Is there a report that shows my Robot/SCHEDULE security setup?
Yes, if you are running Robot/SCHEDULE 9.25 (or higher). Here’s how:

* Make sure the ROBOTLIB library is in your library list

* Go to a command line and enter CALL RBT400

This command generates a report listing Robot/SCHEDULE’s current security setup.

How can I tell which libraries and objects Robot/SAVE is encrypting?
It’s easy:

1. Go to the Robot/SAVE Main Menu and select option 4 (Reports Menu).

2. When the Reports Menu displays, select option 1 (System Reports).

3. Print the report titled “Library and IFS Objects Selected for Encryption Report.”

Robot/SAVE generates a spooled file (RBS441P) listing all libraries and objects that are either set up for encryption globally, or are encrypted only for a specific backup set.

Can Robot/SPACE generate a list of duplicate objects on my system?
Yes. Create a Storage Audit for all libraries and objects. Add the task “List Duplicate Library Objects.” Make sure you select “Print Results of this task” to create a spooled file with the results.

How can I tell SEQUEL to calculate the last day of the current month?
Use this statement:

CVTDATE(YEAR(Current Date),MONTH(Current Date),01)+1 month - 1 day

Updated! Are Help/Systems products compatible with i5/OS V6R1?
Help/Systems is committed to making its products compatible with the new release of i5/OS. We began shipping V6R1-compatible code for most products at the end of April 2008. For more information, download the new Help/FACTS, “Compatibility information for Help/Systems products moving to i5/OS V6R1 (IBM i 6.1)” or contact technical support.

Robot/SAVE’s Guided System Restoration process is now even easier to use. If you are using Robot/SAVE 11.15 (or higher), you have access to several improvements:

• Volume ID and Sequence number now display the Guided System Restoration Procedures panel. (Note: You set restoration sequence values on the Library Save Information panel. This allows you to identify which libraries are the most important to get you up and running. Then, Robot/SAVE can automatically restore your core libraries first.)
• Select Sort (function key 9) now allows you to sort by Volume ID.
• Print Report (function key 8 ) is a new option that prints an audit report showing the libraries selected and not selected for restoration and the volume(s) where they reside. You can use the report in advance of a disaster recovery (DR) test to verify the libraries that will be restored. You also can use this report to satisfy your auditors, to practice and fine tune your selection criteria, or to keep track of what is selected in a real Guided System Restoration.
• View (function key 11) is another new option that shows the Volume IDs required to restore each of the libraries in the list. The Volume ID in the Volume column is the volume where the library begins. By pressing function key 11, you can see if the library spans more than one volume.
• Restore Existing (function key 22) selects only the items that were on your system at the time of the last backup for restoration. If you press function key 22 and return to the Guided System Restoration Procedures panel, you can locate libraries with high sequence numbers that should not be restored at the DR site, such as test libraries or other non-essential items. This can save you precious time in the restore process.
• Message clarification. When you back of out the Restore All (function key 21) or the Restore Existing (function key 22) options, the message now reads, “Restore cancelled. Select/deselect items and press Enter to begin.”

The net effect of these changes is that it is easier to modify what will be restored.

Contributed by Theresa Aleckson, Technical Consultant

Robot/SAVE’s RBSDUPROT command comes to the rescue

Does your company have a legal, industry, or policy requirement to maintain duplicate copies of your backup records? If so, you’ll be interested in a new command RBSDUPROT that was added recently to Robot/SAVE.

This command duplicates a Robot/SAVE tape rotation and cross-references the duplicate to the original tape. You can tell what is on each tape because Robot/SAVE automatically maintains a record for you, helping you get away from error-prone manual methods of tracking duplicates. In addition, this cross reference helps satisfy auditor requirements for reliable tracking of duplicate records. Best of all, because Robot/SAVE knows how to handle multi-volume data, there’s no problem when your backup data spans tapes.

