• Blockchain, Fine Wine, And The IBM i

  November 4, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Of all the overhyped technologies in the world today – and there are many of them – blockchain may be the most overhyped of all. Despite that dismal honor, the distributed ledger technology has already found its way onto an IBM i server. What’s more, the blockchain application implemented by a wine retailer actually makes sense.

  As a technology, you know you’ve ventured into dangerous territory when the comic strip Dilbert hops on the bandwagon. Such is the case with blockchain, which has been the subject of many of Scott Adams’ strips in recent years. The pointy-haired boss doesn’t understand …

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• More Vintage Power Systems Stuff Gets The Plug Pulled

  November 4, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  We are well into the Power9 era and looking ahead to the Power10 and Power11 era, so it is no surprise at all that IBM is looking to streamline its product catalog and empty out its barns of old equipment. In announcement letter 919-139, which somehow slipped our attention two weeks ago on October 22, a whole bunch of Power Systems stuff got the axe, with withdrawal dates ranging from right now until February 2020.

  On October 22, IBM i 6.1.1, with its machine code, will no longer be available for ordering on a slew of machines. This is …

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• IBM to Kill DeveloperWorks Connections Site

  October 30, 2019 Alex Woodie

  IBM announced last week that it’s planning to sunset the developerWorks Connections website and developerWorks Connections applications on December 31, 2019. The company is planning to launch new websites and apps to host community discussions around its platform. The IBM i community reacted poorly to the announcement.

  IBM started warning developerWorks users about the pending change on October 14. On a FAQ page, IBM stated:

  “As part of the overall IBM effort to reduce the number of duplicate client interaction portals and simplify the user experience with the digital side of IBM, we are sunsetting the developerWorks Connections platform …

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• IBM i TRs Bring Database Enhancements, Too

  October 30, 2019 Alex Woodie

  The heart of the IBM i server is its database, so it’s natural that we would see some enhancements to Db2 for i with delivery of IBM i 7.4 Technology Refresh 1 and 7.3 TR 7 next month. The new features may not be earth-shaking, but they deliver some useful functionality nonetheless.

  Let’s start with some foundational changes to the database itself, including the way that database engineers architect the tables that store information in the database. With 7.4 TR1, IBM i shops can now add a new child table to the database without having an exclusive lock on the …

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• Revenge Of The Zombie Green Screen

  October 30, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Don’t look now, but command line interfaces – which were supposed to have been killed off years ago at the hands of superior graphical user interfaces (GUIs) – are making a comeback in the general IT scene. And the command line love appears to be spilling over into the IBM i.

  Command line interfaces, or CLIs, never completely disappeared from the scene. Even Windows 10 users can summon the dark magic of the DOS prompt with a few tactical clicks of the keyboard, mouse, or (God forbid) touchscreen. But like crazy uncles and credit card debt, the CLI has largely …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, October 30

  October 30, 2019 Jenny Thomas

  In my house, the news of the day is the Houston Astros making a second run at the World Series. If baseball isn’t your thing, you have come to the right place. We have the news you are looking for from in and around the IBM i and our IT community. One article we point out this week actually comes from IT Jungle, but it is so relevant to what we do here in Monitor that it could not be overlooked. Our resident technical guru, Ted Holt, offered up a tip this week that also served as a wonderful reminder …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 43

  October 30, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to this week’s issue of the IBM i PTF Guide where we have a bunch of stuff to review, including a new Backup and Recovery Group for IBM i 7.4. Among other news are HIPERs for IBM i 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, and 7.1, and there is a new HTTP server group for IBM i 7.4, 7.3, and 7.2.

  In addition, we also have a set of Security Bulletins that cover multiple vulnerabilities in the IBM i HTTP Server affect IBM i, as follows:

  IBM i 7.4	IBM i 7.3	IBM i 7.2
  CVE-2019-9517	SI70961		SI70970		Not affected
  CVE-2019-10081	SI70961		

  …

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• How The Latest TRs Bolster HA/DR And Security

  October 28, 2019 Alex Woodie

  High availability, disaster recovery, and security are more important than ever, as enterprises look for ways to eliminate risks to their operations, applications, and data. To that end, it’s not surprising that IBM bolstered the HA/DR and security capabilities in IBM i with the latest Technology Refreshes that are slated to begin shipping November 15.

  Let’s start with the new HA features in Db2 Mirror for IBM i, the new business continuity offering that implements an active-active database cluster atop two unique IBM i logical partitions. Db2 Mirror, you’ll remember, was delivered with IBM i version 7.4, so it’s …

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• Wanted: A Real ROI Study For Midrange Platforms

  October 28, 2019 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There is no shortage of IBM i shops that are sitting on back releases of the operating system and related systems software, or older Power Systems iron, or both. Sometimes, it takes a little convincing to get upper management to listen about how IT operations could be improved and extended if the company would only make some investments in upgrading the hardware and systems software. Sometimes it takes a lot of convincing, particularly when many small and medium businesses are run by their owners and in a certain sense any money that would be allocated for an upgrade is their …

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• Guru: Remove Extra Blanks, Or Why I Attend Conferences

  October 28, 2019 Ted Holt

  Have you been to a conference lately? If not, you may be shortchanging yourself. I attend several conferences every year and I get immense benefit from them. I learn a lot, I get a break from the day-to-day, and best of all, I build relationships with other people.

  I recently attended the RPG & DB2 Summit in Minneapolis, where I met a bright young developer named Kevan Robinson. He was kind enough to share his version of a tip that I shared with him and other attendees. It’s a technique that I learned ages ago from Craig Mullins, a mainframe …

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