The IT Jungle

Join Us For The IBM i On The Public Cloud Webinar

December 4, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

After so many years of waiting, it looks like IBM i shops are going to have a wide variety of options when it comes to acquiring true cloud computing to either replace or augment their on premises systems.

IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Skytap all are offing slices of Power9 machines, which complement the cloudy and hosted infrastructure that has been available for a number of years from Connectria, iInTheCloud, UCG Technologies, LightEdge Solutions, Data Storage Corp, Source Data Products, Secure Information and Services, and First Option IT have offerings that fall on the spectrum from traditional hosting to cloud as …
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Nagios Solidifies Role in IBM i Monitoring

December 4, 2019 Alex Woodie

IBM i shops that are looking for monitoring solutions would do well to add Nagios to their short list. The open source software has been embraced by IBM i shops, and thanks to a new SQL connector added by IBM with the latest technology refreshes and plans for monitoring the HMC, Nagios connectivity to IBM i is on the upswing.

Nagios Core is a free, open source software project that’s been adopted by thousands of customers around the world to monitor servers, storage, software, services, networking gear, and anything else that can be connected to the network. The software is …
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HelpSystems Bolsters Data Loss Prevention with Clearswift Buy

December 4, 2019 Alex Woodie

HelpSystems completed the first acquisition of the Kate Bolseth era this week with the purchase of Clearswift, a UK-based provider of data loss prevention (DLP) solutions. The software will play nicely with HelpSystems’ existing managed file transfer (MFT) offerings for IBM i and other platforms, according to new CEO Bolseth, who indicates that more and bigger acquisitions are on the horizon.

Clearswift develops what it calls adaptive DLP, or A-DLP, technology that can automatically stop sensitive data from leaving the digital bounds of a company. When installed on a network gateway, the software will analyze the content of the documents …
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Samba Patch Caps Busy Year for IBM i Security

December 4, 2019 Alex Woodie

IBM last week patched a moderately severe security flaw in IBM i’s Samba implementation that could enable hackers to access data they really shouldn’t be able to access. The disclosure caps a rather busy second half of the year for security patches on IBM i that saw 26 emergency PTFs and Yum updates for Node.js, Python, the Apache HTTP Server, OpenSSL, ISC Bind, IBM Navigator, and even Db2 Mirror for IBM i.

On November 26, IBM issued this security bulletin to let people know about the new flaw in the Samba client. The flaw could allow a hacker to not …
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Four Hundred Monitor, December 4

December 4, 2019 Jenny Thomas

The year may be winding down, but before you log off for the holidays, there is plenty of action happening around the IBM i community. This week, IT Jungle’s own Timothy Prickett Morgan will be participating in a webinar to talk about all things cloud as they relate to the IBM i platform. You can find out how to listen in below in our Redbooks, White Papers, Blogs, and Other Resources section below. Then next week, Pete Massiello is hosting a webinar to take a look back at the IBM i in 2019. There’s more information on that event in …
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IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 48

December 4, 2019 Doug Bidwell

This is important: If you are running IBM i 7.3, the Db2 for IBM i Group SF99703, Level 16, dated November 13 is defective. Do not install this group. Instead, install Level 17, which was made available on November 25. If you are not able to do that, contact IBM for assistance. Our understanding is that critical PTFs were not included in Level 16 update for the Db2 group, and the resulting issue is that both the A and B side will lock up and require a SLIP install to repair. You want to avoid that.

Also, there is updated …
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Db2 For IBM i 7.3 Hits A Bad Patch

December 2, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

As you know, we are among the people in the IBM i community who are always telling you to keep current on your PTF patches for the best operating system available on Power Systems. (No, we are not talking about AIX or Linux.) But every now and again, as happens with all operating systems, something gets fixed and the fix is worse than the problem it was solving.

That has apparently happened with the database patches for the Db2 for i relational database management system embedded in the IBM i 7.3 release once the Db2 Group patches from November 13 …
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Converge Technology Emerges As Reseller Powerhouse

December 2, 2019 Alex Woodie

Here’s a computer company you may not have heard about: Converge Technology Solutions. Over the past two years, the publicly traded Toronto, Canada-based company has completed numerous acquisitions of value added resellers (VARs) and private cloud providers that ply the IBM Power Systems waters – including Key Information Systems, Corus360, and Essex Technology Group, to name a few – and there’s no reason to think it will stop in 2020.

Converge Technology Solutions was founded in 2017, when it began executing its goal to acquire a number of smaller VARs and consolidate the “fragmented” reseller landscape, according to chief executive …
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Guru: End Of Year Feedback

December 2, 2019 Ted Holt

The year has flown by. Before we know it, it will be 2020. The century is flying by, too. We’ve almost consumed a fifth of it. That seems like a good excuse to see what we might glean from some of your feedback. It’s been a while. More to come next week!

Several readers wrote regarding the need to remove hard-coded values from programs. Jim brought up the problem of compile-time tables and arrays.

I find cases where data is hard coded (state names, product categories are a few examples) for tables or arrays in dozens of programs.

I wish …
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Power S812 Gets Another Reprieve, And Other Power Systems Stuff

December 2, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

For whatever reason, Big Blue did not create a cut-down version of the Power9 entry server aimed at the smallest of the small businesses that run themselves on the IBM i platform. Meaning there was no Power S912 or Power S912 Mini replacement for the Power S812 and its specially priced Power S812 Mini. (The former is based on the Power9 chip, while the latter is based on the older Power8 chip, which has a lot less oomph per core.)