Before you begin
To use the RBSDUPROT command, you must have the following:

• Robot/SAVE 11.08 or higher installed on your system
• Two drives of the same type that use the same media

To help you manage duplicated volumes, select option 11, Tape Cross Reference Inquiry, on the Save Media Management Menu to display volume information for both the duplicate and the original volumes. Press function key 8 to print a report of your duplicate volume information. The Volume Inquiry panel also displays duplicate volume information.

Duplicating volumes using the RBSDUPROT command is considered an ad hoc operation. If you want to release the duplicated volumes to the scratch pool when their data expires, make sure to specify Y (Yes) in the Release expired Ad hoc tapes to scratch field on the Media Defaults panel.

When you submit or schedule the RBSDUPROT command, both the RBSDTALIB and RBSPGMLIB libraries must be in your interactive library list. The command is located in RBSPGMLIB, but uses files from RBSDTALIB. If you are scheduling the RBSDUPROT command using Robot/SCHEDULE, display the Control Options panel and enter RBSPGMLIB/RBSJOBD in the Job Description fields, and *JOBD in the Library List Name field.

Using the RBSDUPROT command

The following describes the fields in the RBSDUPROT command.

• Backup Class/Backup Set. Enter the backup class and backup set to which the volume you want to duplicate currently is attached.
• Rotation code. Enter the rotation code of the volume to be duplicated. To enter a specific rotation code, enter the code with leading zeroes. Specify *LASTRUN to select the last rotation used by Robot/SAVE.
• From device. The From device is the device where the original volume is mounted. Enter the name of a device, or specify *SAME to use the same device Robot/SAVE used to save the data.
• To device. The To device is the device used for the duplicate volume. Enter a device name, or specify *DEVGRP to use a device in the same group as the original device where the data was saved.
• To volume identifier. The To volume identifier is the volume to use for the duplicate volume. You can enter the name of a volume; *SCRPOOL to select a volume from the Robot/SAVE scratch pool; or *MOUNTED to use the volume that currently is mounted. Note: If you are using an Automated Media Librarian (AML), the only valid value is *SCRPOOL (scratch pool).
• File expiration date. You can specify an expiration date for the duplicate volume. Enter a date using your system date format. Enter *FROMFILE to use the same expiration date as the original volume. Enter *PERM if the duplicate volume is permanent, with no expiration date.

Contributed by Theresa Aleckson, Technical Consultant

I am planning an operating system (OS) upgrade. How do I find out what I need to do for Help/Systems products?
Call us before you update your OS to a new level. Some product versions may not be compatible with the upgraded OS. Each product needs to be reviewed to see if it needs updates before you update the OS.

What is the easiest way to set up a Report Set in Robot/REPORTS?
Use Robot/GUIDE. Robot/GUIDE ensures you don’t make typos when defining comparison information and prevents you from missing steps in the setup procedure.

When our System i was put into restricted state, several critical jobs did not run. We have monitor jobs that notify the operator if these jobs are not running, but since Robot/SCHEDULE was not active they didn’t work. How can I make sure that doesn’t happen again?
Robot/SCHEDULE provides two ways of working with jobs that are missed while it is inactive. On the General System Defaults panel there is an option called “Run Autowork at Startup of ROBOT.” When this is set to Y (Yes), Robot/SCHEDULE automatically runs all missed jobs for the current date (since 12:01 a.m.) as soon as it is restarted. If you want more control than running all missed jobs, you can run the Autowork function manually using Option 4 of the Control Menu. If you select the option to display missed jobs, you can control which ones to run and go back to the prior day as well.

I am using Robot/SAVE to back up the IFS. Can I omit QNTC servers from the backup?
Unfortunately, you cannot omit these servers. However, you can use the following command to expedite the process of connecting to the servers for SAV command processing:

ADDENVVAR ENVVAR(QZLC_SERVERLIST) VALUE(’1′) LEVEL(*SYS)

Note: You may want to to check with IBM before implementing this environment variable.

Certainly not any time soon, but there are trends to be aware of

Few companies have eliminated all forms of tape backup. Ultimately, it may be more important to focus on automating the process than upgrading the media.

