IBM Updates Online IBM i Resources
March 18, 2014 Alex Woodie
|
If you find yourself perusing IBM‘s website looking for information about the IBM i operating system and Power Systems server, don’t be surprised if things look a little different than you remember them. That’s because IBM recently rolled out several updates to several online IBM i resources, including a new IBM Knowledge Center, a refresh to the IBM i 7.1 Redbook, and a new look and feel for the IBM i section of the developerWorks site. IBM Redbooks are a great source of in-depth, technical information about IBM products. If you have a question about how to do something with the IBM i product, your answer is quite likely in a Redbook somewhere. In mid-February, IBM published a draft of the next version of the IBM i 7.1 Redbook. In his blog, IBM i chief architect Steve Will alerted the community to the fact that this will be the last update to the Redbook before IBM i 7.2 is delivered. We can probably expect the new release by late April or early May, before the next COMMON show. IBM plans to make the updated Redbook available on March 31. You can read a draft of the document at www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedpieceAbstracts/sg247858.html?Open. IBM will often release new products in alpha or beta stages through its developerWorks website. It’s not only a good source of information about early-stage products in IBM’s labs, but for accessing general articles and tutorials on IBM i topics. There are links to Redbooks, white papers, technical presentations, wikis, and case studies. You’ll also find a link to the new IBM i Knowledge Center. The old Information Center website was a great resource for general information about a range of IBM i topics (and i5/OS and OS/400 topics before them). But it was one of 800 different Information Centers within IBM, according to Will. IBM set out to unify all of those Information Centers with the new IBM Knowledge Center. You can access the IBM i page of the Knowledge Center at www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i/welcome. At first glance, the website appears to have a newer look to it, compared to the old Information Center website. On the left side, under the “close” button is your table of contents, where you can explore entries for different IBM i topics, such as networking, database, and storage solutions. The search bar parked at the top of the screen takes up a bit of space, But there’s a nifty “Collections” feature that allows you to store your frequently access content more easily. Getting to the IBM i section of the Knowledge Center can be tricky if you don’t come in from the link above. From the main Knowledge Center screen, you need to scroll down past the Smarter Cities, SPSS, and Sterling Commerce entries and click on “System Software,” and then click “IBM i” to get there. This may not be immediately intuitive.
|
