• Running IBM i Access 7.1 and Windows 8

  October 31, 2012 Michael Sansoterra

  With the newly released Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, I wanted to test drive Windows 8 and use it on my primary computer if possible. However, I knew a potential stumbling block would be getting IBM i Access for Windows to function. So I set out to load IBM i Access 7.1 on Windows 8. While doing my research, I didn’t find anything on the IBM i Access for Windows website indicating general compatibility with Windows 8. In the past, the newest version of Windows has generally been a “no-go” until a Windows specific service pack is released. But,

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• Changing Sub Tree Authorities In An IFS Folder

  October 31, 2012 Hey, Joe

  I need to change access authority for all the objects in a specific AS/400 Integrated File System (AS/400 IFS) folder and all its sub-folders. What’ the best way to do this? I’m running IBM i 6.1. –Pete Changing authorities for an IFS folder and its entire sub tree (objects and sub-folders) is a relatively easy task to accomplish. You just have to remember three things when updating this authority. You must change the folder’s authorities using the green-screen Change Authority (CHGAUT) command. I haven’t been able to find any way to change sub tree authorities in Systems i Navigator V7R1M

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• Admin Alert: One Year Out–Preparing For Your Next IBM i Upgrade, Part 2

  October 17, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  Two years ago, I wrote an article on how to start planning for an IBM Power i upgrade a year in advance. In that piece, I covered business partner evaluation, extended maintenance, third-party software, and budgeting for performance. Today I’m revisiting the topic and adding other hardware upgrade issues that require longer term planning and may need almost a year to complete. A Lot Of Ground To Cover In no particular order, here are the Power i hardware upgrade items that you can start planning for a year in advance of a hardware upgrade. Business partner evaluation–Evaluating your relationship

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• Non-Equal (Theta) Joins

  October 17, 2012 Ted Holt

  In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, all animals were declared to be equal. However, that was not the case. By the end of the book, some were “more equal than others.” You might think that all joins are equal, but you would be wrong. Unequal joins have their applications, too. The equijoin is the norm in business. A customer number in a table (file) of invoices matches (equals) a customer number in a customer master table. But it is also possible to join on non-matching conditions such as not equal, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to,

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• What’s That Name?

  October 17, 2012 Paul Tuohy

  The basis for this article comes from a brief conversation I had over coffee, while recently presenting an Introduction to SQL course. It went along these lines: Tom: “In Run SQL Scripts, how can I get a list of the fields in a file?” Me: “You mean the columns in a table or view.” Tom: “OK. In Run SQL Scripts, how can I get a list of the columns in a table or a view?” Me: “Just do a SELECT * and the column names are shown at the top of the columns.” Tom: “Nope. I took the option to

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• Admin Alert: Seven Things You Should Be Monitoring On Your System

  October 3, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  Last year, I wrote a two-part article outlining a basic plan for monitoring and answering IBM i error messages. But while it’s important to detect and answer error messages that require a response right now, it’s equally important to detect developing situations that will cause system problems if left alone. This week, I’ll discuss seven other things besides error messages that you should be monitoring for on your IBM i systems. The Basics For this article, let’s assume you are already using a system monitoring product to send out pager, email, or text alerts whenever an error message shows

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• Alternatives To SQL Literals

  October 3, 2012 Ted Holt

  Literals have caused me grief on more than one occasion. Trying to figure out what a certain number or character literal means in a program has wasted too much of my time, and my time is more valuable to me than money. I have written about this topic before, but I have not talked about literals in SQL. The example I’ve chosen may not be the best one, since the ratio of pounds to kilograms never changes. I chose it because it’s one most people should be able to relate to. The article I just referred to covers the

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• Debugging Server Jobs In Green Screen

  October 3, 2012 Susan Gantner

  A few years ago, I wrote a tip about my favorite way to debug programs using the Service Entry Point (SEP) feature of WDSC, which I have now replaced with RDP Rational Developer for Power Systems. If you’re a WDSC or RDP user and have somehow missed out on using SEPs for debugging, take a look at my tip. If you don’t use WDSC or RDP, you probably didn’t pay any attention to that tip. As it turns out, SEPs aren’t just for the graphical toolset. You can use SEPs with the traditional STRDBG “green screen” debugger as well.

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• Admin Alert: Eternal Users: A Common Problem With IBM i Batch Jobs

  September 19, 2012 Joe Hertvik

  Many IBM i shops have problems with eternal users. Eternal users are user profiles previously used by former IBM i power users that are still on the system. Although these users have left your organization, you can’t delete their user profiles, because the profiles are used in IBM i functions used to run batch jobs. This week, let’s look at eternal users and how to weed them out of your system. How The Gotcha Gets Ya Eternal users happen when administrators use their own or other power user profiles for submitting batch work to the system. Batch jobs are frequently

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• OSHA Changes To IBM Battery Handling Affect Cache Battery Replacement

  September 19, 2012 Hey, Joe

  I’m scheduling cache battery replacement for my production machine. Since this machine is never off-line, do you have any best practices or recommendations for how to change these batteries while production is running? –Ben Due to a recent United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) change, changing the cache batteries on your IBM i partitions isn’t as easy as it used to be, especially on a production machine. Here’s what happened. IBM uses batteries in its disk controllers to provide disk drive caching. The batteries have a useful life of about 2.75 to 3 years and the system will

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