Rocket DevOps (for IBM i)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) isn't new as a concept, but modern tools make it easier and more cost effective to improve processing accuracy and speed.@Andrew Simpson is presenting a webinar in association with Common Europe on March 25th at 11am CET where he'll discuss approaches, tools and success stories specific to the IBMi platform. As the resident expert on this topic in our forum, I know he's happy to answer any questions that you have on the topic here as well.   ​------------------------------Dave AndrewsHead of Customer EngagementRocket Software------------------------------

I am often asked by customers about the most recent addition to the Rocket Aldon suite of products, the Rocket Ops Portal. I have tried to provide a brief overview below of the most asked questions, but if you have any others, just let me know! The Rocket Ops Portal is free to customers with a Rocket Aldon maintenance agreement. What is it? The Rocket Ops Portal is a Web Based Portal for Lifecycle Manager IBMi Edition (LMi) and Lifecycle Manager Enterprise Edition (LMe), used for Release Management and Deployment monitoring. The Ops Portal allows you to approve and promote tasks from one environment to the next within a specific Group/Application/Release, trigger any associated deployment operation, perform adhoc deployments, and monitor all deployment activity to your IBMi and distributed systems. What will I gain from using it? Helps to be Compliant The Ops Portal was designed based on DevOps Best Practices, to allow separation of duties to be easily enforced. The Ops Portal uses sta

In this series discussing iCluster Performance, we have discussed TCP/IP settings and disk unit I/O impacts on IBM Power running i with iCluster replication.  If you missed those topics, you would find those in the list of Forum threads in the iCluster topic.  iCluster replication technology is based on IBM i's ability to record all changes to objects to a journal (log) when they have been created, updated or deleted.  iCluster includes features to support the selection of either using a Remote Journaling transport, an IBM DB2 service included in the base of the IBM i operating system, or a built-in service included in iCluster to deliver changes to the selected clustered node using local journaling exclusively.In this entry we will discuss creating a local journal using the most common options to quickly and easily set up journaling for iCluster logical replication.  Sorry to say it again, iCluster also fully supports remote journaling so please don't interpret its omission in this d

Thanks to everyone who joined us on Tuesday. Below is the recording of our Rocket Aldon Spotlight Webinar for 2021. We had a great presentation where Andy Finley demoed how to set up Rocket Aldon Git and JIRA integrations. If you weren't able to join us - or you want to watch it again - check out the recording below.I will be including the Q&A from the webinar in replies to this post. Any additional questions or comments, feel free to reply to this thread. ------------------------------Rebecca DiltheyRocket Software------------------------------

Some of our customers notified us that changing a widget type on a web page was not so straight forward. To make this task easier, a new feature was added in the right-click menu of a web page widget to change its type. This can be helpful for instance when a numeric field can better be a spinner, or when a text field is actually a date where a date picker is a better choice than a simple text input widget. The short (less than a minute) video will show where to find this feature and how it can be used. ------------------------------Roger van ValenRocket Software------------------------------

It happens...A Laptop 'goes south' and disk and/or data are unable to be recovered.Or a co-worker wins the lottery and moves on to greener pastures...In any case, some development effort may have been lost if work was being saved locally (versus committed/pushed with aldongit or saved in a Private Version on the server).  If the files cannot be recovered, we may need to cancel the checkouts from the LMe repository.What to do if there is an active checkout to a workstation that is no longer available for use?If we attempt to cancel a checkout that is associated with your workstation, will find that this is not allowed:  AFF0172 You cannot cancel the check out for the part or parts you selected.  One of the following has occurred: (1) The parts are not checked out, and therefore you cannot cancel the check out. (2) The part or parts for which you are trying to cancel check out are not checked out to your development environment. So how do we remove the checkout to move forward?What is th

Have you ever wished that you could "branch off" the IBM i development work you are doing for a long-running project. Wouldn't it be great if you could create your own space where you can work on your code changes in isolation from the day-to-day changes? Finally, when you are ready to go-live, wouldn't it help if you had an easy way to push your changes up and take them live? You can do all of these things with LM(i)! Watch the following short video for more information!  ------------------------------Joe BaumgartenCustomer Solutions EngineerRocket Software------------------------------

A frequently asked request for the LegaSuite Web builder is to be able to easily preview web pages in different page sizes. When working on pages that are intended to work on various screen sizes or various mobile devices (responsive design), a feature to preview specific page sizes is a great help. In LegaSuite Web 8.5.5 a feature has been introduced to do exactly that, have a preview for a specific size or mobile device. Additionally there is a button to switch orientation between portrait and landscape. The video below illustrates how this works. ------------------------------Roger van ValenRocket Software------------------------------

