IBM Support Assistant Lite for Rational Common Licensing

Content

IBM Support Assistant Lite (ISALite) for Rational Common Licensing is a small, download-able package that allows you to automate data collection steps when data are requested by Rational support team. This particular package is specific to Rational Common Licensing product, as well as the products listed below. The tool will gather initial data needed for troubleshooting your problems with the product. Tool usage and what is collected are described below.

Prerequisites

Downloading and Launching ISA Lite

Using ISALite

Rational License General Collector and Data Collected

Data Collector Completion Options & Uploads

• You need an IBM ID and password to download ISA Lite. Register here if you do not already have one.
• You need Java JRE 1.4.2 or greater on your machine to run ISA Lite
• A valid JDK is generally available if you had Installation Manager, Jazz server or any Rational eclipse based product installed on your system. Some common locations:
• <Installation Manager Install Location>\eclipse\jre_5.0.3.sr8a_20080811b\jre
• <RationalSDLC location>\common\JAVA5\jre
• <RationalSDLC location>\jdk\jre

Use your IBM ID and password to log-in. URL: https://www.ibm.com/services/forms/preLogin.do?source=swg-isalite&S_PKG=isalrcl

1. Extract RCL_ISALite_20120625.zip in a folder. If unzip utility is not available on your system, use jar xf RCL_ISALite_20121114.zip
2. In the same folder, cd ISALite
3. If Java is available in your path , simply run: runISALite.bat
• NOTE: On some systems, you may need to "Run as administrator" in order to capture registry data.
• 
4. If Java is not available on your path, ISA Lite will prompt you for the path. You can also set JAVA_HOME first:
• set JAVA_HOME=<your full path to Java> This path should point to the bin directory in your Java installation, containing java.exe.
• Example: set JAVA_HOME=C:\Program Files\IBM\RationalSDLC\common\JAVA5.0\jre
• Once this is completed, run: runISALite.bat or runISALite.bat -console to run in console mode.

1. Extract RCL_ISALite_20121114.tar.gz in a folder. To do so:
• gzip -d RCL_ISALite_20121114.tar.gz
• tar xf RCL_ISALite_20121114.tar
2. In the same folder, cd ISALite
3. If Java is not available on your path, ISA Lite will prompt you for the path. You can also set JAVA_HOME first:
• In ksh: export JAVA_HOME=<your full path to Java> This path should point to the bin directory in your Java installation, containing java
• Example: export JAVA_HOME=/opt/IBM/RationalSDLC/jre
4. If you are running in a desktop environment: run: ./runISALite.sh
5. If you are running in a console / terminal environment, run: ./runISALite.sh -console

To automate ISA collection and/or to run silently, please review the following two documents that discuss performing a silent recording, and a silent playback via command line:

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27017356
see section : Using ISA Lite for Remote Collection, starting at "To further simplify ..."

Using this technique you can record an ISA execution, and subsequently playback via command line silently.

You'll also be provided with data upload options as part of the collection process. This will allow you to send the collected data to IBM or another location via FTP or HTTPS. If you prefer to upload the data after the data collection tool runs to completion, you can upload data via : https://www.ecurep.ibm.com/app/upload

IMPORTANT: To upload information to IBM, you'll need to have a PMR number. This is obtained when you work with our support team. If you do not have a PMR number, but do have support contract, you can leverage the Software Support page to open a service request and included the collected data with the service request.

• IBM Service Request Page: https://www.ibm.com/support/servicerequest/

The upload options included as part of data collection tool are:

• Send the Logs to IBM using secure transfer (HTTPS). You'll need an PMR number to transfer the data to IBM. This sends the collected data to IBM Support team through the HTTPS protocol. NOTE: This option may not be available if the collected data are larger than 20M.
• FTP the Logs to IBM Support (unencrypted). You'll need an PMR number to transfer the data to IBM. This sends the collected data to IBM Support team through the FTP protocol. This is a less secure option.
• FTP the Logs to a Different Location (unencrypted) This allows you to send the collected data to another location via FTP. You'll need to provide the target FTP location and appropriate authentication to access it.
• Do Not FTP the Logs. Do nothing.

When the collector completes, the .zip file is created at the location specified in Output File name. You can use any unzip tool to extract the files to examine the content of collected data.