Enterprise User Interface

Accessing BRMS Enterprise in the heritage Navigator for i

An option, called Enterprise Services is listed under the main Welcome panel for BRMS. The icon used is the main Backup, Recovery and Media Services for IBM i icon with an E superimposed over it.

Accessing Enterprise from the heritage Navigator for i:

NOTE: The TCP/IP HTTP server should be ended and re-started whenever a BRMS PTF is applied to get the latest level of BRMS code for your browser. See the PTF cover letter for more information.

Open

Open

Accessing Enterprise from IBM System i Navigator:

NOTE: The BRMS plug-in should always be uninstalled and re-installed whenever a BRMS PTF is applied to get the latest level of BRMS code on your PC. See the PTF cover letter for more information.

Adding Nodes to the Enterprise Network

When selected, ‘Enterprise Services’ will display the ‘Hub Center’ panel. The ‘Hub Center’ displays the Nodes that are in the Enterprise Network. Initially the Enterprise Network will not contain any Nodes. Use the ‘Add’ button, to add Nodes to the Enterprise Network.

Once a Node exists in the Enterprise Network, the systems that are currently in that Node’s current BRMS Network can be quickly added to the Enterprise Network by selecting the ‘Add all systems in the BRMS network’ option on the pop-up menu for the Node.

Properties

Node

The ‘Hub Center’ 'Properties' action for a Node brings up a panel which has several tabs. The information presented on each tab is contained within the Node properties panel. This is especially important to be aware of when using the ‘Report definitions’ tab from this properties panel. For example, when adding or editing properties on the ‘Report definitions tab’, you are required to click ‘OK’ on the ‘Report definitions’ properties AND click ‘OK’ on the Node properties panel for changes made on the Report definitions to be saved.

The 'Add' button on the ‘Hub Center’ and the 'Properties' action on an existing Node will bring up the same node properties panel. On this panel, the 'Communications' tab is for the user to tell BRMS how to establish a connection with the Node. BRMS does not use this information to setup communication or create the needed systems configuration, BRMS expects that the communication setup has been or will be done by the user. This interface is to tell BRMS what to use to establish the remote connection.

Node Group

Node Policy

Report Definition

Report Definition properties indicate what and when reports should be run on a Node.

Adding or changing Report Definition properties affect the next time a report is scheduled to run.

For a Report Definition using a 'When to run' attribute of 'Weekly', the report will run at the next scheduled day and time.

For a Report Definition using a 'When to run' attribute of 'Frequency in days', the report will run on the current day. If the scheduled time has passed the report will run immediately, otherwise it will run at the scheduled time. The next run date will be based on the current day and the 'Frequency in days' attribute.

Report Policy

Contact

Hub Administration

The Hub has options that can be set using ‘Hub Administration’, such as Contacts.

Monitoring Nodes

The main purpose of Enterprise is to monitor the backups for the IBM i systems in a network. The backups can be monitored using several methods:

1. Hub Center

2. Backup Status

3. BRMS Logs

4. Reports

Hub Center

The ‘Hub Center’ is the main Enterprise panel. It is displayed when entering ‘Enterprise Services’. The purpose of the ‘Hub Center’ is to manage Nodes from a central location. The ‘Hub Center’ currently allows you to view, at a glance, the BRMS release, BRMS PTF level, the BRMS connection status, indications of BRMS Network health and a summary of report statuses. The displayed Nodes can be subsetted using the standard table Filter over any of the columns being displayed in the table.

The data on the ‘Hub Center’ panel reflects information collected the last time a Report Definition was run on a Node. An automatic refresh is not done to keep the Node data current. To reflect the current Node information you need to select the 'Refresh' action on the Node(s).

The ‘Hub Center’ column for ‘Reports Definitions’ shows the number of Report Definitions exist for the Node. The columns for ‘Failed Reports’, ‘Successful Reports’, and ‘Reports not Ran’ reflect the most recent report status for the Report Definitions defined for the Node to indicate if the last run of the Report Definition was successful, failed, or if it has not been ran yet The number of ‘Failed Reports’, ‘Successful Reports’, and ‘Reports not Ran’ should equal the number of ‘Report Definitions’.

The ‘Hub Center’ column for ‘Pending Network Transactions’ shows the number of records in the BRMS network synchronization file. This file is used to keep data synchronized in a BRMS network. The count reflects the number of pending network transactions for the BRMS network that the node is in, it is not related to the Enterprise network. An automatic refresh is not done to keep the data current. To reflect the current count, select the 'Refresh' action for the Node(s). If there is no BRMS activity on the Node and all the Nodes in the BRMS network are communicating correctly, this count should be zero. If there is BRMS activity causing network traffic, it is normal to see these counts increase and decrease. If this count continues to grow, it may reflect a potential BRMS network synchronization problem that needs to be investigated.

The future goal of this panel is to include other items the user may deem important as we add more function to the Enterprise feature.

Backup Status

Control groups are run through BRMS to backup data on IBM i. It is important to monitor control group backups to verify that they run properly. Enterprise provides a ‘Backup Status’ panel for each Node that allows control group backups to be monitored. The ‘Backup Status’ panel can be setup to display the control group run status, start time, end time, elapsed time, job information, number of objects saved, amount of data saved, etc.

The ‘Backup Status’ for Nodes in the Enterprise Network can be viewed by selecting the ‘Backup Status’ option on the pop-up menu for the Node or by clicking the ‘Backup Status’ tab on the ‘Node Properties’ panel.

BRMS Log

All BRMS activity can be monitored through the BRMS Log. Filters can be used to subset the messages in the log. The BRMS Log for Nodes in the Enterprise Network can be viewed by selecting the ‘BRMS Log’ option on the pop-up menu for the Node or by clicking the ‘BRMS Log’ tab on the ‘Node Properties’ panel.

Reports

Report Definitions

Reports that are generated by BRMS using the ‘Start Recovery using BRM’ (STRRCYBRM), the ‘Start Maintenance for BRM’ (STRMNTBRM) or ‘Display Log for BRM’ (DSPLOGBRM) commands can be run and managed using Enterprise. Reports that will be run are defined using Report Definitions. The Report Definitions can be run manually by selecting the ‘Run report’ option on the pop-up menu for the Report Definition or scheduled to run at intervals by selecting the ‘Properties’ option on the pop-up menu for the Report Definition.

Reports

When Report Definitions are run, Reports are generated. Reports contain information that identifies how, where and when a Report Definition was run. Reports also identify what Report Output was generated when the Report Definitions were run.

All the Reports for a Node can be viewed by selecting the ‘View reports’ option on the pop-up menu for the Node on the ‘Hub Center’ page.

The Reports for a specific Report Definition can be viewed by selecting the ‘View reports’ option on the pop-up menu for the Report Definition.

Report Output

When Report Definitions are run they will produce Reports. The Reports identify the Report Output that was generated. The Report Output can be viewed by selecting the ‘View Report Output’ option on the pop-up menu for a Report on the ‘Report’ page.