A key component of many organizations' DevOps solution, Git is admired among the developer community for its combination of intuitiveness, speed, and robustness. Indeed, a Stack Overflow survey of nearly 70,000 professional developers found that just over 88 percent of them prefer Git over other version control tools. It is this overwhelming popularity that persuaded IBM to add Git early on to its ever-expanding list of open source tools for IBM i. However, as a solutions engineer serving a diverse IBM i clientele, I find that more and more IBM i-based organizations are choosing to incorporate Git into their DevOps stack. Drawing from that experience, here are just a few of my observations on why Git can be a valuable addition to your IBM i DevOps toolkit. POWERFUL SOURCE CONTROL A good reason to adopt Git is that it provides numerous functions for source control beyond what you find in some IBM i tools. Git not only stores files and keeps track of the changes between every version, i

On Feb 23 we're hosting another Spotlight webinar for Aldon customers. We'll demo how to get the most out of your Git and JIRA integrations with Rocket Aldon. These integrations are a part of the Rocket Aldon licensing and already available to active customers today.Sign up at the link below. And, if you can't join us, sign up anyway and we'll send you the recording.Aldon Spotlight Webinar sign-up, February 2021------------------------------Rebecca DiltheyRocket Software------------------------------

When discussing Rocket iCluster performance, there are many dependencies, as you are likely aware.  It's not only the efficiency of the application code and logic, but also the environment that is created, configured for the solution to run in.  When there are two machines communicating and a handshake for them to exchange data, any component that is unreliable can affect efficiency.  To continue the discussion of Performance, let's take on the next 'component' for discussion.  In this Forum post we will talk about I/O efficiency and matching capability of the primary node and backup nodes in an iCluster relationship.It is fairly common for the discussion about replication to move to "How much processing capability does our HA/DR hardware need to run iCluster and provide a mirror of the production applications?".  Most of the time, if that was the intent alone, the answer is about 25%-30% of production processing capability can produce a backup copy on the secondary system of producti

Does anyone have the problem on Aldon Lme connection? When the system not being used for few days, the connection seem is not established but I don't know how to check. 1. We have a case where we login to do promotion in Aldon LME web portal, the promotion does not move. Then we stop all the Aldon Lme subsystem jobs in AS400 , then start that again and the promotion can be done. 2. On another case, we stop all the Aldon Lme subsystem jobs in AS400 , then start that again. The web portal of LME still can not promote the programs. Fortunately, we use Aldon Lme client and we get the promotion done. Just wonder does anyone have this problem and able to find the solution? Thank you------------------------------kain soon chaisystem analystSilverlake Processing------------------------------

Did you know that you can now activate single member at a time? If your file that was suspended was extremely large with multiple members, and only one member had an issue, this could use up a lot of bandwidth for no reason at all. It was sometimes better to save the entire file to a savefile, and then FTP that file across to the backup node. Now DMACTOBJ allows you to specify a single member name if the RFSH parameter is set to *YES. Here is more information in regards to the Refresh object and Physical file refresh method parameters of the command: Refresh object (RFSH)Indicates whether you want to refresh the object to the backup node when the object is activated. This option allows you to activate an object without having to save and restore the object. The possible values are: *NO - Does not refresh the object on the backup node when the object is activated. In this case, you are responsible for refreshing the object and ensuring that it is synchronized at the time the activation

It is critically important to conduct periodic failover planning and testing, and execute node switching as part of your DevOps practices. There's a lot of risk associated with not doing both, whether it comes in the form of lost revenue, clients or employee productivity. I've created this step-by-step guide to switching to help you adopt this best practice. In future videos I'll cover how you troubleshoot and resolve issues you may encounter in putting this practice in place. Let me know what specific questions or challenges you may face in the comments below, and I'll do my best to respond. Thanks!   ------------------------------Don BroadbridgeRocket Software------------------------------

If you have a new setup with iCluster and want to test the integrity of your backup system before running a switch test, use the simulator to check the environment. The simulator does not affect the production system, work can carry on there uninterrupted, the clever stuff is done on the backup system, where the staging store exists. Starting the simulator marks the position on the journals and then stops the group apply jobs on the backup, so all transactions replicated from production are held in the staging library. Users then log on to the backup system to run tests and record any issues or problems that occur. Ending the simulator then rolls the journal positions back and the apply jobs are started.You see some latency until everything is caught up. We recommend the simulator is run for maybe 2 to 3 hours (i.e. not days) as it will take longer to roll back. Also, the simulator can be run as many times as needed, and once full confidence in the backup is reached, you can move on to

When configuring iCluster on a new cluster, we recommend that each Group has it's own Staging Store library as well as its own journal & receivers. This will improve overall performance and make maintenance and fire-fighting any issues easier.So, for example, before creating new Group STOCKAPP we would do the following (names are just suggestions): create staging store library STKSTAGE create journal receiver STK0000001 in library AAAJRNLIB (journal receiver threshold - 3500000) create journal STKJRN in library AAAJRNLIB (Minimize entry specific data *FLDBDY) ------------------------------d broadbridgeRocket Software------------------------------

