• Guru: Growing A More Productive Team With Procedure Driven RPG

  June 24, 2024 Gregory Simmons

  There are many great benefits to procedure driven RPG, and I have covered many of them in my previous articles. In this article, I want to share with you what I believe is the biggest benefit to implementing procedure driven RPG in your shop; procedures, when written and implemented properly, are reusable.

  When you’ve written a new procedure that expertly tackles one task, you should be proud of the accomplishment. But don’t keep that in your program. Export it in a service program for your whole team to use! Now, undoubtedly, you will find yourself at one point thinking: “Yeah, …

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• The 13,152 Days Of The AS/400 Platform, And Counting

  June 24, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In the computer market, whether it is for laptops or datacenter iron, it is hard to say if longevity is gauged in human years or dog and cat years or something else like maybe historical or geological time.

  In some ways, 36 years old, which is what has just happened to the AS/400 platform a few days ago, is a long time to do anything, and in others, 36 years is just the beginning of a process. As we have pointed out when celebrating the AS/400’s birthday in prior years, the origins of the platform reach back to 1978 when …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 23

  June 24, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  This week, there is only one security vulnerability in the IBM i stack, but there are a slew of PTF updates for the currently supported releases of the IBM i operating system.

  So to start with, there is Security Bulletin: IBM Rational Developer for i is vulnerable to leaked credentials due to a flaw in follow-redirects (CVE-2024-28849), which you can find out more about at this link. The issue affects IBM Rational Developer for i 9.8.0.0 through 9.8.0.1, and the issue can be fixed by installing fixpack 9.8.0.2.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release …

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• IBM Banking on Merlin 2.0 to Goose Modern Development on IBM i

  June 19, 2024 Alex Woodie

  IBM last week shipped most of the new stuff unveiled in the Spring Technology Refreshes, which includes Merlin 2.0, the Web-based application development and modernization environment for IBM i. Big Blue is betting that the new and improved offering will encourage IBM i shops to (finally) begin their journey toward truly modern coding techniques.

  Friday, June 14 marked the start of general availability for the majority of the features IBM is including in IBM i 7.5 TR4 and IBM i 7.4 TR10, which it announced on May 8. The version 2.0 release of Merlin – whose official IBM name …

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• MDNA Launches Unit Testing Tool for IBM i

  June 19, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Midrange Dynamics North America (MDNA) recently launched a new unit testing tool that’s designed to make it easier for IBM i developers to test their code. The software, called MDTest, is works with RDi and VS Code and integrates with MDNA’s change management software for IBM i.

  MDNA created MDTest to provide for a simple way for developers to unit test their ILE code. The software automates the process of executing test scripts, recording results, and determining whether the software can be pushed into the next stage of the DevOps processes.

  The product includes about 30 pre-built software quality tests …

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• Shield Delivers Monitoring Solution for FTP on IBM i

  June 19, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Shield Advanced Solutions last month delivered FT4i, a new utility that helps to secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) activity on IBM i. The new tool not only controls who is allowed to use FTP, but also logs all FTP activity to uncover possibly criminal activity after the fact.

  FTP is one of the most heavily used Internet protocols in the world. Across every industry, organizations use FTP to send and receive what is likely petabytes worth of data every single day. If the Internet is a “super highway,” then FTP is the 20-lane workhorse of an Interstate freeway, facilitating information …

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• Four Hundred Monitor, June 19

  June 19, 2024 Jenny Thomas

  Summer is upon us! I know this because I am writing from the road while on an RV adventure with my family. But just because I am on vacation doesn’t mean the news is also taking a break. In fact, there is a lot of activity in the IBM i ecosystem in the wake of COMMON’s POWERUp last month in Texas. In addition to the wall-to-wall coverage from ITJ’s very own Alex Woodie, we are seeing an uptick in announcements around the industry, as well as some more great learning opportunities that you can find on our Calendar below.

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 22

  June 19, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Right off the bat we have recommended fixed for the IBM Cryptographic Services/DCM/Cryptographic Co-processor for both IBM i 7.4 and IBM i 7.5. You can check out this link for more information.

  We also have two security vulnerabilities that you need to be aware of.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty for IBM i is vulnerable to weak TLS security, cross-site scripting, denial of service, and a server-side request forgery due to multiple vulnerabilities. You can find out more about this at this particular link. The affected releases and their PTFs are as follows:

  IBM 

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• Rocket Finally Gets Its RUMBA, And A Whole Lot More

  June 10, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Sixteen years is a long time to wait, but that’s how long it took Rocket Software to acquire the assets of what used to be NetManage, which includes the popular 5250 emulator RUMBA. Rocket failed to buy NetManage back in February 2008, but it finally completed the deal for the NetManage assets in May 2024. And it got a whole lot more in a $2.275 billion deal that netted it about half of OpenText’s Micro Focus assets and puts its revenue over the mark of $1 billion per year.

  Micro Focus, you will recall, was the company that swooped in …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Still Making These Six IBM i Security Faux Pas? STOP!

  June 10, 2024 Alan Hamm

  As the backbone of many enterprise IT environments, IBM i platforms are known for their robustness, reliability, and security. However, even the most resilient systems are not immune to vulnerabilities if not properly managed.

  Despite their powerful capabilities, IBM i environments often suffer from outdated security practices that can expose your organization to significant risks. This article highlights the most common IBM i security faux pas and provides actionable mitigation strategies.

  The Most Common IBM i Security Challenges

  1. Outdated Operating System

  One of the simplest yet most overlooked steps to secure an IBM i environment is to keep the …

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