Setting up ACR/Summary to capture data from Assure

This article assumes ACR/Summary is in use on a mainframe; however, the functionality is also available on other ACR platforms. This functionality was introduced in ACR/Summary v4.6. The control within Assure must be a Summary Control Entity.

Configuration will require access to Unix System Services (USS) within your mainframe, an installation of Java within USS, and ample region size (approximately 512M).

Setup within the ACR panels

1. Access the ACR/Summary panels. This process varies greatly depending on your setup.
2. Once in the panels, go to Setup, then option 5: User Options
   
   
   
   
3. Select "Infogix Assure information" and PF5. Note: the layout of this screen will vary depending on your version of ACR/Summary.
   
   
   
   
4. Fill in Assure's URL, username, password and time zone, then PF5. The URL will need to match the URL that you use to access Assure, without the context root (i.e. without "infogixassure"). The URL must also end in a forward slash. A valid list of time zones can be found here.
   
   
   
   
5. Create a History Item, and select "Y" for the "Infogix Assure?" option and PF5:
   
   
   
   
6. Specify the name of the Control Entity from Assure, which must be a Summary Control Entity, and the name of the Control Field from Assure to capture. In this example, my Assure control and ACR job will run with the same cycle number, so the Relative Cycle is set as +000.
   
   
   
   
7. You can skip specifying a Control point name, as this example requires it to be empty. Also, depending on the field type (numeric/text) of the item you're extracting from Assure, you may need to update the highlighted options below:
   
   
   
   
8. Next, create and save JCL to submit ACR/Summary jobs. For details instructions on this, check out our article on how to create JCL to submit an ACR job. You will not need to submit the JCL yet since we will modify the standard JCL in a later section of this guide.

Setup within Unix System Services

There are a few ways to access the Unix System Systems (USS) side of the mainframe. If you need assistance with this, check out our article on navigating OMVS, which is one of the methods for using the Unix System Services. Files can also be uploaded directly to USS via FTP.

1. Download the appropriate WebServiceGateway.jar for your ACR/Summary version:
   
   Java 6:
   
   ACR/Summary 4.6 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 4.7 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 4.8 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 4.9 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 9.0 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 9.1 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 9.2 Web Service Gateway
   
   Java 8:
   
   ACR/Summary 9.0 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 9.1 Web Service Gateway
   ACR/Summary 9.2 Web Service Gateway
   
   
2. Upload the WebServiceGateway.jar to the USS side of your mainframe. The location doesn't matter, as we will point to its location in the next step.
   
   
3. Create a new file within USS named "cobenv" and copy the default contents from the COBENV member of your ACR installation's DATALIB into this file. Update the PATH and LIBPATH variables to point to your Java installation's location, along with updating the CLASSPATH variable to point to the actual location of the WebServiceGateway.jar.
   
   Unix is case sensitive, so all paths and file names must match the appropriate capitalization.
   
   
   
   If your Assure instance is using HTTPS, then continue with the remaining steps in this section. If your Assure instance is using HTTP, then continue with the "Setup within the mainframe environment" section.
   
   
4. In order to setup an SSL connection, a truststore within USS is required, along with a copy of your Assure server's SSL cert. It is recommended to check with your network and/or security teams on establishing a truststore within USS and providing the Assure server cert.
   
   However, if you wish to perform the steps yourself, please follow these articles on creating your own truststore and exporting an SSL certificate via your web browser. If you already have a truststore within USS and just need to import your SSL cert into, then check out our article on importing a cert into a truststore. 
   
   
5. Once you have a truststore with your Assure server's SSL certificate, you will need to modify your cobenv to specify the location of the truststore and its password. Append the following string to the end of IBM_JAVA_OPTIONS, replacing the truststore location and truststore password values with your actual values:
   

    -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/u/gcc1/java8/mycerts -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=password

   Your cobenv will now look like this:
   
   

Setup within the mainframe environment

1. Copy the CEEFILE member of your ACR installation's DATALIB to a separate data set.
   
   
2. Modify the newly created CEEFILE to point to the cobenv file previous created. The path and file name must match the capitalization of the cobenv location and filename within Unix System Services:
   
   
   
   
3. Edit the JCL created from the first section. The next few steps will contain edits to this JCL.
   
   
4. Modify the region size in your job card to 0M (unlimited). If your environment requires a value to be specified, start with 512M. The actual amount of region size will vary significantly depending on the quantity and size of items transferred between Assure and ACR.
   
   
5. Within the STEPLIB DD, concatenate your ACR installation's LOADE library with your ACR installation's LOADLIB library:
   
   
   
   
6. Add a new CEEOPTS DD that points to the CEEFILE member created in step 2 of this section:
   
   
   
   
7. Submit the JCL. The History Item section of the ACR Control Report output will show the value of the item extracted from Assure: