PDAs handle e3000 admin

GUI3000 takes MPE management mobile with Pocket PCs

System managers will be able to put a console in their pockets this summer for their HP 3000s, as an MPE/iX solution provider offers a new version of GUI3000 which runs on a growing share of handheld Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

The administrative utility developed by Pete Vickers, and sold by Gainsborough Software Ltd. in Europe and OmniSolutions in North America and elsewhere, goes mobile in its latest incarnation. Vickers transformed the graphical interface tool for 3000 management into the abbreviated Windows look and feel of Pocket PC, the newest interface that’s powering devices like HP’s Jornada and the Compaq iPaq.

Not all of the functions of GUI3000’s Version 4 have made it to the handheld screen, but Vickers has moved some of the most critical ones — the kinds a system manager would be likely to need in a mobile check of a system. The System Monitors, Spool File Explorer, Job/Session Explorer, MPE/iX Commands, Console Explorer and the product’s simple terminal emulation are supported.

Pocket PC represents a little less than 20 percent of the installed base of handheld devices at present, but analysts say its adoption rate could double that share in a few years. The Palm operating system represents the majority of PDA devices in the current market.

Vickers reports the software has been tested using infrared and mobile phone links, along with modem and LAN connections. Vickers made the connection using his cell phone, linked to an iPaq.

“When I was running wireless, I was using a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC, and a Nokia 7110 cell phone,” Vickers said. “The Nokia has an infrared port, and therefore a built-in modem. You just ‘point’ the iPaq at the cell phone, click on Connect, allow it to connect, and then run GUI3000 for Pocket PC.”

Vickers demoed the wireless features to control his HP e3000 (located in Bolton, UK) from Oxford, and from HP’s headquarters in Boeblingen, Germany. “It works flawlessly, and surprisingly quickly for a mobile connection,” he said. “I have also used it with a Compact Flash modem on a land line, and it was developed and tested using an Ethernet connection.”

The software also runs on Palm OS, “but I only use the Pocket PC,” Vickers said. “I like the memory and screen on the Pocket PC, and the expandability of the iPaq. Being a graphical product, GUI3000 is ideally suited for the Pocket PC, as there is no need to key anything in if you don’t want to. Controlling jobs, spoolfiles, system monitoring, MPE/iX commands and checking console logs are all done by a simple point and click. The only exception is the terminal emulator, and there GUI3000 logs on for you.”