• An Overview of User-Defined Types in DB2 for i

  September 2, 2009 Michael Sansoterra

  UDTs or User-Defined Types (also known as distinct types) allow SQL developers to implement their own data types. For example, if a database contains many tables that each have one or more columns representing a general ledger account number defined as VARCHAR(30), a suitable UDT can be defined as follows: Create Type My_Schema/GL_ACCOUNT_NUMBER As VarChar(30) CCSID 37 With Comparisons In DB2 for i, implementing UDTs is currently limited to deriving a new data type from an existing DB2 built-in data type. This tip will briefly explore UDTs, how they can be used in modern databases, potential pitfalls, and how UDTs

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• Admin Alert: The Road to Live CBU Fail Over, Part 1

  September 2, 2009 Joe Hertvik

  One of the companies I work with performed its first live Capacity BackUp (CBU) switch test last month, where they switched over and used their CBU system as their live production system for several days. In the next few issues, I’ll use their experience in prepping for a live switch as a possible guide for others trying to ensure that their CBU can substitute for a live system. CBU 101: Understanding the CBU A CBU is an i, System i, or iSeries machine that is an exact duplicate of a live production system. CBUs generally contain the same amount of

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• Managed File Transfer: A New Product Category That’s Here to Stay

  September 2, 2009 Alex Woodie

  One of the great things about the Internet is it makes it exceptionally easy to distribute computer files. Within minutes, users can be up and running with free FTP and e-mail utilities, and begin sending files around the globe. However, as is the case with many things about the Internet, decentralized file transfer opens the door to security problems and inefficiencies that businesses should not tolerate. The solution advocated by many is a relatively new class of software product called managed file transfer, or MFT. If you’re wondering what this new term managed file transfer, or MFT, refers to and

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• IBM to Formally Announce EGL Community Edition Today

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  IBM today is expected to formally announce EGL Community Edition, new free version of its Eclipse-based EGL development tools for creating Web 2.0 applications on the System i server. The product should be available starting next week, an IBM product manager confirmed. Barring an unexpected delay, the EGL Community Edition product will be formally announced today, said Will Smythe, IBM’s product line manager for the Rational Business Developer and EGL development tools. “Nothing is set in stone until the official announcement comes out, however,” Smythe wrote last week via e-mail. “But I do not expect any delays now.” Smythe and

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• Linoma Introduces MFT Software for External Exchanges

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Linoma Software last week unveiled GoAnywhere Services, a new addition to its flagship managed file transfer (MFT) software designed to make it easier for organizations to exchange data externally with their partners and customers. GoAnywhere Services, which runs under i OS, also introduces a new Web client that can create a defacto data storefront for external communications. Linoma is no newbie to the MFT business. While the Nebraska company has been marketing its GoAnywhere product line under the header of “MFT product” for a short time, that’s more a result of the relative newness of the MFT product category and

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• SEQUEL Updates i OS Time and Date Override Software

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Need to simulate dates or do time-zone shifting in i OS without using LPAR? Then you might want to check out a new release of the AnyDate utility. Developed by SEQUEL Software–the former Advanced Systems Concepts business that was recently spun out into its own entity by Help/Systems–provides a safe and easy way to change the system time and date values for the purposes of application testing, re-running reports, or shifting time zones at service bureaus. And with version 2.0, it no longer violates security level 40. As an enterprise server that’s used to run the primary businesses

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• Cosyn Augments BPCS Accounting with AP Minder

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  Cosyn recently rolled out a new collection of software and services called AP Minder that’s designed to streamline the accounts payable process at companies that use BPCS, and soon JD Edwards. AP Minder Lite provides secure off-site archiving for copies of scanned invoices a customer sends to Cosyn, while the full AP Minder product delivers a fully outsourced invoice entry and processing system, all for less than $65,000. Based in New Zealand, Cosyn has been working in the BPCS arena for more than two decades, and has provided BPCS consulting and development services for some of the regions largest BPCS

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• TMW Says Windows-Based Dispatching System Can Run with Big System i Boys

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  For many years, the biggest trucking outfits in the United States relied on IBM AS/400 technology to run their critical dispatching workloads. Like the casino business, the stability and ease of use of the AS/400 just seemed tailor made for managing trucking companies. But benchmark tests recently performed by TMW Systems at an IBM Innovation Center shows that its Windows-based dispatching software, TruckMate, is beginning to handle the heavy dispatching workloads usually attempted only on the System i. Tests at the IBM Innovation Center in San Mateo, California, centered around System x servers running the Windows Server operating system and

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• Vision’s Made-for-the-Blade HA Products Now Certified

  September 1, 2009 Dan Burger

  As you noodle the idea of how and why IBM‘s Blade Center S can work to your advantage, one topic you may be working through concerns virtualization and high availability. If not now, then soon. Ron Peterson, senior product strategist for Vision Solutions, points out that a virtualization strategy improves hardware resource utilization by reducing the overall system footprint and lowering energy consumption through multiplatform server consolidation. He mentions this because Vision specializes in the availability of virtualized environments. This kind of thinking used to only take place exclusively in the high-end AS/400 shops where the loss of

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• IBS Hooks Up with rfXcel for E-Pedigree Tracking

  September 1, 2009 Alex Woodie

  International Business Systems, the Swedish ERP software company that is transitioning from an RPG-based i OS strategy to develop on Java and Windows, announced a partnership with rfXcel this summer that will yield new electronic pedigree (e-pedigree) tracking capabilities for IBS Enterprise customers in the pharmaceutical industry. The partnership with rfXcel will give IBS customers the opportunity to replace paper-based tracking processes with a computerized approach that’s fully integrated with i OS-based IBS Enterprise ERP systems. rfXcel’s software, called Active ePedigree Management, allows manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to track the movement of prescription drugs everywhere they go in the

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