Ironstream® – Support Announcement
This announcement contains several items across IBM Z® (mainframe) and IBM i product editions. Please be sure to read the complete text.
Ironstream v1.4 – End of Life
As the Ironstream product line goes from strength to strength, our team are focusing all efforts on new capabilities and future versions. Ironstream v1.4 was an early release and built on different foundations. It is no longer sensible or viable to maintain this old release while we push ahead with new innovations.
So, Ironstream v1.4 is no longer supported. This is in line with our standard mainframe support policy. Any knowledge base articles etc. will remain available, and workarounds to issues may be investigated, but no dedicated Technical or Engineering support will be provided.
If you are still running this outdated version and have a valid maintenance agreement, please take advantage of the free upgrade to the latest v2.1.2 release.
The transition should be seamless. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact our Support Team. Details are available at the end of this announcement.
Ironstream – Maintenance
Our continuous delivery workstream frequently releases new Ironstream functionality and fixes to customers – especially for the mainframe product editions.
It is highly recommended you stay current with maintenance items for several reasons:
- New product functionality
- Performance enhancements
- Continued reliability and product stability
- Important product fixes (PTFs) …see below.
IMPORTANT Fix (PTF): Ironstream for Splunk/Elastic/Kafka for IBM Z
This is important because it may impact the availability of Ironstream in your mainframe environment.
To expand Ironstream capabilities in the future we have had to make changes to some internal mechanisms in the Ironstream mainframe edition v2.1.2 and beyond.
If your license key expires on or after June 1, 2023 you MUST have applied the following service PTF. Failure to do so will cause Ironstream to stop when a new license key is applied.
The appropriate service PTF is:
ART-516024: Enhancement: SDF21E9 - Changes for Internal Serviceability
It is available for download:
Minimum Requirements
Ironstream for IBM Z : v2.1.2
Ironstream for IBM i v7.4 – New Information Sources
Version 7.4 of Ironstream for IBM i adds two new forwarding capabilities:
- Integrated File System (IFS) data
- Job Log information
These customer-driven enhancements help deliver important information to destinations such as Kafka and Splunk.
IFS Data
Customers are making increased use of integrated File System (IFS) on the IBM i to store and journal data from many different applications, programs, and services. This makes IFS an important resource of information that is valuable in Ironstream destinations. An example use case is capturing WebSphere log data to track various interactions.
Ironstream v7.4 adds the ability for customers to forward information from this data store to Kafka and/or Splunk, using capabilities such as wildcards for file names (e.g., capture output from all files starting with "activity").
Job Log Information
The IBM i runs many mission-critical jobs that are often part of important processes and may even be combined with Service Level Agreement (SLAs). Job log output is a valuable activity record that can be used for delivery of optimal services as well as better observability of actions, performance, and state.
Ironstream v7.4 allows customers to capture this output and send it to Kafka and/or Splunk.
When a job ends, Ironstream automatically collects the job log entries, optionally filters by message ID, and forwards the data to the configured destinations. The information is now available to a wider set of downstream uses from auditing to system analysis.
Reach out to our Support Team if you want to get the latest version.
Precisely Ideas
- Got an idea for Ironstream? We want to hear about it!
- Want to see what others are asking to be added to Ironstream?
- Add a comment
- Add a vote
As a licensed customer you have direct access and influence over what we add into our products.
This information feeds directly into Product Management where your input guides what is built and delivered.
We look forward to building on your ideas!