About 10 years ago, many experts predicted that media backups would be replaced by disk-to-disk backups. Yet today, most System i installations still are doing some form of tape backup. Why? Is it a comfort zone? Is it really needed? And, if we are stuck with some form of backup, can we automate the process?

The truth is that the backup copies of our data are valuable assets. The backup media and other aspects of the backup task might change (for example, we might perform the backups through the network, across fiber optics, or by replicating data to a high availability system), but the need for backups will never go away.

I like to think of backups as an insurance policy. Performing a backup is like paying the monthly premium. The payoff comes when you can successfully restore your company’s data at a recovery center without jumping through hoops. The real backup issues are recoverability and automation.

Six key areas to automate
Automating computer systems has two huge benefits. It increases staff productivity and it reduces errors. If we start to think about automated backups as an insurance policy, what features should we look for in such a policy? I think there are six key areas:

• Tape/media tracking
• Robotics
• Virtual tape
• Restricted state
• Restoration reporting
• Regulations
• Tape/media tracking

Whether you are using a disk-to-disk network backup or a disk-to-tape solution, it is important to have a system that eliminates manual recording of storage information. A good tape/media tracking feature provides an easy-to-use inventory of what is stored on the backup media and where the media are located. Ideally, the system also provides a central repository of information for all systems in the data center, defines media retention periods, provides easy-to-use reporting, and tracks ad hoc backups by IT staff.

Robotics
Today, robotic devices can load tapes by infrared bar codes, eliminating the need to manually mount tapes. While this technology is needed to run automated backups, it introduces another level of complexity. When you acquire this equipment, get all the vendor training you can. Unfortunately, hardware vendors don’t seem to have a lot of knowledge about backup and recovery software, so it falls to the users to try to marry the two successfully. Once you get over that hurdle, you can enjoy the benefits of automation.

Virtual tape
IBM introduced virtual tape as part of V5R4. System administrators now can save data to a directory in the Integrated File System (IFS) to perform essentially a disk-to-disk backup. Virtual tape can be on an auxiliary storage pool (ASP) that is local or remote. Using a high-speed optical connection, backup speed is good and media errors are eliminated.

IBM designed virtual tape to mimic saving to a tape drive and retained the concept of a “volume.” That gives backup-and-recovery software the ability to support the technology through media management features.

Restricted state
If you can afford downtime once a week, I recommend automating restricted state backups. With increased tape capacity and software automation tools, you can run an automated and monitored restricted state backup completely unattended. For companies that need 24×7 system availability, this is a more painful issue. From a technical standpoint, you don’t really need to do a SAVSYS operation in i5/OS. The dynamic part of the OS can be backed up by commands that do not require a restricted state. However, very few people skip this backup because a recent SAVSYS makes it easier to restore the system. To eliminate downtime, some companies use high availability (HA) software to replicate the system and then run restricted-state backups on the HA system.

Restoration reporting
As backups complete, the data restoration plan should be updated in the database automatically. Then, the updated plan should be transmitted automatically to your remote hot site or off-site storage. The restoration process should be tested periodically. In speaking with experts at both IBM and SunGard, I have concluded that many people test as though disasters have a timetable. Administrators do a full-system save one weekend and a system test the next. This is not realistic. You need to test recoverability with the assumption that the failure has occurred at a less-than-optimal time, such as midday.

Regulations
If your team cannot figure out how to automate the processes and procedures around backup and recovery, you will spend enormous amounts of time handling Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and other regulatory requirements. Backups will not be going away anytime soon, and you should focus on alleviating the manual paper trail in this area. Your tape management systems should provide the reporting you need for your auditors. If they don’t, you should look for a better solution.

The need for backups is not going away. We will continue to see technological improvements. Solid-state technology (such as thumb drives) will become cheaper, eating away at the standard technologies of disk and tapes. As technological changes occur, evaluate whether they help your data center become more automated.

