by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Wouldn't it be nice if you buy one of the more modern OS/400 servers and get full interactive performance on these machines without having to pay IBM for the extra 5250 interactive performance? That's what TigerTools, a new iSeries vendor based in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, thought too. And that is why the company has launched a product called Fast400, which tricks the green screen governors that IBM has been putting into OS/400 since it first announced server models in 1993.

As everyone knows by now, when IBM says it has "tuned" specific OS/400 servers for particular workloads, such as batch jobs or Domino workloads, what that really means is that other workloads that might run on those machines have actually been detuned or deactivated on those machines. On certain current iSeries models, the 5250 interactive protocol runs just fast enough to support a system administrator and cannot support any real end users. Similarly, the "Bumblebee" Dedicated Servers for Domino machines do not allow the green screen protocol to run, either.

A special program called CFINT within OS/400 is the governor, and it determines how much interactive performance within an AS/400 or iSeries machine can be applied to green screen workloads. The so-called interactive hardware features that IBM sells for big bucks in the Northstar, Pulsar, I-Star, and S-Star generations of AS/400 and iSeries servers are nothing more than cards that tell CFINT how CPU resources can be applied to the 5250 protocol. As I have said for years, even though IBM claims that OS/400 is bundled for free on AS/400 and iSeries machines, this software--and particularly the 5250 software that is used by RPG and COBOL applications to display information on green screens as well as Windows clients with terminal emulation software--is anything but free. Some simple math shows that on a given AS/400 or iSeries machine, OS/400 represents anywhere from 65 percent to 95 percent of the cost of the server, with the green screen protocol comprising a big portion of servers that have all or most of their power dedicated to the 5250 protocol. This exorbitant pricing is obviously a big, plump, juicy, ripe piece of low-hanging fruit for some intrepid nerd to go after with some clever coding and a good marketing plan. And that is precisely what TigerTools, which was formed in early 2001 and which is just now launching its first products, intends to do.

Exactly how Fast400 works is a trade secret, say sources at TigerTools. So is the identity of the programmer who created the Fast400 program. What is known about Fast400 is that it encapsulates green screen applications and makes CFINT think that they are batch or server jobs. Therefore, these 5250 applications run at a much higher speed than IBM's relative CPW ratings for green screen workloads for specific servers might indicate.

At the high end of the OS/400 platform, TigerTools is only aiming Fast400 at Apache and Northstar SXX generation AS/400 machines as well as the Northstar 7XX and Pulsar/I-Star/S-Star 8XX machines. It will also work on Apache and Northstar Model 150 and Model 170 servers, Northstar Model 250, and Pulsar/I-Star/S-Star Model 270 machines. Fast400 is not designed to be supported on other exotic AS/400 or iSeries machines, such as the Bumblebee Domino machines or the new special servers for WebSphere middleware or J.D. Edwards ERP applications. Fast400 is supported on machines running OS/400 V4R3, V4R4, V4R5, and V5R1. It runs at all OS/400 security levels, and does not require special authority to install or support it. The company says that Fast400 can be downloaded and installed on an AS/400 or iSeries machine in less than 30 minutes, and that skeptics can go to its site at http://www.tigertools.com and download a full demo version to try it out for themselves. The company is actually looking for feedback from users who have tried to the product to see how well its programs work in getting around IBM's CFINT governors, particularly since it is a small company and does not have the facilities to test every possible combination of AS/400 and iSeries models, interactive features, and RPG or COBOL applications to see how well Fast400 works.

Considering that IBM's interactive features within the AS/400 or iSeries lines or upgrades within generations are quite expensive, TigerTools is being quite generous in charging only 10 percent of the cost of the biggest interactive feature on each AS/400 or iSeries model for the Fast400 program. On some machines, these interactive features cost hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. (A lot of people in IBM's Somers, New York marketing offices just took deep breaths and gulped loudly.) Fast400 costs only $1,000 on small Model 150, 170 and S10 servers, and ranges as high as $370,000 on a Model 840-2461 where the interactive features represent $4.3 million of the $5.8 million lost price of a base 24-way server with 4 GB of main memory. The software can also be purchased for an even lower initial fee on a quarterly subscription basis on big AS/400 and iSeries models. Unlike a lot of OS/400 vendors, TigerTools has done right and published a full price list for its software and made it publicly available.

by Alex Woodie

If you attended the Fall COMMON conference last week, chances are good you're still recovering from the lingering effects of information overload. But if things shape up as COMMON President Charlie Massoglia says they will, you should already be thinking about next April's iSeries shindig in Nashville, Tennessee.

