Are you ready for a disaster?

Share these important tips with your disaster recovery team!

Do you know what to do with your Help/Systems software if disaster strikes? The basic items you need to recover any application on the System i, including the Robot products, are:

• Appropriate license keys.
• Volumes/tapes with the most current data.
• Reports and other documentation needed to restore the applications and data to the disaster recovery (or new) system.
• Appropriate media and documentation needed to install necessary software on other platforms that interface with the System i (such as the graphical interfaces for the Robot products on the System i).

License keys are critical
What is an “appropriate” license key? Many System i software products, including the Robot products, are licensed based on the hardware where the software is installed normally. When you are recovering from a disaster or testing at a hot site, the hardware differs from the originally licensed system. Therefore, you need a temporary license key to run the software.

• If you are recovering from a disaster, call Help/Systems at (952) 933-0609 to get temporary license keys. Technical Support Consultants are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• If you are planning a disaster recovery test, contact Help/Systems during normal business hours before the actual day of the test to get the temporary keys you need.

Save media resources are also critical
Your save media is another critical resource. You need to know your save strategy and where volumes, reports, and other pertinent information are located. This includes the most recent backup of your entire system, as well as your daily backups or daily changed objects. You should also have key vendor names and phone numbers to call.

Don’t forget that along with System i save media, you may need to have specific PC or server application installation media for GUIs that interface with your System i applications. This may include CDs, or the ability to access the Web for software downloads.

If you use encryption (software or hardware), make sure that you have the encryption keys with you. Without these keys, you can’t restore your encrypted libraries.

Restoration begins
With the information and media in hand, you are ready to start your restoration process.

Begin by restoring the OS, user profiles, and configurations following the instructions in the IBM Backup and Recovery Guide.

Then restore the *NONSYS objects using the IBM RSTLIB command or Robot/SAVE’s Guided System Restoration process.

Robot/SAVE’s restoration process
If you are using Robot/SAVE, you will need the RBS* reports that were generated during your backup process. You may also want to have the Help/FACTS, Robot/SAVE System Restoration Checklist and Robot/SAVE: What to do at a Hot Site.

Restore Robot/SAVE’s libraries in the following sequence:

RSTLIB RBSDTALIB *REWIND

RSTLIB RBTSYSLIB *LEAVE

RSTLIB RBSPGMLIB *LEAVE

If you use Robot/SAVE to encrypt any of your libraries or objects, restore the RBSKEYLIB library next.

RBSRSTLIB LIB(RBSKEYLIB) KEY(ENCRYPTION KEY) ENDOPT(*REWIND)

Enter the license key for Robot/SAVE and continue with the restoration process using Robot/SAVE’s Guided System Restoration process.

After restoration
Enter the temporary license keys for the rest of your Robot products. If you use Robot/NETWORK, the easiest approach is to install the Robot/NETWORK Explorer (GUI) on a PC and use the Robot/NETWORK Product License Manager to manage the license keys. 

Note: You must enter the Robot/NETWORK Node and Robot/TRANSFORM licenses from the Robot/NETWORK Product License Manager. You must enter the Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise license from the Robot/SCHEDULE Explorer.

If you don’t use Robot/NETWORK, you can use the RSLVER command to enter license codes for all the Robot products, except those noted above.

System Name, IP Address, or Fully Qualified Name
If the system name has changed, run the RSLCHGSYSN command for Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/MONITOR, Robot/REPORTS, Robot/SAVE, Robot/SCHEDULE, and Robot/UPS.

If the IP address, system name, or domain name have changed, review the Host Table entries and the domain information on the System i or on the DNS server, and update this information.

To do this, enter the command CFGTCP and select Option 10 (Work with TCP/IP Host Table entries) to check the fully qualified name with the IP address. Use Option 12 (Change Host Domain Information) to verify the fully qualified name, system name, and search priority. 

Note: Robot/NETWORK and Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise require accurate information from these sources to function.

Special considerations
For many of the Robot products, you don’t need to do anything except to restore their libraries and enter their temporary license keys.

If you use Robot/ALERT, keep these items in mind:

• If you are using a modem, execute the command WRKHDWRSC *CMN to get the resource name for the RBALxx lines, as this may have changed. If needed, update the communication job from the System Setup menu.
• If you are using TCP/IP communications, make sure that the SMTP server is defined to the Host Table entries on the System i, or in the DNS server at this location.

If you use Robot/NETWORK, consider these items: 

• Rerun the Robot/NETWORK 10 Prechecker to make sure that the necessary IBM programs, such as the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), were restored successfully.
• Confirm that the Host Table entries have the correct IP address and fully qualified names of the local system and all other systems in the network.
• If the IP address or the system name has changed, remove and reinstall Robot/NETWORK. Refer to the two Help/FACTS, Removing Robot/NETWORK and Installing Robot/NETWORK, for additional information.

Remove and reinstall these Robot products
If you use the following hardware-related Robot products, remove, reinstall, and set them up again:

• Robot/AUTOTUNE
• Robot/MONITOR
• Robot/LPAR
• EASY VIEW

Doing an IPL after restoration
If you want to do an IPL after everything is restored and bring up your applications in a controlled manner, you may not want the Robot products to start automatically. You have two options:

• Remove the RBTSLEEPER subsystem from your startup program.
• Remove the autostart job entries for the products that you do want to start.

Final thoughts
Whether you are recovering from an actual disaster or planning a disaster recovery test, it is a complicated process. We recommend that you contact Help/Systems Technical Support Consultants for planning or recovery assistance.

Contributed by Dale Roers, Technical Consultant