Sceptre is a VME performance monitor of VME base (see end of page with regards to the use of Sceptre on MVE), TPMS and IDMS services, designed to benefit and address the requirements of:

• IT managers requiring information on use of system resources
• Technical services managers who need analysis of all aspects of the services they control
• Operations managers who need to know if their scheduling strategies are effective
• Service desk staff/support technicians who need to monitor at very detailed levels and provide rapid response to users
• Applications developers who need to examine efficiency of code and size future developments
• Capacity planners/sizing staff needing factual input to model requirements.

Sceptre features include:

• Simultaneous monitoring of up to 16 TPMS and IDMS services.
• Real-time snapshot facilities of TPMS and IDMS sub-systems
• VME base snapshot with ability to control the selection of I/O devices to be looked at
• Powerful and flexible on-line report writer
• Trend analyses based on up to 9999 selected performance items
• Comprehensive standard report library
• On-line generation of ad hoc tabular and graphical reports.
• DIF format output for reports allowing input into PC spreadsheets
• Incorporation of external user-collected performance data
• Purpose-built links to Logica's CAPACITY/Q and Metron's ATHENE for capacity management
• Job level resource usage analysis
• Extensive integrated interactive Help screens

Sceptre contributes to cost savings by:

• Reducing labour costs of analysing performance data, producing sizing and capacity management information
• Optimising current resource usage, improving the total cost-effectiveness of your VME mainframes
• Minimising overheads required to monitor performance.
• Providing clear, concise reports for all levels of management to facilitate decision-making

Product status

The following product version continues to be supported:

     Sceptre version 5.50

     The latest issued patch is number 550-029/1

Working in conjunction with Fujitsu, we are able to announce that Sceptre v5.50 has been verified as operating successfully on Fujitsu’s Modern VME Environment (MVE)

For those customers who are planning to move to MVE, the good news is that there are no additional amendments required above those already issued on the superNOVA VME platform.

However, as you might already realise, the VME kernel is significantly changed under MVE and so the meters that would have produced VME data no longer exist.  The product can however continue to be used for the monitoring and collection of TPMS and IDMS data.

Further information can be obtained direct from Fox Systems Software.

All support matters should be sent via email to support@FoxSystemsSoftware.co.uk