During his welcome speech at the conference, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Massoglia urged attendees to sign up soon for the Spring 2002 COMMON conference. "This conference in Nashville is going to be an exceptional conference," he told about 700 people at Sunday's opening session. "The facilities there are fantastic. The hotel is fantastic. And we're actually going to be viewing some the IT facilities there and giving demonstrations. So don't miss the conference next year in Nashville."

The spring conference is going to be held in the historic Opryland Hotel, home of the country's largest hotel and convention center under one roof. COMMON business partner LANSA and its partner Inter-American Data recently installed an AS/400-based wireless check-in system at the Opryland Hotel (see the October 15 issue of The Four Hundred).

Even as the fall conference was in full swing at the Minneapolis Convention Center and IBM's Rochester, Minnesota, facilities--where busloads of COMMON attendees were taken for field trips on Wednesday and Thursday--the focus was undeniably shifting forward to Nashville. Several vendors said they would be making major announcements at that time, and IBM also is expected to announce the next version of OS/400 and the next generation of hardware next spring. And there was one other undeniable sign that COMMON had Nashville on its mind: The Nashville Chamber of Commerce was greeting attendees as they entered the Expo floor.

But why shouldn't the industry be looking ahead to the spring show? Attendance at Fall COMMON was noticeably off compared with past conferences, and the absence of several major iSeries vendors--including SEAGULL, Jacada, and ASNA--was conspicuous. According to COMMON, almost 3,000 people registered and showed up for the five-day event, which was about 700 fewer than attended the Spring 2001 COMMON in New Orleans. But when you subtract the IBMers, the press, and other support personnel, the real number of paying attendees was more like 1,700 to 1,900, according to sources close to the matter. Several factors are credited with contributing to the decline, including our slowing economy, travel restrictions companies have put into place because of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the cyclical nature of COMMON attendance. The Spring shows tend to draw more people.

But if the idea of spending five days learning how to unlock the power of the iSeries in a Southern city in full April bloom just doesn't do it for you, Massoglia has another reason you should start thinking about your plans for the next show. "You should register soon to lock in the 2001 rates because we are discussing potential rate increases for next year," he said.

by Joe Hertvik

With the addition of iSeries Access for Web and WebSphere Host Publisher to IBM's Client Access V5R1 family (5722-XW1), the process of issuing fixes for these products is changing. In addition to the Client Access Express for Windows and Client Access for Windows 95/NT service packs you've always applied in the past, you now also have to track iSeries Access for Web PTFs and WebSphere Host Publisher corrective service diskettes (CDSs) to ensure that you are applying all the necessary fixes to the Client Access software. Here's the current rundown on what fixes are available for each product and how you retrieve them.

by Alex Woodie

About 800 people attended the inaugural town hall meeting of the iSeries Nation at the Fall COMMON conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last week. The two-hour event was set up to replace two forums that had become mainstays of COMMON conferences: the keynote address, usually but not always given by a member of IBM's top brass, and the Sound Off.

The first hour provided a platform for IBM executives from Rochester and other IBM segments to talk about the state of the iSeries. Buell Duncan, general manager of IBM's MidMarket Server division, said demand for iSeries products, particularly RPG, Linux, and Domino, has been strong since IBM started shipping OS/400 V5R1 this summer. "We're seeing our business grow significantly," he said. He added that IBM had shipped more than 15,000 OS/400 V5R1 licenses to date, which is consistent with past OS/400 install rates.

IBM's big announcement of the day--the official unveiling of the new "Bumblebee" iSeries server preloaded with IBM's WebSphere Application Server--was made by Sandy Carter, vice president of marketing for e-commerce solutions. By having Carter make the announcement, IBM appeared to be emphasizing that its various divisions are working together, which was the main driver behind IBM's big eServer announcement one year ago.

"Our announcement today is going to help you, as iSeries customers--or should I say iSeries believers?--take your company into that next phase," Carter said. "And so, what I'd like to do, without further ado, is be the first IBM software executive to unveil a hardware box. And here it is. It's beautiful."