Aldon Report Manager provides real-time visibility and reporting of the software development process. It generate the reports necessary for simplified audit compliance while managing timely software delivery.   The 1.8.2 release is a minor update with a focus on the user experience.   Highlights of this release include:   ·        Displaying the Report parameters window a second time for the same report no longer refreshes the page again ·        When a report is open and the user changes to another report, the Report parameters pop-up now correctly displays parameters for the current report ·        The Customize window no longer appears twice for the same report   The release notes can be found here: https://docs.rocketsoftware.com/nxt/gateway.dll/RKBnew/report%20manager/v1.8.2/rm_rel_notes_v182.pdf?f=templates&fn=document-frameset.htm ------------------------------Stephen AldousRocket Software------------------------------

Hi Mark. Nice article on the TCP/IP performance tips. A question for you, have you noticed any customers starting to use Aggregate Ethernet Lines as per Tip: IBM i Aggregate Ethernet Lines lI just wondered if you had any iCluster related advice regarding using them? Seems like it would help overall network resiliency.Thanks.------------------------------Mike WarkentinMidRange Computer Group------------------------------

We have a button that will require 3 different conditions.I set a character on the green screen hostfield called "Flag"If Flag = Blank , I want to hide this buttonIf Flag = "0", I want to enable the button.If Flag = "1", I want to disable the button.By using Visibility, I can have only 2 conditions?Thanks.------------------------------Peter ChengE2open------------------------------

The September releases of Aldon have brought many new features to Aldon. In this video you can watch Andy Finley present these features. This video is intended for current users of Aldon LMe & LMi, so it just highlights the new features. ------------------------------Steve WrightProduct ManagerRocket SoftwareLittleton CO781.684.2139LittletonLittletonLittleton------------------------------

Hello,We came from the Jwalk World, it's now replaced by Legasuite, there's a way to turn on Emulator, but it's not very useful, you cannot navigate through the emulator like you can with Jwalk Emulator, do you guys have this issue?------------------------------Peter ChengE2open------------------------------

Instead of the steps required to get into iCluster: CHGCURLIB ICLUSTER GO DMCLUSTER You can create a simple CL (QCLSRC) named IC with the two commands: and a simple 1-line CMD (QCMDSRC) named IC with just the command prompt and no parameters: and compile the command to call the CL: Now just run IC and it takes you right to the main menu, although if you always go into WRKHASMON you could add this to the command too. To make it even easier, you can place the CMD object in the LIBL so it can be run from any command line. ------------------------------William ShubinRocket Software------------------------------

The September releases of Aldon begin a new chapter in the Rocket DevOps journey. The entire primary suite of products, including LM(i), LM(e), Reports Manager, and Ops Portal, have been upgraded to work with some of the latest features of IBM i and provide the functionality the development community is clamoring for – including a tighter integration with Git. Some of the enhancements also provide insight as to where Rocket is going next with its DevOps product as we expand our ability to integrate with the tools that every development team already utilizes – while continuing to provide the process control and audit overview that is the Aldon trademark. And we're doing this while expanding our web UI access and functionality and giving new abilities to shops developing a mix of IBM i and Enterprise applications.Some of the most exciting new features are housed in the Ops Portal, which is becoming a tool to manage all levels of development. Changes have been made to improve integrations

Before we discuss the command, let's discuss what an 'out of sync' (OOS) condition is.  An OOS is the result of a Synchronization Check run that resulted in a list of exceptions.  A Synchronization Check (SC) is a special process that compares attributes or contents (depending on the SC parameters) of objects selected for replication.  When a difference is detected, the objects are flagged as OOS.  Remember that this OOS exception list does not mean the object(s) are not replicating or in an error state.  It means that during the most recent SC, some aspect did not match.  Those specific exception conditions can be reviewed in more detail, but that is for a different post.  To be provided with the most accurate SC results, replication should be operating smoothly and in a condition of low latency at the time of the SC run.If the SC has resulted in a list of possible exceptions, we can see the results from the monitor and dive deeper using option 8 (Object Status) and take some correcti

A short time ago, I shared an article with DZone about how to quickly build APIs for any terminal-based environments (such as IBMi, VT, HPE NonStop, and IBM z) in five easy steps. The article has been viewed many times, but I wanted to let our LegaSuite and Rocket API users know about these simple tips & tricks to streamline your workflow and reduce the amount of time spent creating APIs.Once you've read the article, come back to this post. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts, or perhaps a tip or trick that you've learned to boost your productivity building APIs.------------------------------Jeroen van DunRocket Software------------------------------