• Admin Alert: The Great CBU Survey and More

  October 7, 2009 Joe Hertvik

  Let’s change it up a bit this week. First, I’m initiating the Admin Alert Great CBU Survey where I’m asking to collect information from users and vendors who work with Capacity BackUp (CBU) systems. Then I’ll follow-up on and add a little more information to some previous articles I posted. That’s a lot of information to cover in 1,200 words or less, so let’s get started. Chapter 1: The Great CBU Survey After reading Part 1 and Part 2 of my columns on performing live CBU switch tests on a System i box, reader Don K emailed me the following

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• Subprocedure Return Values–Food for Thought

  September 30, 2009 Jon Paris

  Those of us who have adopted subprocedures as a way of life often use their ability to return a result without thinking too much about the possible implications. But no technology should be thrown blindly into production without some understanding of the underlying tradeoffs. Ted Holt has previously written tips on the performance aspects of parameter passing (Parameter Passing and Performance) and on the basics of subprocedure performance (Performance of Function Subprocedures). In this article, I want to take that discussion one step further because I find that many people still fail to appreciate the potential

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• Mass Rename of IFS Files

  September 30, 2009 Hey, Ted

  I find Qshell a powerful tool for manipulating IFS files, but some Qshell features make me long for my MS DOS batch file programming days. A case in point is the ability to rename files in mass. Let me show you what I mean. I want to rename the files with a .txt extension so that they have a .csv extension instead. I only want to rename .txt files, and I only want to rename the files in a certain directory. In MS DOS, I would have used a rename command with wildcards in both arguments. ren *.txt *.csv Try

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• When PC5250 Run the Same Doesn’t Run

  September 30, 2009 Hey, Joe

  In my shop, some people cannot use PC5250’s run the same function. After selecting run the same, a new PC5250 window appears and it looks like the new session is trying to start. Several messages appear in the status bar, the new session stops trying to connect, the 5250 screen goes blank, and the status bar message reads “Disconnected.” What’s up with that? –Any number of users This is an amalgamated question that I occasionally get from a reader, which tells me it’s a fairly common problem. When configured correctly, PC5250’s run the same function allows you to start

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• WDSC vs. RDi

  September 23, 2009 Susan Gantner

  It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of RSE (Remote System Explorer). When I’m talking to developers who still use SEU to edit their source code, I always nag them to give RSE a try. Assuming I manage to convince them to take a look at it, usually the next topic of discussion relates to whether that means they should load the RSE that’s in WDSC or the version that’s in RDi. First, some background for any of you out there who may not be aware of what the quandary is about. RSE first appeared as one part WDSC

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• Let’s Start Over from the Beginning

  September 23, 2009 Hey, Ted

  We have RPG programs that use SQL cursors to sequentially retrieve data. If a program cancels and I call it again, the program resumes processing a cursor where it left off. I have to sign off and back on in order to restart from the top. Why doesn’t the program start over from the beginning of the returned data set? –Lynne The behavior you’re witnessing comes from three contributing factors, Lynne. First, your program was compiled to close the cursor when the activation group is destroyed. Second, your program is running in the default activation group. Third, you are not

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• The Cost of Not Backing Up

  September 23, 2009 Hey, Joe

  I’m performing a disaster recovery review for a client. The client backs up only i5/OS user libraries daily. He doesn’t back up program libraries, QUSRSYS, QGPL, or QSYS2. He doesn’t process the SAVSECDTA, SAVCFG, SAVDLO, or SAV commands daily or weekly, either. He’s adamant that he has enough libraries to perform a successful system recovery. And it gets worse. . . . The user only does a complete system save if he loads cumulative PTFs or does a hardware upgrade. He didn’t perform a complete system save before the last hardware upgrade, and he used an old tape to perform

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• FROG: PC-based SQL for DB2 for i

  September 16, 2009 Ted Holt

  It is my pleasure to feature a software tool that has proven very valuable to me. It’s called FROG. It runs on a PC and provides an SQL interface to DB2 for i. What’s more, it’s free. Let me show you one way I frequently use it. If you’ll visit the FROG home page, you’ll find that FROG is provided to you free of charge by Innovative Systems, LLC. You also find information about what you don’t need (e.g., an ODBC connection) and what you will have to have (e.g., Client Access). Figure 1. Figure 1 is the DB2

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• Do-It-Yourself Data Types

  September 16, 2009 Jon Paris

  I still fondly remember that “ah-ha!” moment many years ago when I was first introduced to the S/38 and discovered the joys of the consistency that resulted from centrally described data items and the ability to define a new field as looking like another. While other languages I had worked with, such as COBOL, had copy directives that allowed you to bring in standard definitions, the S/38 was the only machine I had come across where such ideas were built into the actual system itself and all of the compilers took advantage of them in one way or another. RPG/400

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• Admin Alert: The Road to Live CBU Fail Over, Part 2

  September 16, 2009 Joe Hertvik

  Last week, I began describing the strategy and methodology that a company I work with used in preparing for a i5/OS Capacity BackUp (CBU) system to switch over and impersonate their live production system for several days. This week, I’ll continue the example by describing how they prepped their applications, users, batch processes, and the system itself for a live switch over. The Framework for Making the Switch A CBU is an i, System i, or iSeries machine in waiting, receiving replicated data and other system objects from a production partition. In an emergency, the CBU can be activated to

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