Timothy Prickett Morgan
-
IBM Mothballs The Last Of The Power7+ Servers
October 12, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreNext year is when IBM will start rolling out its Power8+ chips, and since the Power8 chips have been in the field since April 2014, it is no surprise that Big Blue is winding down the Power7+ processors that date from October 2012. But if you have a Power7+ system and want parts, or have reasons to add Power7 machines to your fleet, you still have some time on selected models.
In announcement letter 915-205, which came out on September 29, IBM warns customers and business partners that it will be removing the remaining Power7+ machines that have not
-
IBM i Added To Power S822, PurePower Systems
October 12, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreSince the entry Power8 machines launched early last year, we have been arguing that Big Blue needs to offer IBM i on a larger span of the Power Systems machines it has in the portfolio. Customers should be able to device which is the best box for them, just like Linux and AIX shops, rather than have IBM decide that for them ahead of time. IBM’s desire to help managed service providers build denser and cheaper clusters seems to be playing into the favor of IBM i shops that want to run their own machines.
This is a good side
-
Scratch Message Files? Why Not?!
October 6, 2015 Ted Holt
… Read moreIf you read this august publication, you probably know what a scratch file is. (For those of you who know nothing about computers and read this publication solely for its sterling literary merit, a scratch file is a database table or stream file that is used temporarily within a job.) Today I invite you to consider that the advantages of scratch files also extend to scratch message files.
Consider superb RPG program SUPERBPGM2:
ctl-opt dftactgrp(*no); dcl-pr SuperbPgm2 extpgm('SUPERBPGM2'); ouStatus likeds(Status_t); inPlant char(12); end-pr; dcl-pi SuperbPgm2; ouStatus likeds(Status_t); inPlant char(12); end-pi; dcl-ds Status_t qualified template; MsgID char( 7); ProgramName char(10); Plant -
Keeping Firmware Up To Date
October 6, 2015 Pete Massiello
… Read moreLast month, Larry Bolhuis discussed PTFs and keeping them current. This is extremely important, and I want to continue along on that theme of staying current. So, this month we will discuss determining the level of firmware of your Flexible Service Processor (FSP). If you don’t know what level it is currently running, you won’t know if it is up to date or not. It’s just as important to keep this up to date as your PTFs, your release of IBM i, or your Hardware Management Console (HMC) firmware. In all my travels, it seems people aren’t keeping their
-
More iSphere Goodies
September 29, 2015 Susan Gantner
… Read moreBefore I proceed with this latest installment on the features of the iSphere toolset that plugs into RDi, I want to first update a few items I’ve covered in earlier tips in this series.
First of all, in my first iSphere tip, I neglected to give credit to one of the primary contributors to the iSphere toolset. I had mentioned the team at TaskForce IT, but failed to acknowledge the significant work done by Thomas Raddatz of Tools400. My apologies to Thomas for that omission.
Second, thanks to continued development efforts, a new version of the iSphere plug-in is
-
Easy Conversion To ASCII
September 29, 2015 Ted Holt
… Read moreThe system we love so well has a long love affair with the EBCDIC collating sequence, but most of the world runs on ASCII and Unicode. Dealing with ASCII data has not been a trivial experience for RPG programmers, but IBM i 7.2 adds a feature that helps immensely.
In ancient days, RPG programmers would call the QDCXLATE API, which uses a translation table, to convert EBCDIC to ASCII. This is probably not a good solution. IBM’s translation tables were good for their time, but times have changed.
A modern solution is the iconv family of code conversion APIs, which
-
Auditing Object Changes In A Production Environment
September 29, 2015 Ron Adams
… Read moreLike many business environments today, my shop consists of just one person wearing many hats to support the IBM i system. This makes for a tight, controlled environment with that one person managing the system very efficiently. However, most auditors aren’t too pleased with this setup as it opens the door for potential violations with established compliance guidelines. Even though we are a small shop with minimal budget, we were able to easily develop a solution to satisfy the auditors. Here’s what we did.
Most environments like ours are run by individuals with high integrity and dedication to their jobs
-
Can OpenPower Take A Bite Out Of The Datacenter?
September 28, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreIt is not often that I give readers of The Four Hundred reading assignments outside of this publication, but from time to time, in the course of the other work I do in other parts of the IT industry, I run across things that are relevant to adjacent markets that ultimately have some bearing on the Power Systems-IBM i platform. Such is the case with a presentation that the chief for IBM‘s Systems Group gave to Wall Street recently.
Tom Rosamilia, who has been general manager of the System z and Power Systems division in his long career at
-
IBM Issues HiPER And Security Patches For V5R4
September 21, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreHere is a weird one. Last week, IBM released PTF patches for OS/400 V5R4, also known as i5/OS 5.4, the venerable release of OS/400 that came out in February 2006 and that was withdrawn from marketing in May 2011 and had its standard Software Maintenance ended in September 2013. Extended maintenance is still running for those customers who pay for it, and will continue to do so until September 30, 2016.
While this Program Support Extension (PSE) support does offer tech support for the V5R4 stack on Power Systems and earlier machines, it has always been my understanding that Big
-
IBM Gearing Up For October Power Announcements
September 21, 2015 Timothy Prickett Morgan
… Read moreThe word on the street is that Big Blue is getting ready to make some announcements for the Power Systems platform in October, so brace yourself for more stuff. We are not sure exactly what IBM is gearing up to do, but we have heard some rumblings that will affect the IBM i customer base tangentially and perhaps, if we have our way, directly.
IBM likes to tie announcements to specific events, and personally, I would like for the new hardware, software, and services to be launched at the Power Systems and System Storage Technical University in Cannes, France, which