By Tom Huntington, Vice President of Technical Services

If I need to re-use a tape before its original expiration date, can I expire it manually in Robot/SAVE?
Yes, Robot/SAVE lets you expire a tape manually. Go to the Save Media Management Menu and select option 2 (By Volume Name). Locate the volume that you want to expire and enter a 9 next to the volume. A warning displays that the volume and its history will be removed. Press Enter to remove the history and expire the tape.

When you do this, you remove all the history for the objects saved on this tape. At this point, the data is still on the tape, but Robot/SAVE allows you to re-use the volume. The tape is reserved for the system on which you manually expired it.

I am trying to join two files using a derived field. SEQUEL ViewPoint displays the following error: “File xxx is not referenced in the JOIN specification.” How do I avoid the error so I can run the view?
Click OK to close the error message. Then, on the menu, select Options > ViewPoint Options > Design Tab. Un-check both “Ensure files are joined” and “Enable auto joining” in the File Join Options section. This allows the view to run with the derived join.

I have a Type 1 backup, with libraries that have objects to encrypt and libraries that do not. What is the most efficient way to set this up in Robot/SAVE?
To make your backup efficient, use one sequence number for all the libraries that do not have encrypted objects. Then, use another sequence number for the libraries that need encryption.

Is there a way for me to display just my monthly jobs in Robot/SCHEDULE?
It depends on how the jobs were set up. If your monthly jobs have a specific value in the application field, you can list them easily by doing a Robot query on this field. If your monthly jobs are scheduled using the DAYNO scheduling option, you could query that value. We recommend that when you set up Robot/SCHEDULE jobs you develop a naming convention that works for your installation. If monthly jobs are important, consider starting all job names with a dedicated character to identify them easily.

With faster data encryption and concurrent Domino backups

Robot/SAVE 11.06 includes two major enhancements that speed data encryption and allow you to perform concurrent Domino backups.

Faster data encryption
After gaining some experience with our customers’ real-world data, we found a way to encrypt data much faster. Customers who use the highest levels of encryption and have large files will see the biggest performance improvements. If you haven’t tried Robot/SAVE 11 yet, now is great time to give it a whirl.

Robot/SAVE encryption is very flexible, allowing you to specify the level of data encryption to use and the data to be encrypted. You can choose to encrypt entire libraries, individual objects within a library, or object lists.

When you choose to use encryption on a whole library or objects within a library, Robot/SAVE backs up the library to a save file (for speed) and then encrypts the appropriate data as the data is saved to tape. When you implement encryption, you may see Robot/SAVE using more disk space than it did in the past. If you don’t have enough disk space to support this setup and you have a stable, repeating list of objects to be encrypted, you can create an object list for your encrypted objects and omit those objects from the library backup. This will improve speed and decrease disk space demands.

Concurrent Domino backups
Robot/SAVE now allows multiple Domino servers to be backed up concurrently. Concurrent backups might be the solution if you have been unable to back up all your servers within your allocated backup window.

Robot/SAVE allows only one backup set from each backup class to run at at time. Therefore, to set up this feature, you must create a separate Robot/SAVE class and set for each Domino server you want to back up concurrently. Each set that will be running a concurrent backup should use a different tape drive to avoid hardware conflicts. You then can schedule the backups to run at the same time.

We are interested in backing up report set definitions. If our primary server fails, we can reinstall Robot/REPORTS and restore the files we need to get started. What files in what libraries should we back up to restore in case of a disaster?
For disaster recovery purposes, back up the RBTREPLIB library. This library holds all of the setup information for Robot/REPORTS. If you are using disk for short-term archiving, you also should back up the REPSHTRMLB library. This library contains the short-term data. In a disaster recovery situation, you want to have this library so you can restore the reports that had gone to the short-term archive.

I want to move Robot/ALERT from one System i to another. Is there a way to save/export the current Robot/ALERT configuration, pager information, broadcast lists, and so on to the new system?
Yes, this is easy to do. End Robot/ALERT on the old system and save the RBTALRLIB library. Then, restore RBTALRLIB to the new system. You must delete and re-create the communication jobs on the new system.

