June 2025
Ironstream Hub – New Release Available
We are very pleased to announce that Ironstream Hub v1.4.0 is now generally available. This updated component release provides these new features:
A new Connector capability to provide data for the upcoming Ironstream Service Graph Connector (SGC) app: Ironstream Discovery has used the ServiceNow probes and sensors mechanism for many years to retrieve data from z/OS systems. ServiceNow now prefer Discovery of data to be performed using the Service Graph Connector mechanism. This release of the Hub now supports the first phase of this, supporting capture of data for:
- CPCs (physical machines)
- LPARs
- Software installed through SMP/E
Subsequent releases of the Hub will extend the scope of data capture and an accompanying Ironstream SGC app is planned for release in the near future.
The Ironstream Hub UI allows you to define connections to the Ironstream Discovery and Event Management agent on z/OS to retrieve information about your z/OS systems. This data is stored locally on the Hub and used by the Ironstream Service Graph Connector to update the ServiceNow CMDB. As is required for the previous Discovery product, the Hub must be also located on the same machine as a MID server.
Users of the previous Discovery product can uninstall it and install the Hub. On first startup the Hub will automatically pick up and store the configuration of any 'system nodes' from the previous product, reducing the implementation effort.
This feature needs a specific Ironstream Hub license. Please contact your Precisely Account Executive to discuss your requirements.
Datadog metric and log target support is extended: Datadog requires the use of a specific naming and tagging convention for fields. Ironstream now conforms to that convention for a wide variety of IBM i data and for an initial selection of z/OS data.
For IBM i users renaming and tagging of data is provided for:
- over 40 journal entry types from the QAUDJRN security journal
- over 3,500 metrics from more than 60 standard Collection Services files
- the full set of data available in journals created by Precisely's MIMIX HealthLink feature
For z/OS users this release has renaming and mapping implemented for:
- SYSTEMSTATE data
- SMF type 30 (jobs), all subtypes
- SMF type 70 (RMF CPU and LPAR), all subtypes ** added in this release
- SMF type 110, subtype 1 class 3 only (CICS transactions)
- SMF type 115 (MQ), all subtypes
- SMF type 116 (MQ Accounting), all subtypes
SMF data is complex, often having multiple repeating sections of data. The native implementation of this from the Ironstream z/OS collector is to 'flatten' the data by adding numeric suffixes to field names. For the Datadog metric endpoint, grouping of the metrics of the supported data types, listed above, into their relevant data sections is now performed automatically. Where this is done the numeric suffixes of field names are removed, making them easier to handle in dashboards and queries. Users can add the names of keys in a Datadog target, which will be converted to Datadog tags to further group data as they wish.
The range of data covered by this feature will continue to evolve in future releases.
You are encouraged to visit the Ironstream section of Precisely Ideas if you have specific requirements not covered here.
Important Note: If a user of the Hub from before v1.3.11 has any pipelines containing a Datadog target these must be removed before upgrading to this version of the Hub, then re-added. Failure to do so will result in the Hub Portal not being able to initialize.
A way to do this is as follows:
- add a different type of target (e.g. File) to the pipeline so it has at least one valid target
- delete the Datadog target and save it
- upgrade the Hub
- when done, re-add the Datadog target to the pipeline
- remove the additional temporary target
- save and restart the pipeline
Full information can be found in Ironstream documentation on the Precisely Help Center.
Contact Information
If you need technical assistance with any aspect of Ironstream please contact Precisely's Global Support team using the appropriate portal:
Customers - https://customer.precisely.com/
Partners - https://partner.precisely.com/
Other questions relating to this announcement should be directed to your Precisely Account Executive or to:
Product Manager - ian.hartley@precisely.com
Product Owner - nick.varley@precisely.com