modern world.

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Partner Spotlight – Measuring and Monitoring Software Usage

Posted on by Admin Clear

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Are you struggling to manage your software license consumption? Do you have PVU, sockets or RVU licensing? Is your IBM software running in a virtual environment?

The IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT) is a free tool created by IBM to help you measure and monitor software usage. ILMT is a mandatory tool for any company using IBM software in a complex environment, however, getting it up and running, and managing and analyzing the data it collects can be challenging.

If you need assistance setting up or managing ILMT, Clear Technologies software partner, All Blue Solutions, supports hundreds of clients with all different levels of experience with ILMT. All Blue Solutions has deep understanding of IBM software licensing terms and conditions and technical experience working with ILMT. This expertise allows them to help you with everything from installing, configuring, upgrading or managing the infrastructure.

BENEFITS OF ILMT:

  • Ensures Compliance:Proper use of ILMT allows you to maintain an up-to-date inventory of your software assets and ensure you have the appropriate number of license entitlements so you can maintain continuous license compliance.
  • Saves You Money:By constantly monitoring your license consumption, you can understand current and predict future consumption providing you with the opportunity to optimize your license costs so you’re only paying for the software you need.
  • Valuable Data Insights:ILMT provides you with deep insights into your software inventory to help manage your infrastructure. You always know what software, you have, where it is and how its being used.
  • Constant Audit Readiness:UsingILMT can help reduce the risk and costs associated with a software audit. By constantly monitoring your license consumption, you can avoid any unplanned license compliance settlements.

HOW ALL BLUE SOLUTIONS CAN HELP:

  • Installation & Configuration:Review of ILMT installation and agent configuration on all servers across the enterprise.
  • Quarterly Review:Run, maintain, and reconcilequarterly audit reports. Review reports to identify any variances between entitlements and usage.
  • Free Cloud Hosting:Free cloud hosting of ILMT server saving your staff significant time installing, upgrading, managing and maintaining the server.
  • Patching & Upgrades:ILMT environment patching and upgrades based in IBM release schedule, and upgrade, maintain and monitor ILMT on an ongoing basis.

To learn more about the benefits of ILMT and how Clear Technologies and All Blue Solutions can help ensure your software license compliance and mitigate risk download our whitepaper. Contact your Clear Technologies rep today!

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Welcome Joe Cox to the Clear Tech Team

Posted on by Admin Clear

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Joe Cox is the Storage Architect at Clear Technologies and has been in the role since August 2019. In his role at Clear, Joe is focused on creating storage solutions for clients around traditional and new workloads. Joe brings a business first approach to driving the conversation to focus on business problems that help drive both top and bottom lines of the clients P&L.

Prior to joining Clear Technologies, Joe was in roles at IBM supporting North American strategic accounts. Joe has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry with a focus on data protection and data storage strategies. Joe has a strong background in design, implementation, and management of large and complex solutions in many different market spaces, with a focus on service providers and healthcare. Joe has worked with many of the North American service providers such as DXC, NTT Data, Atos, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Perot Systems as well as many in Western Europe.

Before his time at IBM, Joe worked as a software consultant and post-sales implementation engineer. Joe is a traveler who enjoys spending time with his family and time outdoors. He also loves to give back to his local community via volunteering, fund raising, and donating.

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Red Hat Ansible

Posted on by Admin Clear

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Red Hat’s Ansible Automation helps organizations turn tough tasks into repeatable playbooks.

Working in IT, you’re likely doing the same tasks over and over. Ansible is a powerful IT automation and orchestration engine easy enough for everyone to use and powerful enough to automate the most complex, multi tear environments including cloud provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and many other IT needs. Designed for multi-tier deployments, Ansible models your IT infrastructure by describing how all of your systems inter-relate, rather than just managing one system at a time.

Automation frees admins up to focus on efforts that help deliver more value to the business by speeding time to application delivery, and building on a culture of success. Ultimately, Ansible gives teams the one thing they can never get enough of: time. Allowing smart people to focus on smart things.

It uses no agents and no additional custom security infrastructure, so it’s easy to deploy – and most importantly, it uses a very simple language (YAML, in the form of Ansible Playbooks) that allow you to describe your automation jobs in a way that approaches plain English.

With Ansible you can start to do real work in just minutes due to its simple, human-readable language. Altogether its powerful capabilities allow orchestration of your entire application lifecycle regardless of where it’s deployed. And Ansible’s agentless architecture means it is one less thing to keep secure.

When you automate, you accelerate. And when you build a culture of automation across your company, anything is possible.

Contact your Clear Technologies rep to learn how you can work smarter with Ansible.

Contact your Clear Technologies rep to learn how you can work smarter with Ansible.

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Make Hiring Easier and Improve Internal Communication

Posted on by Admin Clear

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Hiring the right person for the right seat sounds easy. It’s not. It’s hard, it takes time, it takes patience, and it takes talking to a lot of people. Even then, there is risk. At Clear Technologies, we are unyielding in our search for the best people possible—great people who think like owners, are team driven, know how to get the job done, and have potential to be the best producing “assets” a company could hope to invest in.

With each additional hire, we aim to continue raising the bar so that our culture and team flourish. Every person who joins, especially in small business, is either adding positively to the culture or taking away from it. We have had our share of missteps, just as any small business has, which is why we sought out additional help. We knew there must be a way to improve upon our hiring process.

One of the biggest game-changers for Clear Technologies in 2018 was our partnership with Culture Index. Culture Index aims to help organizations “maximize their bottom line by optimizing the organization from the top down”. Business is a war for talent—plain and simple – especially in the IT space. Culture Index has been a key part of our strategy to hire the best talent possible.

At Clear Technologies, we no longer interview applicants until they have taken a quick 5-minute survey, which gives us their “dot profile”. Their profile tells us more about who they are based on six distinct traits: Autonomy, Social Ability, Pace, Conformity, Logic, and Ingenuity.

Looking at these combined traits helps us to understand how a potential hire will “naturally arrive at decision making, how they prefer to communicate, the pace they prefer to work at, and their conformity towards detail orientation”.

Prior to creating a job description for an available position, we have our team take the same survey for the type of person they think will do best in the role. This gives us a better idea of the profile we are looking to match with our future team member. Imagine that—getting feedback and real data from those who will work most closely with that person, prior to posting a job description. That might seem like a given, but I know most small businesses do not follow that procedure.

In addition to radically altering our hiring process, Culture Index has been utilized to help us better understand each other within the organization. Improving our internal communication has encouraged stronger collaborative efforts amongst our team to more effectively and efficiently serve our clients. As an organization relentlessly dedicated to improving our responsiveness and performance, Clear Technologies is always seeking new and innovative ways to separate ourselves from our competition, and we believe that Culture Index does just that.

If you are interested in taking the survey and learning more about the process, you can do so here. I cannot say enough about what Culture Index has done for our business, and I couldn’t imagine our hiring process without it.

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