Summary of "Q224 Rocket DevOps Customer Webinar"

High-level context

Product renames (2022)
- LMI → Rocket DevOps Core for IBM i (RDII)
- LME → Rocket DevOps Core for Enterprise (RDOE)
- Core products remain the same; new releases and enhancements continue.
Current releases called out
- Rocket DevOps Core for IBM i 10.3 PTF1
- Rocket DevOps Portal 10.3.1 (portal/test functionality, March 2024)

Licensing/installation
- Portal is free (Test features are licensed separately).
- Installer can optionally install Rocket DevOps Test.
- Report Manager is now included at no extra cost (reports, dashboards, compliance reporting).
Key features
- Deployment monitor: real-time monitoring of promotions/deployments.
- Git integration: GitLab/GitHub/Bitbucket — compare portal release vs Git, resync, show out-of-sync files.
- Pipeline orchestration: create freestyle or Git-driven pipelines, trigger manually/Jenkins/API, embed test runs, and set success thresholds.
- Security/administration: RBAC, licensing view, diagnostics/log download, housekeeping rules, CCSID settings.

Four highlighted capabilities:

Test data extraction & anonymization
- Extract subsets of production data to target test libraries.
- Filter rows by fields/operators (examples: by country, balance threshold).
- Obfuscation/anonymization: shuffle, substitution using dictionaries (built-in dictionaries + upload custom dictionaries). Duplicate values preserved/handled with unique substitutes.
- Fully automatable from test plans or pipelines.
Test data validation & update validation
- Define rule sets and validation rules to verify data pre/post-test or validate all records.
- Supported operators: equals, contains, not empty, >, <, etc.
- Run via test plans; outputs show success/failure counts and offending values.
- Can be triggered/checked from pipelines with configurable success thresholds.
Visual screen compare (5250 green-screen testing)
- Built-in Rocket terminal emulator hosted on IBM i; record/playback 5250 sessions.
- Recordings saved as JSON; input/output captured; variables recognized and parameterizable.
- Screenshot comparisons per screen with match modes: identical, match inputs, match outputs. Results included in run output.
Consolidated logging
- Portal provides centralized access to product logs for support investigations (view/download).

Small but critical PTF required to use some Portal/Test features (apply 10.3 PTF1 as recommended).
VS Code improvements: RPG free-format conversion tool and other VS Code enhancements.
Jira plugin for Jira Cloud.
SonarQube integration: send code to SonarQube and view scan results in Portal.

Agents
- Test agents run tests. Agents available for local IBM i and for Windows/Linux/Unix.
Pipelines
- Integrate test runs into CI/CD flows; pipelines can be triggered by Jenkins or REST APIs.
REST APIs
- Published and documented in Portal Help → API documentation.
- Use cases: authentication, promoting tasks, running test plans, fetching release/task info.
- API builder in Portal provides sample requests/headers and allows quick testing.

Install Rocket DevOps Portal (optionally include Rocket DevOps Test in the same installer).
In Portal Admin → Test configuration:
- Configure database connections.
- Upload or create obfuscation dictionaries.
- Set terminal emulator address/port and enable/disable screen-recording upload.
- Configure CCSID.
Install/register agents on systems where tests will run.
Author test artifacts:
- Test plans → test suites → test cases → actions (data extraction, anonymization, validation, screen recordings, batch monitoring, remote commands).
- Optionally add test plans into pipelines for automated CI/CD execution.
Use Portal dashboards, compliance reports, scheduler, and deployment monitor to manage operations.

Live demos in the session:

Test data extraction: create scenario, add library/file, build filters, run test plan to copy subset to target library.
Anonymization: obfuscation examples (shuffle letters; substitution from dictionary of cities); handling duplicates.
Data validation: create validation rule sets, add rules, run in a test plan, show success/fail outputs; integrate with pipelines.
Pipelines: configure pipeline to trigger test plans, set success threshold (e.g., 99%), display run logs & pass/fail.
Visual screen compare: record 5250 session with Rocket terminal emulator, save as JSON, define per-screen comparison rules, run and review expected vs actual screenshots.
Portal walkthrough: dashboards, compliance/audit reporting, schedule reports, releases & promotions, Git integration, SonarQube logs.
API demo: use Portal’s API builder to authenticate and create REST calls (example: post run test plan by plan name).

Upcoming webinar (Q3): deep dive on SonarQube, RPG converter, VS Code enhancements, and Jira Cloud integration.

Customer support portal: open cases, view team cases, access knowledge base articles, validation/installation guides.
Documentation site: versioned docs, search, GPT-assisted search (adds suggested doc summaries).
Customer forum: peer Q&A and non-urgent posts.
Portal diagnostics: download logs for support interactions.

Install Portal 10.3.1 and apply the IBM i PTF (10.3 PTF1) recommended in the webinar to use the Portal/Test features shown.
Test features are licensed separately; most Portal features have no charge.
Consider adding SonarQube and Jira integrations if using code scanning and issue-tracking workflows.
Explore REST APIs for automation and integration with existing CI/CD tools (Jenkins, internal workflow systems).

Note: Portal includes Report Manager at no extra charge; however, Test functionality requires a separate license.

Julie Hman — Customer Retention Marketing Manager, Rocket Software (host/housekeeping)
Chris White — Principal Product Manager, DevOps product line (roadmap, features, portal overview)
Andy Finley — Demo presenter (data extraction, anonymization, data validation, pipelines, screen-compare demos)
Dale (support) and Linda Chesn? / Dell Asher — Level 3 Principal Technical Support Engineers (support corner; knowledge base/forums)