• Admin Alert: Moving a Subsystem into its Own Shared Pool

  July 12, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  i5/OS subsystems are segmented system environments where work (jobs) is submitted and executed. Subsystems can be customized for the type of work being done (batch, interactive, server), how much work is simultaneously executed, and what resources are used for job execution. This week, I’ll look at how you can use shared pools to assign dedicated i5/OS main storage and active threads for subsystem job execution, without having to share these resources with another subsystem. How Subsystem Shared Pools are Created and Assigned For newer i5 administrators, this first section discusses how system shared pools are put together and provides some

  …

  Read more

• Query/400 Handles Zero Dates (Sort Of)

  June 28, 2006 Hey, Ted

  I have a file that has two dates that are stored in eight-digit numeric fields in YYYYMMDD format. Using Query/400, I wish to find the difference in days between the two dates. However, one of the date fields may contain values of zero. When I view the resulting data from the query on my display, Query/400 fills the difference field with plus signs if a date is zero. But when I direct the query’s output to a disk file, the query ends abnormally. Is there a way to replace the zero date with some other value, such as the current

  …

  Read more

• No Automatic Casting for Char

  June 28, 2006 Howard Arner

  Recently, I did a Web services project to integrate a legacy iSeries system with a new GUI and a new Web-based interface. When programming the system, I needed to write a stored procedure to take incoming data and store it in the both the legacy program’s data tables and our “new” database. This new database was still on the iSeries, and was just new in the sense that it has more and varied fields and capabilities that the previous system. I found an interesting iSeries feature and would like to take the opportunity to present the potential problem with it

  …

  Read more

• Admin Alert: Creating More Distinctive PC5250 Window Titles

  June 28, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  While working in multi-partition System i5 environments, many people open several PC5250 sessions at one time. But because PC5250 default Window titles aren’t very descriptive (Session A, Session B, etc), it isn’t always easy for users to determine which open session they want to ALT-tab to. Similar session names also make it harder to choose which session to open from the Windows taskbar. Fortunately, PC5250 has a solution for creating more distinctive PC5250 Window title descriptions. Window title bar descriptions are single line descriptions of a Windows application that are found in the top region of an open application window.

  …

  Read more

• Guru Readers Contribute Their Favorite SEU Tips

  June 21, 2006 Hey, Ted

  I have a couple of comments about your article, Lesser-Known SEU Commands. First, I’m still unashamedly an SEU user for one main reason: I like the “instantaneousness” of it. I can log in to the green screen and start editing a source member within SEU in just a few seconds, vs. the load/startup time of WDSc, the loading of libraries and files and member lists, and so forth. Yes, I know–I can preload WDSc. I can set filters for libraries and files and members. I can create project definitions to load and display the views I need, etc. But

  …

  Read more

• Autostarting WAS 6.0 on the System i

  June 21, 2006 Hey, Brian

  I just read your article on WebSphere Application Server 6.0; thank you for the info. The question I have is this: I cannot find any examples on how to start a WAS 6.0 instance from QSTRUP. QEJBSTRSVR does not exist for WAS 6.0 and I am unsure of the QShell command to perform the function. How can I autostart WAS 6.0? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. –Alan Glad you enjoyed the article. Let me first show you the way around the WAS 6 directory structure. When you have a chance, get a command line and go out to

  …

  Read more

• Reader Feedback on Setting Library Lists

  June 21, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  For my column on How to Set i5 Library Lists for 5250 and Batch Jobs, several readers immediately wrote in to ask questions, provide more information, and even to question why I would cover such a basic topic. Let’s take a look at some of the feedback I received on that column and see what else it teaches us about library lists. Hey, Joe: You seemed to indicate that a user program cannot utilize the Product Library list feature in a library list, but I’ve found that you can configure an individual command to create a Product Library

  …

  Read more

• New in V5R4: OLAP Ranking Specifications

  June 14, 2006 Michael Sansoterra

  This tip continues Four Hundred Guru‘s series on the fantastic SQL enhancements that iSeries, i5 and AS/400 users received in the latest release of OS/400, which is called i5/OS V5R4. In V5R4, IBM gave developers an impressive set of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools to aid with common ranking and numbering issues. The significance of these OLAP tools lies in the amount of work they do and the time it will save database programmers. OLAP queries are generally concerned with providing answers to high level questions about large amounts of underlying data. (OLAP is also often associated with multidimensional

  …

  Read more

• Avoid Locked Display Files/Resetting Page Numbers

  June 14, 2006 Dear Esteemed Professional Colleagues

  The following question (minus my editing for grammar) was recently posted on the IT Jungle Forums. I have a display file that remains locked almost all day by users. If I want to recreate the file, I have to wait until all users log out, releasing the lock. Is it possible for me to recreate the display files while it is locked? –Kaizad Patel Those of us who still write and/or maintain green-screen applications (and there are a lot of us) understand Kaizad’s problem. Here’s my reply to him. You can’t recreate the display file if someone has it

  …

  Read more

• Admin Alert: How to Set i5 Library Lists for 5250 and Batch Jobs

  June 14, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  Similar to the PATH variable in MS-DOS and Unix, every job running on the i5/OS operating system has a library list, which tells the operating system where to locate system objects that the user is requesting. Library lists and how they are generated are basic i5/OS meat and potato issues. Nothing works without them, and it is worth understanding how they are created so that you can manipulate them to your advantage. The Elements of a Library List Library lists on the i5/OS and OS/400 operating systems consist of the following four components that, when grouped together, define a job’s

  …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles