So what, exactly, is Rational Asset Analyzer (IBM RAA®)? It is a DB2 database that contains just over 100 tables. It is also a set of parsers that scan source code, online resources, and web components, along with a set of programs that take the scanned information and load them into the database. During the load process, relationships are formed among the various components. Through a web browser, you can view all of the information that was scanned and collated.

To use RAA, you must first identify the production resources at your site. You then let RAA scan the resources that you want to know more about. You can scan z/OS resources and non-z/OS (that is, web-based) resources.

z/OS resources consist of source code, JCL, IMS, and CICS region information. These resources can exist in partitioned data sets or in source code change management systems (for example, SCLM or ChangeMan). Scanners for z/OS resources execute on z/OS.

Non-z/OS resources consist of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition applications (including web archive (WAR) and enterprise archive (EAR) files), Java source and bytecode, XML, HTML, and more. These resources can reside on the appropriate native file system or in
IBM Rational ClearCase®.

The distributed scanners (crawlers) for non-z/OS resources run on either Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows NT.

After RAA stores the information about these resources in the database (note that the actual source code is not stored), the information can be shared across your enterprise by all of your application development teams.

As an IBM WebSphere® application, RAA uses JavaServer Pages (JSPs), servlets, and HTML to display information in a web browser. This interface keeps the details of the database queries hidden from view, which allows you to concentrate on the information that you seek and freeing you from the task of figuring out how to get it.

When you view the information in the database, the pages that are displayed in a web browser reflect the logical organization of the various application portfolios at your site. Through a series of links, built on the relationships among the components RAA discovered during the scan, you can drill down from the highest level of your application to a single data element. In the process, you are given visual representations of how your programs, data files, batch jobs, and transactions are related.

Rational Asset Analyzer helps your application development organization to carry out the following functions:

RAA can be useful to a wide variety of groups in your organization that support all of the phases of the system development lifecycle (SDLC).

Members of the following groups can query the database to obtain information that can help them do a better job:

They can use RAA in any phase of the following application development process:

For organizations that are seeking to expand their existing applications to the web, RAA provides the ability to fully explore the interrelationships among components in an application so that application development, project leaders, or group managers can prepare project plans and make the appropriate assignment of resources.

Application programmers can then use the information that was gathered initially by their team leaders to manage their workload. They can complete their assignments more quickly because of the easy way in which RAA enables them to drill down to understand the details of their application programs.

More information about Rational Asset Analyzer can be found in “Chapter 5 - Rational Asset Analyzer” in the IBM Redbooks publication “z/OS Traditional Application Maintenance and Support, SG24-7868”. See information about “Help from IBM” on page 240.

Rational Asset Analyzer now provides a IBM Rational Developer for z Systems™ plug-in. In this section, we see how you leverage both the CICS IA data and the RAA data within a Rational Developer for z Systems environment.

You can download the RAA plug-in for Rational Developer for z Systems as a fix pack at the following link:

After it is installed, you need to configure some preferences.

First, configure the CICS IA connection to the RAA server on the host. Click Windows → Preferences and select the CICS Interdependency Analyzer folder. Enter the name of the server and the port number as shown in Figure A-1.

Now configure the Rational Developer for z Systems plug-in connection to the server. Click Windows → Preferences and select the RAA folder. Add an entry for the server name and the TCP/IP port as shown in Figure A-2.

For the RAA plug-in to work, you also need to connect to your host by using an RSE connection as shown in Figure A-3.

After you set up your CICS IA connection to RAA as shown in Figure A-1 on page 228, you can then invoke the RAA web browser from within the IA perspective.

You can right-click a transaction or program and select Asset details as shown in Figure A-4.

This action opens the RAA web user interface and display information for the RAA information for transaction SSC1, as shown in Figure A-5.

The RAA plug-in is a search engine. It allows you to search the RAA database for specific objects such as programs and transactions.

To start a search, you can select the torch icon in the toolbar and select the “Asset Analyzer” search option in the toolbar as shown in Figure A-6.

Then, enter your search criteria. In this case, we search for program LGACDB01 as shown in Figure A-7.

The search results are shown in the Search view as shown in Figure A-8.

From here, you have access to all the RAA plug-in features. To see what is available, right-click the program as shown in Figure A-9 on page 233.

To view the source, select View source and the source is opened in a new editor view as shown in Figure A-10.