Carter then started the "10" segment of her presentation. Customers should look to WebSphere because it has grown 10 times faster than its nearest competitor and because it has had 10 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, she said. But perhaps most importantly, especially considering the difficulty that loading WebSphere onto the iSeries has presented for many AS/400 and iSeries operators, Carter declared: "And even I can get this box up and going…in less than 10 minutes" using the new Installation Wizard.

During the second hour, which was held in the classic Sound Off format, COMMON attendees made comments and asked IBMers technical questions. Some of the hot topics discussed included migration to the new HSL I/O subsystem, the bugs in V5R1 and who pays for them, and differentiating between Domino and WebSphere and where they're best applied.

Marketing, of course, was another topic. For some reason, though, IBM's marketing did not elicit the same feverish response that it had in past Sound Off sessions. Perhaps this newfound civility was partly due to the inclusive nature of the setting and the fact that the majority of people in attendance were members of the iSeries Nation. The iSeries Nation--made up of more than 30,000 AS/400 and iSeries users, IBMers, and software vendors--was launched by IBM earlier this year as a "marketing promotional platform."

IBM came ready to defend its marketing activities. A handout packet prepared by Kim Stevenson, vice president of iSeries marketing, included several recent examples of marketing successes, including a new ad promoting iNotes Access for Microsoft Outlook, a new brochure touting iSeries benefits, and an October 2001 article in IndustryWeek magazine that reviews the OS/400 platform's reputation as a workhorse.

by Joe Hertvik

IBM last week released its implementation of the Apache Software Foundation's Jakarta Tomcat application server for iSeries (or OS/400 Tomcat), based on Tomcat V3.2.1. The new server is available now by PTF for OS/400 V4R5 and V5R1 installations. For OS/400 V4R5, the Tomcat server is included in the HTTP Server (powered by Apache) group PTF SF99035. For OS/400 V5R1, Tomcat can be downloaded with group PTF SF99156.

As we reported in our in the August 20 issue of The Four Hundred, the OS/400 Tomcat server supports the JavaServer Page V1.1 and Java Servlet V2.2 specifications. However, IBM met these specifications by using the Jakarta Tomcat V3.2.1 source code, not the V3.2.3 build, which has been available since July. This is a troubling decision because V3.2.3 contained not only the bug fixes Jakarta included in the intermediate V3.2.2 build but also several security updates that, according to the Jakarta Project, closed a serious security hole in Tomcat V3.2.x. In July, Jakarta recommended that all V3.2.x users upgrade to V3.2.3 as soon as possible, and it's odd that IBM didn't use that code in building its OS/400 Tomcat version.

I contacted IBM about the V3.2.1 source code, and here's what sources told me. IBM is aware of the fixes in V3.2.3, and these fixes will become available after the company has done internal testing and is comfortable with the results. So there's no timetable yet for when the V3.2.3 code will reach OS/400 Tomcat.

IBM has, however, made some additional fixes to the V3.2.1 source code, on which OS/400 Tomcat is based. These fixes were for items that the company found in testing. Big Blue said that it investigates each security issue, and it is the company's understanding that the majority of security problems were based on using Tomcat's own internal HTTP server rather than using Tomcat as a plug-in for the Apache Web server. As a result, IBM has disabled the Tomcat HTTP server inside OS/400 and requires that OS/400 Tomcat customers use OS/400 Tomcat as a plug-in for its HTTP Server (powered by Apache) Web server, commonly known as OS/400 Apache. In addition, IBM is telling customers not to configure OS/400 Tomcat on an existing OS/400 Apache instance that is in production. IBM says you should instead create a new OS/400 Apache instance, then configure that server to process servlets and JSPs through Tomcat. And potential OS/400 Tomcat users should take note here, as this is a sensible recommendation given the V3.2.1 security issues and bugs that may still be present in the code.

So even though IBM isn't including Jakarta's V3.2.2 and V3.2.3 bug fixes and security fixes in OS/400 Tomcat, it has reviewed and patched some security issues during testing. However, I would say that this isn't enough, and IBM needs to quickly issue an update that contains the most recent code, because the unsolved security issues will seriously jeopardize using OS/400 Tomcat in any open production environment. Until then, I would treat OS/400 Tomcat as an alpha implementation that definitely should not be used in a production environment.