In Robot/CONSOLE, what is the difference between running the command RBCCLNUP and running the history-purge program RBC596?
The RBC596 program cleans up Robot/CONSOLE history based on the age of a message and its severity level. It removes messages from monitored message queues.

The RBCCLNUP command cleans up dangling data queues left by users who do not run the RBCENDQ command.

How can I make sure Robot/SAVE regularly releases tapes to my scratch pool?
To release tapes to the scratch pool regularly, schedule the following command in Robot/SCHEDULE:
RBSPGMLIB/RBSRLSEXTP

How can I check to see if one or all my clients are running and ready to receive tasks from the System i?
You can poll each registered client using the Robot/CLIENT RCLPOLL command. The command determines if the Robot/CLIENT task processor is running and if the client is ready to receive tasks. The RCLPOLL command allows you to check the status of all attached clients at once or to enter up to 50 names of individual clients.

You can view the operational status of the clients on the Client Control Center panel.

To use the command interactively, enter it on a command line and press function key 4 to display the command prompt panel.

You also can schedule the command in Robot/SCHEDULE to poll each client on a regular schedule (such as hourly) or you can embed the command in a program.

How do I purge completed tasks in Robot/CLIENT?
The RCLCLEANUP command deletes completed tasks. You must specify the number of days of completed tasks you want to keep. The best way to keep completed tasks cleaned up is to set up a Robot/SCHEDULE job to run the RCLCLEANUP command to purge completed tasks on a regular basis.

Is there a simple way to check that a Robot/SCHEDULE job completed normally every morning at 5 a.m.?
If you are using Robot/SCHEDULE 9.0 and Robot/ALERT, this is a good way to check:

1. Create a second Robot/SCHEDULE job (Job2) that runs the RBASNDMSG command. Make the message text something that would indicate the job you are monitoring (Job1) has not run. Schedule this job to run every day you want to monitor Job1 and choose a time for it to run.

2. Edit Job1. Add the RBTBCHUPD command to the command entry panel as the final command. Use this command to put a Schedule Override Code of Omit (O) on Job2.

The result is that when Job1 runs normally, Job2 will be omitted (and you will not be paged). However, if Job1 does not run, Job2 will page you. If you also need to monitor if Job1 terminates, put a Robot/ALERT device name on the Control Options panel for Job1.

With Robot/SCHEDULE 10.0, you can use the new Job Monitors to specify that the job must complete by 5 a.m.

How does Robot/SAVE handle journaled files during backups?
On the Backup Set Definition panel, there is a parameter that tells Robot/SAVE whether or not to save changed files that a being journaled. The default value is yes (Y).

Is there a quick way to display my system’s serial number, model number, feature code, and logical partition?
If you use the Robot products and RBTSYSLIB is in your library list, enter the command RBO to display the Robot Products Menu and press function key 9 to display this information.

Can Easy View help me find null values in my files?
Yes. When you are using the Scan feature in Easy View, the comparison value *NL finds null values in fields within your files. You can even use Extended Scan to replace the null values.

Can I use Robot/CLIENT to synchronize the time on different Windows servers?
Yes, if you have Robot/CLIENT on each server and Robot/SCHEDULE on your System i. Set up a command-type job in Robot/SCHEDULE that uses the RCLEXEC command. The task to execute is the Windows command to change the time. Schedule this task to run in Robot/SCHEDULE on the clients at the same time.

I recently upgraded to Robot/SAVE 11.0. I typically use the Restricted State Utility when I run a type 9 backup (backing up all objects). Now that I’ve implemented encryption, is there anything special I need to do when I sign on to the console and use the RBSRSURDY command?
Yes, Robot/SAVE needs to have the RBTROLLIB library added to its library list to handle encryption. We recommend attaching the job description RBSPGMLIB/RBSJOBD to the profile you use to run the RBSRSURDY command or you can run the following commands manually to make sure Robot/SAVE has access to the libraries it needs:

ADDLIBLE RBTROLLIB
ADDLIBLE RBTSDTALIB
ADDLIBLE RBSPGMLIB
ADDLIBLE QGPL