Real Vision Imaging. Use a Proxy Server to Connect Your IBM i to the Web. IBM Has Discontinued Service and Support for ALL 3995/3996 Optical Libraries

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1 January 2013 YOUR DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTION Real Vision Imaging Use a Proxy Server to Connect Your IBM i to the Web Real Vision Software, Inc. P.O. Box Alexandria, LA Jackson Street Suite 203 Alexandria, LA Would you like to run your IBM i on the web without actually putting it on the web? That s where a Proxy Server comes into play. A Windows server becomes your web presence and is linked to your IBM i using a PHP program as a go between, keeping the IBM i removed from the web but having functionality as if it was directly connected. This functionality will allow you to run RVI s web-based Image Inquiry and will display your IBM i pages to the web. RVI has recently developed the PHP program that will provide this connection. It requires PHP server code for your Windows Server which is open source. For more information, contact: Monty Chicola Phone rvoffice@realvisionsoftware.com Technical Support Hours: Monday Friday 8:00 am to 6:00 pm CST P F Support@ realvisionsoftware.com IBM Has Discontinued Service and Support for ALL 3995/3996 Optical Libraries On December 31, 2012, IBM stopped service and support for their 3995/3996 Optical Libraries. RVI can work with you to provide conversion custom code to move your data from the 3995/3996 Optical Libraries to new storage devices. This can be time intensive depending on the number of optical cartridges a customer needs to convert. We expect there to be many customers that will need our conversion services, please contact us to schedule your conversion as soon as you can. For a custom code proposal, contact Kenny Smith at our office ( ) or him at kenny@realvisionsoftware.com. An RVI Certified Business Partner will work with you to determine your options and make recommendations for replacement of your optical libraries with an Imation or Alliance Archive Appliance that will best suit your company's needs. For more information about RVI data storage options, please visit or contact us. For information about the IBM Virtual Optical Library solution, see page 3..

2 Encryption and Decryption within RVI Encrypt transitive verb \in-kript, en-\ See ENCODE Encode transitive verb \in-kōd, en-\ 1a : to convert (as a body of information) from one system of communication into another; especially : to convert (a message) into code Until recently, the decision to encrypt images and/or data has been a choice made by IT Managers, Human Resource Managers, customer service managers, security professionals, et al. More times than not, that decision had to be made based on the risk of the images and/or data being compromised, the cost of encryption (hardware and/or software), processing overhead, the unwieldiness of the encryption process, and the possibility that the encryption/decryption keys could be lost or stolen. The latter risk of losing the keys to decrypt the information would likely result in the images and/or data being lost or inaccessible. These collective risks would usually result in a decision against encryption. However, criminal acts such as stolen identities, the hacking of credit card databases, etc. have forced lawmakers and corporate entities to rethink the idea of encryption. Legislation requiring encryption of stored information, coupled with the sheer necessity of protecting private information and resources, has led the IT world into an entirely new realm of security measures, whether information is stored on traditional storage media (internal disk drives) or on portable devices (external storage appliances). With the proliferation of low cost external storage appliances, the exposure of data is of concern, particularly when the data on the storage device is accessible to the internet or local networks that are in turn accessible from the internet. In order to meet the requirements of encrypting image and report files that are stored on external media and/or storage appliances, RVI has developed an optional encryption/ decryption system based on IBM s encryption and decryption Application Programming Interfaces (API). The API s use the 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES is a commonly used encryption and decryption standard used by federal agencies of the United States government, the Department of Defense, and many companies in the private sector. This encryption and decryption standard is approved by the Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 197 (FIPS 197) by the United States Department of Commerce. The RVI Encryption and Decryption System encrypts image and spool data as it is moved to storage (the RVI burn process). When capturing spool reports, there is an optional postcapture program that can be deployed that will automatically encrypt and burn the spool data to storage. Then, when the images or spool data is retrieved for viewing or other processing, the data is decrypted. In addition to the encryption and decryption of image and spool data, there are RVI API s for encrypting and decrypting strings of data. These API s are useful for the encryption of information included in web browsers Universal Resource Locators (URL). For example, you could a link to your IBM i and encrypt information such as account numbers or other identifying information. Your HTTP server software can then take that URL and decrypt the encrypted part of the URL and then act on the information provided. The RVI Encryption and Decryption System does not encode and decode communications across networks, such as the communications that take place between web browsers and web servers. Communications encryption and decryption is better suited to a secure communications layers such as Hypertext Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS). HTTP Strict Transport Security is recommended to be used in conjunction with HTTPS. IBM has a Software Technical Document ( ) on configuring HTTPS with the IBM HTTP Server for IBM i and IBM WebSphere Application Server 6.0. This RVI feature requires an operating system of V5R4 or higher. It is recommended that your IBM i be at current cumulative PTF levels. Mike Miller Real Vision Imaging January

