Version 5 Release 4 of i5/OS continues the tradition that V5R3 began–that is, making a liar of me. Before V5R3, I would have bet my last Federal Reserve Note that IBM would never enhance the i5/iSeries Control Language (cleverly known by its acronym, CL), and I would have lost the bet. Like V5R3, V5R4 introduces several new CL features. I would like to thank Guy Vig of IBM for telling me about them. Now I’d like to share them with you.

Enhancements come in two general areas–subroutines and data definition. Let’s learn more about them. Keep in mind that I

We were recently subjected to an audit of our iSeries security practices under the auspices of Sarbanes-Oxley due to the fact that we are a publicly traded company. Believe it or not, it was the first time we had ever had any outside party review our iSeries security! Ignoring that glaring security exposure and getting right to the point, we were cited by the auditors for not having the security audit journaling function activated on our production iSeries system. (I know: an even worse security exposure!) We have been hesitant to activate the audit journal due to things we have

Many of my Admin Alert columns have focused on how to configure and control i5/OS user profiles to meet two conflicting goals: to increase user productivity and to protect the system from internal and external threats. While I often discuss the mechanics of user profile administration, it’s also worthwhile to discuss the philosophy and architecture behind user profile creation and how you can use that architecture to meet corporate needs.

A user profile architecture is a structure of i5/OS and OS/400 features and configurations that determine how to build user profiles for maximum efficiency, security, and organizational needs. Some elements,