In Part 1 of this article, I mentioned the importance of being aware of common security exposures. I described five of the 10 most common security exposures and provided suggestions for minimizing risk. This article covers the remaining five security exposures.

Exposure #6: Unrestricted use of IBM Navigator for i.

IBM provides IBM Navigator for i (formerly called iSeries Navigator and Operations Navigator) as the graphical user interface for OS/400 functions. This powerful interface can be used in place of a command line to manage the security of objects, display data file content, and even delete objects. IBM Navigator, like

Time and date calculations fall short in ILE RPG. I have seen many examples of handling date or time math on IT Jungle and other Web sites. All of them calculate one unit of time only–either years, days, hours, minutes, etc. In the application I am working on, I need to find an interval in days, hours and minutes, but I have found nothing that subtracts one date from another and gets a true answer in mixed units.

–Al

RPG does not have date and time durations, as SQL and Query do. (For more information about durations, see the articles

Like many other shops, you may soon be upgrading your existing iSeries, System i, or Power i hardware. To help with that process, this week I’m reviewing the nine general stages that occur during a Power i upgrade. While not all-inclusive, these stages create a general roadmap for what you need to consider during a Power i hardware purchase.

The Overview

Briefly, the nine stages of a Power i upgrade are:

1. IBM hardware and software maintenance extension (if necessary)
2. Operating system upgrade (optional)
3. High availability preparation (optional)
4. Sizing your machines
5. Evaluating alternatives
6. Final specifications, decision, financing, and ordering
7. Third-party software