• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 13

  April 8, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Three is the magic number, as we all know. This week, there is another trio of vulnerabilities in parts of the IBM i software stack. And all three currently supported IBM i releases all have a slew of group patches as well. Let’s start with the vulnerabilities because these are always important to know about and deal with.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty is vulnerable to cross-site scripting (CVE-2024-27270), which you can find out more about at this link. The affected products include IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty, versions 23.0.0.3 through 24.0.0.3 – who …

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• What’s Up with Open Source on IBM i?

  March 27, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Open source software has become a steadfast component of the IBM i stack. But what open source software are IBM i shops using today? Results from Fortra’s recent IBM i Marketplace Survey provide answers.

  It may seem odd now, but open source hasn’t always been a staple of the IBM i server’s software diet. Until PHP arrived on the platform two decades ago, proprietary software was the only option for IBM i shops.

  But today, IBM i shops have hundreds of open source products to choose from. Thanks to the IBM i server’s openness, just about any product that can …

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• Shield Adds HMC, Security PTFs to Nagios Monitoring Solution

  March 27, 2024 Alex Woodie

  If you’d like to know what’s going on with your Hardware Management Console (HMC), you can do so through the updated Nagios offering from Shield Advanced Solutions. Version 2.1 of the company’s bundled AAG and NG4i offering also will automatically notify you when IBM has submitted security PTFs for the operating system or licensed products, and even download them for you.

  After initially trying to use IBM’s open source Nagios software to monitor their customers’ high availability software environments, the folks at Shield Advanced Solutions took it upon themselves to develop their own Nagios distribution for the IBM i server, …

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• Cybercriminals Targeting American Water Infrastructure, Feds Say

  March 27, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Overseas cybercriminal groups are ramping up their attacks on American infrastructure, including drinking water and wastewater systems, the White House Government warned last week. Considering that many local water districts rely on the IBM i server, this should serve as a wakeup call for them to bolster security before it’s too late.

  In a letter addressed to the governors of all 50 states, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Jake Sullivan, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, warned that government security professionals have detected attacks on water systems coming from China and Iran.

  One of the attack vectors was …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, March 27

  March 27, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  Every day has some sort of national designation. For instance, today, March 27 is National Scribble Day, National Little Red Wagon Day, National Spanish Paella Day, and National Joe Day (to celebrate people named “Joe”). One day you may not have heard of, however, is Q-Day, and maybe you don’t want to know. Q-Day is the time when quantum computers are powerful and stable enough to crack current encryption schemes, and depending on who you ask, it could be an immediate concern. Or not. The first article in our Top Stories looks at the team of IBM researchers who report …

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• LTO Cartridge – Drive Compatibility Matrix Not As Deep As You Think

  March 27, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  A bunch of IBM i shops that must be in the process of upgrading their tape backup systems reached out to the techies that are part of the IT Jungle collective recently and expressed surprise or dismay when they thought that the LTO 9 tape drives they were looking at would be able to read tape cartridges written by LTO 7 drives or that LTO 8 drives would be able to read LTO 6 cartridges.

  This, after all, has been the pattern that we have seen in the market for a long, long time. LTO 5 drives can read and …

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• Ibi Reaches Out to D2b Web Query Customers, Discusses Cause of Breakup

  March 25, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Nearly six months after ibi and IBM abruptly ended their OEM relationship, ibi is now reaching out to Db2 Web Query customers and encouraging them to license the business intelligence product it was based on, its own WebFOCUS suite. An executive with ibi also provided IT Jungle with some insight into the source of the breakup and what its IBM i customers can expect going forward.

  On the same day that IBM was unveiling the Fall 2023 Technology Refresh last October, it made an unexpected announcement that shocked the IBM i community: It would no longer sell Db2 Web …

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• Introducing PowerVS: Your Gateway To A Hybrid Cloud Future With IBM i

  March 25, 2024 Tom Horan

  In the fast-paced world of IT, businesses are always on the lookout for cutting-edge solutions that fuel their growth. For IBM i users, the shift to the cloud has been tricky, often complicated by compatibility, security, and performance issues. But in 2024, all eyes are on the cloud thanks to IBM’s revolutionary PowerVS. The challenges that were once difficult hurdles to overcome are turning into stepping stones for progress.

  PowerVS, an advanced technology from IBM, empowers businesses to extend their IBM i platform to the cloud. This game-changing solution allows organizations to tap into the agility and scalability of cloud …

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• What Do Secondhand Power9 Machines Cost These Days?

  March 25, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Before IBM consolidated its Global Asset Recovery Services arm in the Systems group in the wake of the spinout of the Kyndryl outsourcing and services business, we could go out to the IBM web site every now and then and get a sense of what secondhand Power Systems machinery cost. But alas, that is no longer the case.

  And so, we went poking around the Internet late on a Friday night and stumbled across our old friends at Data Tech Computer Services in Alpharetta, Georgia, which have been in business nearly three decades peddling AS/400, iSeries, System i, and IBM …

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• The Low Down On Service Extension For IBM i 7.X Releases

  March 25, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the wake of our discussion two weeks ago of the long-lived releases of IBM i and OS/400 and how they compare in terms of technical support and bug fix coverage to Linux and Windows Server, we got a bunch of questions about just when the service extension – what we call extended support like other operating system vendors – would end.

  We understood the very high price that customers pay for service extension – as brilliantly outlined in a piece by Steve Pitcher back in October 2023, which showed the high price that the cumulative cost stacks up …

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