Back in March, IBM extended the life of the Power S812 and its Mini variant until November 29 of this …
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IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 47

December 2, 2019 Doug Bidwell

We hope that everyone in the United States had a Happy Thanksgiving, and we are still “playing ketchup” on the PTF leftovers before that holiday, which gets us into the final stretch of 2019, rolled around. Ketchup is good on turkey, but cranberry sauce is better.

Just a reminder to everyone: IBM i 7.2 will reach end of support on April 30, 2021. That may seem like a long time from now, but you will be surprised at how fast it comes up. IBM did not say very much in its end of support announcement, which you can see here …
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IBM i Marketing: Not A Thankless Job

November 25, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

For over one decade of the three that I called New York City my home, I was the president of the board of directors in the co-operative apartment building in which I lived. For many years, I ran a half rack of servers and storage in the kitchenette in our apartment to support IT Jungle’s website and subscription database, and I ran T1 lines up the outside of the building and in through the window. It was unconventional running a business that way, but there was no cloud computing as we know it, and certainly not at the prices you …
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Thoroughly Modern: Driving Your Synon Applications Forward

November 25, 2019 Chris Koppe

(Sponsored Content) CA 2E, formerly known Synon and still called that by many, is a highly specialized programming language and a productive 4GL development environment. Used by a small number of IBM i shops, Synon has enabled organizations to rapidly create complex applications and systems that run the core of their business operations. These applications are often homegrown and serve as the backbone of business processing while providing organizations with differentiation against their competition.

Although Synon applications provide great value, they are inherently difficult to access and share information with the organization. In many cases, these operations ecosystems …
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Guru: Code Coverage via CL Command

November 25, 2019 Susan Gantner

This is my third tip on using RDi’s Code Coverage support. In the first tip, we explored setting up a test run using Service Entry Points (a.k.a. SEPs). In the second one, I covered how to create a configuration for the test run. Here we’ll see how to use a CL command to run a Code Coverage test session without requiring interaction with RDi (except for reporting.)

Before seeing how to do it, it may be good to discuss why you may prefer to use this approach. Simply put, it makes it easier to automate the testing process …
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No developerWorks Content Will Be Left Behind, IBM Promises

November 25, 2019 Alex Woodie

IBM faced a stiff backlash last month when it announced plans to shut down a popular developerWorks portal, leaving it up to content owners to find a new home for their content. Since then, the company has taken steps to reassure worried customers that no content will be lost as part of the move.

IBM hasn’t significantly changed its plans, which call for the developerWorks Connections website and all developerWorks Connections applications to be taken offline or deactivated on December 31 of this year. All of the content that is hosted there – including thousands of blogs, files, forums, wikis, …
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How Infor’s Coleman Strategy Is Evolving, and How IBM i Fits In

November 20, 2019 Alex Woodie

It’s been more than two years since Infor unveiled Coleman, the company’s AI platform which became generally available earlier this year. It’s not on the roadmap for IBM i just yet, according to Infor. That may not sound ideal for Infor’s IBM i customers, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Coleman was unveiled by ERP software giant Infor in 2017 primarily as a digital assistant, which is a fancy way of saying a chatbot. Just as Siri and Alexa can answer questions about the weather or sports, Coleman could answer basic questions about the business, and even handle some …
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Latest TRs For IBM i Now Available

November 20, 2019 Alex Woodie

IBM last week delivered the latest IBM i operating system Technology Refreshes, giving good IBM i boys and girls around the world early Christmas presents in areas like programing, operations, database, and security. Here’s a quick recap of the new stuff in IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7.

There were several general enhancements with IBM i 7.4 TR1 and 7.3 TR7. For starters, administrators gained more control over resources available to the Integrated Web Server (the one powered by Apache) with the new capability to install it the Web server in a user-specified sub-system. Admins also get new functions …
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Who’s Watching i? The Kisco, Kid

November 20, 2019 Alex Woodie

Administrators today don’t have the time to sit at their consoles, waiting for things to happen. That’s a luxury that few are afforded. Instead, admins want to be notified when something happens – good, bad, or otherwise. One of the tools that makes this happen is Kisco’s iEventMonitor, which was recently upgraded with several new watch functions.

Kisco Information Systems launched iEventMonitor several years ago as an affordable utility for keeping an eye on IBM i job and message queues, as well as storage and CPU usage. When things start to go wrong on a monitored IBM i server, iEventMonitor …
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Four Hundred Monitor, November 20

November 20, 2019 Jenny Thomas

Artificial intelligence is often a hot topic in the news, making it a regular item in the articles we feature here in Monitor. But in an interesting twist, Alain Bénichou, CEO of IBM’s Greater China business, said that in China, which is considered a world leader in AI, while AI adoption is higher than the global average, it is still not as high as expected. This is not to say AI, or the news about it, is going anywhere, but it does give some food for thought about the difference between innovation and real world application. Read on to see …
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IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Issue 46

November 20, 2019 Doug Bidwell

There have been plenty of weeks when there was not much to report in PTF Land. This is not one of those weeks. We have lots of new cumes to tell you about, as well as news on Db2 Mirror for i and other tidbits for you. Let’s start with the cumes.

When going through this week’s guide, be on the lookout for a new cume for 7.4 (C9304740), new cume for 7.3 (C9311730), and a new cume for 7.2 (C9297720). Also, don’t miss the new DB2 for IBM i Group for 7.4 and 7.3, as well as the new …
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