Run commands with Management Central

iSeries™ Navigator enables you to define an action or a task and then perform that action or task on multiple endpoint systems or system groups. These are the same commands that you normally run using the character-based interface.

For example, you can use a command definition to do any of the following tasks:

Set network attributes on multiple endpoint systems or system groups
Set up your own help desk or operations "procedures book" to handle customer and system needs.

Any control language (CL) command that you can run in batch, you can send to multiple systems at the same time. Create the command definition, and then run the command on endpoint systems or system groups.

To run a command with Management Central, do the following:

Expand Management Central > Endpoint System.
Right-click the endpoint system on which you want to run the command and click Run Command. For more information about this window, click Help.

You can click Prompt for assistance in entering or selecting an i5/OS™ command. You can choose to run the command immediately or schedule it to run at a later time.

Starting with V5R3, the command runs under the CCSID of the user profile that is submitting the command. If the profile is set to 65535 ( or is set to *sysval, and the sysval is 65535), it uses the default CCSID 37.

Note: Be sure that the command you specify is supported by the release of i5/OS that is running on the target endpoint system. For example, starting with V5R3 any outputs other than job logs that are produced by a Run command are viewed by expanding the system under My Connections > Basic Output > Printer Output.

Create command definitions

You can create a command definition to save a command that you want to run over and over on multiple endpoint systems and system groups. Storing a command definition on the central system allows you to share commonly used or complex commands with other users. When a command is run from a definition, a task is created.

To create a command definition, do the following:

Expand Management Central > Definitions.
Right-click Command and select New Definition.
The New Command Definition window opens.