Why is disk space so hard to manage on development systems? Why do huge save files and libraries continue to grow and grow--unnoticed--and then nearly crash the system? Because you pay your developers to (ahem) develop, not to monitor your disk space; that's why.

Sure, we all have reports that show libraries by size, and they can even show how much the libraries have grown since the last time the report was created. Some IT managers require their developers to look at the report and sign it, indicating that they are aware of how much disk space they have tied up.

Nevertheless, the same libraries and save files, or journal receivers, steadily and rapidly grow until the system finally crashes.

What is the price of system downtime? Let's say you have 20 developers who can't sign onto their system for a couple of hours because of an automatic IPL caused by a disk capacity error. Using average developer wages as a benchmark, two hours of lost time could cost your company upwards of $1,500. Ouch!

Instead of repeating this cycle, use Robot/SPACE to create a graph that summarizes disk space used by owner. Use the graph as a motivational tool. Show it to your developers to give them a concrete picture of how much of the available space they have used (see Figure 1.) You can see and learn more about Robot/SPACE here.



Figure 1: Summarize collected statistics by owner, application, accounting code, and more. (Click images to enlarge.)

Using the power of Robot/QUERY, Robot/SPACE can extract object size information for every save file and journal receiver on the system, across all libraries, and display it in one report. Your team can build custom queries over the database in Robot/SPACE to display the largest file, library, and output queue on the system. See Figure 2. You can see and learn more about Robot/SPACE here.

Figure 2: Quickly display the largest objects on your system.

As you can see, the Robot/SPACE interface allows you to see as little or as much information about your system storage as you need or want. The interface was done in Java, and our existing customers are amazed by how powerful it is and how easy it is to use.

You can see and learn more about Robot/SPACE here. And check out Help/Systems' other offerings in the MC Showcase Buyer's Guide

Tom Huntington is Vice President of Technical Services for Help/systems, Inc.
He can be reached at 952.563.1606 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Tom Huntington is Executive Vice President of Technical Solutions at HelpSystems, and has been with the company for nearly 30 years. He works with business alliances, acquisitions and large customer relationships and ensures that the HelpSystems software works with other major software and hardware vendors worldwide.

Tom often speaks on enterprise scheduling, security, automation topics, IBM i technology, and the HelpSystems products, and hosts technical presentations on a variety of automation topics. He is the author of the HelpSystems IBM i Marketplace Survey and has written articles on automated operations, security, cloud computing, and business intelligence for leading trade journals and newsletters. He was named an IBM Champion in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 for over three decades of advocation and thought leadership on the IBM i platform.

Contact Tom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..