3 Cleaning Up Your Spool Audit File It s a good idea to keep the Spool Audit file fairly clean. The RVI Spool Audit file exists to keep a file from being processed repeatedly and if not maintained, it can fill up. When this happens, the capture of reports and other spool files is curtailed based upon duplicate spool file numbers. So, about three times a year, at the command line, type, Go Image <enter> Choose Option 14: System Operator Menu Choose Option 15: Purge Spool File Audit Records Input a value (120 for example) in Purge Spool Audit Records Over Days Old. This value is dependent upon the actual age of the records residing in the particular out queue. Enter a Y in Submit Process To Batch? Enter a Y in Compress Spool Audit File? <enter> Based on the Date field (capture date) in the Spool Audit file, all records before that date, up to the number of days specified, will be deleted. Alan Carey IBM Virtual Optical Library Solution IBM has provided a virtual optical library solution for IBM i 7.1 that essentially emulates the 3995/3996 infrastructure using the /QOPT file system to access virtual optical volumes on the IBM i managed disk (stored on IFS). This solution has the following benefits: No changes required to your existing optical-based applications - the same file system and volume names are maintained allowing the application (s) to continue to access objects from the virtual volumes and IBM i disk speed access times. Full support of RAID and/or mirrored disk on IBM i Use of IBM i backup/restore process to either IBM i tape or DVD Ability to maintain HA/DR copies easily on secondary IBM i systems Full worm compatibility Coupled with the high speed optical copy utility from IBM that performs a stream copy from physical optical to virtual optical volumes, this solution provides the fastest and most efficient method of migration off of the 3995/3996/Plasmon direct attached jukeboxes. Note that this copy utility will run on OS V5R4, 6.1 or For additional information, contact Mark Even, IBM Lab Services Phone (507) , even@us.ibm.com 3

4 Failure to Initialize System Profiles When opening your RVI viewer, the emergence of the error Failed to initialize system profiles is caused by the viewer s failure to obtain a copy of the system.txt file from the IMAGE directory on your IBM i and copy it to C:\RVI\profiles on your PC. To eliminate this error, follow the steps below: In the RVI Viewer, click Host, Profile Directory and make sure the path listed there is valid and is pointing to the IMAGE directory on your IBM i. Once you enter a valid path, click OK, and the application will attempt to access and copy the system.txt file using the specified profile directory path. You can also force the viewer to attempt to copy system.txt to C:\RVI\Profiles by opening and closing the viewer or by clicking Host, Download Profiles. If the application is successful at copying system.txt, you will find a copy of the file on the PC in C:\RVI\Profiles. Real Vision Imaging January

5 If the path specified under Profile Directory starts with FTP://, then you will need to provide a User ID and Password in the viewer under Image/Preferences/FTP Support. If a valid User ID and Password is provided, the application will be able to authenticate the user and copy the system.txt file to the PC. To ensure that the system.txt file exists on your System i and is available for the RVI PC viewer to download, follow these steps: At an IBM i command line, type Go Image <enter> At the RVI Main Menu, choose Maintenance Menu (option 8) <enter> At the Maintenance Menu, choose Maintain Image System Descriptions and Key Fields (option 1) <enter> At the Maintain Image System Description Screen press <enter> 4 to bring up a list of all image systems. Select any system code and press <enter> through all the screens. Press F3 to exit the Maintain Image System Description and Key Fields Screen. An update process will take place behind the scenes and the system.txt will be automatically updated. To verify that the system.txt exists on your System i: At a System i command line, type wrklnk image <enter> Enter a 5 next to the IMAGE directory <enter> Verify that the file is there. McKenzy Lewis Check-out the Checkbox! We re starting out the new year with a fresh new RVI look! Many of our customers already take advantage of one of our browser options (traditional internet or internet frame) based on user preferences for a point and click interface. We have enhanced this with a similar look and feel to a folder directory structure familiar to most Windows users. We call this new option the RVI Checkbox Control look. Here s how it works: Step #1 An authorized user accesses one of their RVI systems either interfaced to their application or with a stand-alone inquiry as shown in this example. Step #2 The user can specify appropriate index filters to locate the documents they are searching for. In this example, the user is looking for all documents on file related to Case # Continued on page 6 5 5

6 Check-out the Checkbox! continued Step #3 The RVI subfile is presented in the side panel of the new Checkbox Control viewer. Each folder can be expanded to view contents. The user can select some (or all) of the documents for viewing by checking the appropriate boxes. The documents selected will be delivered as PDFs in the primary display panel. Step #4 In addition to secured viewing, users can be granted additional permissions such as printing, ing, faxing or maintaining index details. RVI would be interfaced to your or fax system for delivery as shown in this fax example. These user actions are tracked and audited by the RVI system as they are with any other RVI look. So what does the Checkbox Control enhancement cost? It s a new feature in our base RVI Version 8.0 code so there are no software costs for customers who have an active software maintenance contract. If you are interested in moving to the RVI Checkbox Control look, contact Support at RVI for additional details and requirements to get started. Len Knudsen The IBM logo is a registered trademark and the IBM Business Partner Emblem is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation of America and are used together under license. Real Vision Imaging January