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With the anticipated launch coming soon of RSA Archer Platform 6.3, I'd like to share some advance information with you.
The RSA Archer 6.3 documentation set provides helpful concept, reference, and task-based information for both administrators and users of RSA Archer. The full documentation set, along with which documents’ contents can be found within the Online Documentation, is in the table below.
Document | Included in the Online Documentation |
Online Documentation | Yes |
Platform User’s Guide | Yes |
Platform Administrator’s Guide | Yes |
What’s New Guide | Yes |
RESTful API Guide | Yes |
Web Services API Guide | Yes |
Use Case Guides (All 35) | Yes |
Installation and Upgrade Guide | No |
Security Configuration Guide | No |
Overview Guide | No |
Qualified and Supported Environments Guide | No |
Platform Planning Guide | No |
Release Notes | No |
RSA Archer Control Panel Help | No |
The centerpiece of the RSA Archer documentation set is the Online Documentation, accessible from within the platform UI. The Help button in the platform UI’s menu bar is set up to provide contextually-sensitive help whenever called upon. This means that when you click the Help button in the menu bar, the Online Documentation automatically shows you the relevant help topic for the product page you are on.
From within the Online Documentation, you have access to both administrative and user information for both the platform and solutions/use cases. You also have full search capabilities within the Online Documentation and can filter your search choices down to specific areas.
The Online Documentation can be found within the product UI, as well as in .zip format for local installation. The Online Documentation will also available in full from the RSA Community on RSA Link once RSA Archer Platform 6.3 launches.
The Platform Admin Guide and Platform User Guide are separate PDFs that include the respective administrative and user topics found within the Online Documentation. If you were traveling, for example, and wanted to read particular segments of the Online Documentation, these standalone PDFs are the perfect solution to take with you on the go. At launch, both the Admin Guide and User Guide can be found in PDF format on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
Like the Online Documentation, the Archer Control Panel Help is embedded within the RSA Archer Control Panel UI. The Archer Control Panel Help includes the following information for RSA Archer administrators:
The Archer Control Panel Help can be found within the Archer Control Panel UI, in .zip format for local installation, and in PDF form on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
The What’s New Guide and the Release Notes go hand in hand with each other. For every major or minor release of RSA Archer, these two PDF documents let you know what’s new and different in the release, and a list of known and fixed issues. The What’s New Guide details not only what’s new and different in the release, it also provides helpful information about differences between a 5.x version of RSA Archer and the current release. The Release Notes contain a list of fixed and known issues within the product, and a workaround to those known issues if one is available. The Release Notes also includes any documentation errata or supplements that were not included in the release version. Whenever a new major or minor release is announced, these two guides would be where I would first look for details. Both the What’s New Guide and the Release Notes can be found in PDF format on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
The Installation and Upgrade Guide provides RSA Archer administrators with details around how to install and upgrade their RSA Archer environments. The guide also includes details around various system requirements and sample environment configurations. The Installation and Upgrade Guide can be found in PDF format on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
The Platform Planning Guide provides sizing details and requirements for various RSA Archer environment configurations. In previous releases, this document was referred to as the Sizing Guide. Similarly to the What’s New Guide and the Release Notes, the Platform Planning Guide goes hand in hand with the Installation and Upgrade Guide. The Installation and Upgrade describes exactly how to install and upgrade your environment, while the Platform Planning Guide provides pre-requisite details and numbers to ensure that you install or upgrade to an environment that’s right for your company. The Platform Planning Guide can be found in PDF format on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
The Overview Guide is a great place to start for anyone who is new to RSA Archer or who is not a daily user. Topics covered in the Overview Guide include:
The Overview Guide also includes direct links to RSA Link for other documentation from the RSA Archer documentation set. The Overview Guide can be found in PDF format on the RSA Archer Community on RSA Link.
Future blogs will address the remaining documents in further detail--stay tuned for more details.
RSA Archer Release 6.3 includes new use cases for Regulatory & Corporate Compliance Management, updates to existing Business Resiliency use cases and Public Sector Solutions use cases, and enhancements for usability and stability of the RSA Archer Platform. RSA Archer’s two newest use cases, RSA Archer Data Governance and RSA Archer Privacy Program Management, are designed to help support customer processes for data protection and addressing applicable privacy directives, such as GDPR. Updates to RSA Archer Business Resiliency use cases are designed to help improve organizations’ ability to manage disruptions and crises. Enhancements to the RSA Archer Platform include a system administration dashboard, bulk record operations, and direct to edit capabilities.