Re: Fix Central missing emails?

Le 15/02/2022 à 09:15, Laurence Chiu a écrit :

Thanks. I will check it out. We already have proxies in place for the HMC
to call home so it can't be hard to have it configured to support this. I
will ask our network folks if this is possible.

Normally, this is possible. You can use the same https proxies for HMC, IBM i partitions, VIOS, AIX, IBM Storage. Normally, ECS/ESA works the same way on all those platforms.

The documentation isn't clear on that point but if the service allows
http/https why does it have to be an IBMi partition? Could it not be any
client that uses https and can point to the target and/or proxy?

The support page I provided is explicitly for IBM i partitions. I am not sure that you can use the same setup (I mean https proxy) outside of any IBM tool. When using SNDPTFORD command, the PTFs package is built on FixCentral servers and the URI is dynamic and built at this time, and known only by the tool (I mean, I am not aware of any way to retrieve this URI so that you can use it outside of the tool). If you order the PTFs directly on FixCentral, as you noticed you will receive an URI to be used only through sftp or FTPS, unfortunately not https.

When it was possible to download from FixCentral using FTP, I was successfull to create the request on FixCentral, and use the FTP URI from an IBM i partition using wget OpenSource package through our proxy.
Now that it is possible to use only sftp or FTPS, I was also successfull to use the sftp URI, including the user id and password, from an IBM i partition using curl OpenSource package, still through our proxy.

I am still convinced that downloading directly from the IBM i partition, even through a proxy, is a good way to proceed:
* it avoids several manual operations (download from internet into an intermediate system, then uploading to an IBM i partition) involving maybe distinct teams (the team who is administering the intermediate system, the team who is administering the IBM i partition)
* if you download the PTF package as an image catalog (SNDPTFORD can order as save files and as image catalogs as well), it is ready for providing a netwok install source for all the IBM i partitions (at least, from a network point of view, for the local partitions)
* with a couple of CL instructions, the process to "order/download/make them available" regular PTFs packages such as CUMPKG and ALLGRP can be automated from your IBM i partition ; unfortunately, if your IBM i partition does not have direct https acces to IBM internet sites, you cannot use GROUP_PTF_CURRENCY view to become aware of a new available group (several years ago, I initiated an RFE so that this view uses the same setup as ECS/ESA in case of using a proxy so that the view can work in that case, but the RFE [https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/execute?use_case=viewRfe&CR_ID=111550] is still in "Uncommited candidate").

On Sun, Feb 13, 2022 at 10:55 PM Marc Rauzier <marc.rauzier@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Le 13/02/2022 à 10:32, Laurence Chiu a écrit :

Not here but I wish IBM would move to https downloads for PTF's for IBMi.
The current choices which are Download DIrector to either the actual

host,

to a PC or SFTP are really difficult for us. Our desktop team block Java

so

Download DIrector doesn't work and FTP also is difficult since our PC's
don't have access to external FTP. So what I have to do is get the two
credentials and pass them to our folks who manage secure file exchange

with

trusted parties and have them grab the files for us. It's annoying since
for software like MQ for IBMi you can use Passport Advantage which is
https and for the mainframe from memory the downloads are also https.

ECS/ESA (Electronic Customer Support/Electronic Service Agent) can
download PTFs through https from an IBM i partition with SNDPTFORD
command, without any FixCentral credentials. It can be set up to use an
https proxy which can control those trusted parties you are talking about.

Checkout

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/configuration-instructions-electronic-customer-support-ecs-and-electronic-service-agent-esa-ibm-i

SNDPTFORD has some restrictions, such as a maximum of 20 PTFs ordered
within the same command, and cannot mix CUMPKG with any other request.
Basically, you can order and download a full set of cumulative and all
groups with the two commands SNDPTFORD PTFID(*CUMPKG) and SNDPTFORD
PTFID(*ALLGRP). You will get twice HIPER and DB2 groups but it works.

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