Using the Data Collector Client utility to extract data from the BMC AMI Ops products

The DCC utility performs the following tasks:

• Provides a framework to extract data
• Extracts data at regular intervals
• Helps to identify performance issues

Before you begin

• Make sure that you have CRA installed and running. For more information, see Installing-and-configuring-the-Common-REST-API.
• Make sure that you have Oracle Java 8 or later installed on your local machine where you want to run the DCC utility.
• Make sure that you have set the JAVA_HOME environment variable properly.

This topic contains the following sections:

• Downloading the DCC utility
• Configuring the DCC utility
• Running the DCC utility

Downloading the DCC utility

You can use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to download the utility files from the mainframe system to your windows machine.

Perform the following steps to download the DCC utility:

1. Go to your local machine where you want to run the DCC utility and open the command prompt.

2. Enter the following command:

   ftp zosHost
    zosHost is the name of the CRA server on which the utility files are located.

3. Enter your mainframe user name and password.

4. Enter the following command to navigate to the directory where you want to save the utility files:

   lcd directoryPath

5. Make sure that you select the binary file transfer mode. To do so, enter the following command:

   bin 

6. Enter the following command to get the files:
   get fullPath
   fullPath is the path (including the zip file name) where the CRA-Data-Collector-Utility.zip is located. The .zip file is located in the root directory where you have installed CRA. Make sure that you include a full path as shown in the following example:

   get /home/crahome/CRA-Data-Collector-Utility.zipOn successful execution, the CRA-Data-Collector-Utility.zip file gets downloaded to the specified location.

7. Enter the following command to close the FTP connection:
   bye
   
   

Configuring the DCC utility

1. On your local machine, navigate to the location where you have downloaded the CRA-Data-Collector-Utility.zip file and extract the .zip file to the required directory. 

2. If you are using a Java version later than 8, open the StartCRADataCollector.bat file and comment the following lines by adding rem before each line as shown in the following sample code:

   rem %JAVA_CMD% -version >result.txt 2>&1
   rem Find "1.8" result.txt >nul
   rem if errorlevel 1 (
   rem ECHO Error: You are using an unsupported JAVA version.
   rem ECHO The program will now exit.
   rem PAUSE
   rem goto exitPGM
   rem )

3. Open the application.yml file and set up the following parameters.

   Important

   Make sure that you specify the valid parameter values. Specifying invalid values might give unexpected results. 

   Parameter	Description
   userId	Valid RACF user ID
   password	Valid RACF user password
   craProtocol	Communication protocol that CRA server is set to run with Use either HTTP or HTTPS. Warning Running CRA with HTTP poses a security vulnerability. We recommend running the utility with HTTPS only.
   craHost	Name of the mainframe host where the CRA server is running
   craPort	Port number of the CRA server
   dataFilesFolder	Location where you want the extracted data files to be saved Important Make sure that the specified location uses forward slashes (/) instead of backward slashes.  For example,  dataFilesFolder: "C/CRA/NewFiles/2023-10-12-11-15_Test"
   dataParametersList	Contains extract data task to request and retrieve data Important You can add multiple extract data tasks. Make sure that you specify the valid parameter values. For more details, see the example that follows this table.  Parameter Description jobName Logical name for data extract task containing request and retrieve product data mveServiceName (Required) Name of the service (MVE host) from which you want to retrieve data productName (Required) Name of the product from which you want to retrieve the data viewName (Required) Name of the view within the product from which you want to retrieve the data collectionInterval Interval in minutes within which the data is retrieved Default value: 5 minutes Context Context of the server from which you want to retrieve data Default value: * Server Server (SSID) from which you want to retrieve data Default value: * System System (LPAR) from which you want to retrieve data Default value: * Scope Scope for which you want to retrieve data Default value: * Filter Generates a WHERE clause Default value: null Example: filter APPLID=CMF&SYSNAME=S* startRow Row from which to start the data retrieval Default value: 1 numberOfRows Maximum number of rows to return for the data retrieval Default value: 9999              dataFilePrefix (Optional) Prefix for the data file A data file name with prefix takes the following format: dataFilePrefix_jobName_yyyyMMddHHmmss

4. Save your changes. 

Running the DCC utility

Before you begin

Make sure that you have set the JAVA_HOME environment variable value to your Java home path.

You can run the DCC utility in multiple ways. Use one of the following methods to run the DCC utility according to your preference. 

• Running the StartCRADataCollector.bat file directly
• Using the command prompt with inline argument
• Using the command prompt

Running the StartCRADataCollector.bat file directly

1. Navigate to the directory where the utility files are located.
2. Double-click the StartCRADataCollector.bat file to start the process.
3. Complete the batch process.

Using the command prompt

1. On the command prompt, type the following command to navigate to the location where the StartCRADataCollector.bat batch file is stored:
   cd directoryPath

2. Specify the name of the batch file and press Enter, as shown in the following example:

   C:\cra-utility\CRA-Data-Collector-Utility>StartCRADataCollector.bat
   

3. Complete the batch process.

Using the command prompt with inline argument

1. On the command prompt, type the following command to navigate to the location where the StartCRADataCollector.bat batch file is stored.
   cd directoryPath

2. Specify the name of the batch file with the location of the .yml file location as its argument and press Enter, as shown in the following example: 

   C:\cra-utility\CRA-Data-Collector-Utility>StartCRADataCollector.bat  c:\ymlFullPath\application.yml
   

3. Complete the batch process.

Where to go from here

After successful execution, the DCC utility creates requested data files. You can access the data files by navigating to the location that you have specified in the applicaition.yml file. If the DCC utility does not run as expected, an error file (with a prefix Err added to the error file name) is created.