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Using Administration Runtime Expert (ARE)- Automating Your Analysis-2

Once you’ve built the template, go back to the Deployment Template Editor and click on Launch console. See Figure 13.4. From here you can select the template, specify the systems you want to verify, schedule the verification to run at a specific time (ARE has its own job scheduler), use the Runtime properties to specify that the reports should be emailed, and more.

Figure 13.4: Use the Console to Verify (check) the template.

When you’re first starting to use ARE, I suggest that you create a template, play around with the ARE features (including using the SQL Query Writer for your customized SQL statements), build the template, and then launch the console and verify a system. If you’re checking object authorities, change the authority of one or more objects and make sure you understand how to read the report that’s generated when you verify the system. Same with user profile and system value changes. Then, I’d create a template for each type of information being checked. For example, one template for system values, another for user profiles, etc. This way, you can check the template whenever you wish and schedule it to be checked on whatever schedule makes sense for your organization. If you put everything you’re checking in one template, then everything will be checked whenever you verify a system. While that may meet your needs, my clients usually need some parts of the system checked more often than others, so templates need to be defined with more granularity.

More hints for using ARE:

  • Be descriptive with the names of both your templates as well as the collections. That way, you can tell the purpose of the template at a glance and don’t have to go in and edit it to determine what it does.
  • I’ve already said this, but I’m going to say it again: Don’t overload your template with collections that don’t go together; in other words, don’t add multiple collections to the same template when it doesn’t make sense for the collections to be verified at the same time. For example, if your organization needs to verify system values once a week but needs to check the configuration of profiles with *ALLOBJ every day, don’t put them in the same template.
  • Understand that when you create a File and Directory Attribute collection, it takes a snapshot of the contents of the library or directory you’ve included. It does not automatically add new objects to the collection after the collection has been defined.
  • Avoid including the same libraries or directories in multiple templates. That can lead to inaccurate or confusing results.
  • Read the ARE documentation. I realize that no one likes to read documentation and you’re going to just try to figure it out on your own. But trust me on this one: Reading the documentation will save you time and frustration. Here’s a link to all of the documentation available for ARE: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-administration-runtime-expert-i