• V5R4 CL Enhancements, Revealed and Detailed

  February 8, 2006 Ted Holt

  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

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• iSeries Security Journal Receiver Management, Part 1

  February 8, 2006 Hey, Steve

  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

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• Admin Alert: Creating an i5/OS User Profile Architecture

  February 8, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  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,

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• A FUNction to Align Text

  February 1, 2006 Hey, Ted

  I read with interest your article on the IIF function. I have a function called alignText that I use in just about every program. I use it primarily to center headings, but have found it useful for right adjust as well. I have had this for a long time, so it is in traditional form, not freeform. Notice that there are three optional parameters. The alignment defaults to centering, and then two additional parameters are used to change the display attribute if I want to. — Gordon Larkins, ASK Senior Technical Consultant It was nice of Gordie to share his

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• Alternatives to Clear Physical File Member

  February 1, 2006 Ted Holt

  Suppose a file of summary figures is used for inquiry throughout the day and is repopulated with the latest information on the hour. How do you clear the file, a process which requires an exclusive lock, while the inquiry program is in use? This is the type of problem I have faced several times, and here are a couple of ways I have addressed it. One method is to place an activity code field in the file, with values of A and D, for example, to indicate active and deleted records. The inquiry program uses a logical file to

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• Admin Alert: Six Simple Rules for OS/400 Group Profiles

  February 1, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  OS/400 and i5/OS group profiles are a boon to system administrators because they allow them to centralize object authority administration for several users in one place. But group profiles also have their downside. Improper administration can lead to unnecessary and dangerous authority authorizations, audit control failures, and possible system compromise if an external user can sign on as a group profile member who has all object (*ALLOBJ) authority. With the goal of making your system more secure through better group profile techniques, here are six simple rules for making group profile administration an easier and safer system process. These rules

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• Today’s Special: Data Area Surprise!

  January 25, 2006 Ted Holt

  Data areas are as handy as pockets. Maybe that’s because they are like pockets in that you can stuff things into them. RPG, like other iSeries programming languages, can read and modify data areas. In fact, RPG allows for two different data area I/O methods, and one of them has a “feature” that could give you a nasty surprise! If you want an RPG program to read and/or change a data area, you have two options. You can let the RPG cycle handle the input and output operations, or you can control the I/O by hand. The easier method is

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• Use SQL to Run PDM Options?

  January 25, 2006 Hey, David

  Do you know of any way to filter the object list shown by PDM based on object ownership or other attributes like last used date? I have looked through the documentation, but I can’t find an API or exit program to select PDM records. Instead, I write one-time programs that read output from the Display Object Description (DSPOBJD) or Display File Description (DSPFD) commands and then execute a command. Is there a scripting tool I can use to run commands on objects that allows for more flexible object selection? –Susan I can’t tell you how to filter the object list

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• Admin Alert Feedback: Quicker Ways to Change Library Object Ownership

  January 25, 2006 Joe Hertvik

  In a recent column, I stated that since the Change Object Owner command (CHGOBJOWN) did not have an *ALL function, there was no easy way to change object ownership for every single object in a library without writing a program to do the job. I was wrong in that assumption, and several readers wrote in to show me two different ways to reach that goal. So let’s look at what they shared and how it makes an administrator’s job easier. The Challenge Is Met. . . Twice! As laid out last time, the challenge was to find a way to

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• Handling Oversized Character Values Gracefully

  January 18, 2006 Ted Holt

  The FmtNum subprocedure has been very useful to me in dealing with oversized numbers. When I use FmtNum in a report program, it is obvious to anyone when a number has gotten too large for its allotted space. I suppose it was only a matter of time until I would need to show that a character value is too large for the space I had allowed for it. While chopping off the end of many character fields, such as customer names and inventory item descriptions, is no big deal, chopping of the end of others does present a problem. I

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