• Power8 And The Potential Oomph In Midrange And Big Boxes

  September 30, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In last week’s issue of The Four Hundred, I did a little thought experiment about how the Power8 processors from IBM would affect the entry part of the Power Systems market. I also talked about how a 12-core processor spinning in excess of 4 GHz was a lot of machine for an entry IBM i shop running a database and ERP applications. But, the good news is that IBM wants to sell Power-based systems more effectively against X86 machinery, and that means the performance is going up and the price per unit of performance is coming down. But what

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• Cleaning Up Excessive Job Logs On Your IBM i System

  September 25, 2013 Hey, Joe

  Thanks for the article on managing IBM i spooled files. We often find it useful to examine user job logs to see exactly where a problem is. But lately, we’ve been getting too many spooled files in QEZJOBLOG. We’re getting 17,000 QZSHSH and QP0ZSPWP job logs each day from website jobs. Any ideas on how to make these useless job logs go away? –Dale Preventing A Job Log From Being Generated My first thought is to see where these jobs are coming from. If you can find the CL program, job scheduler, or submit jobs statement that launches these

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• CPYFRMIMPF And Fixed Data

  September 25, 2013 Ted Holt

  It seems that every time I see Copy from Import File (CPYFRMIMPF) mentioned in a Web forum, the question concerns CSV files. CPYFRMIMPF also handles files of fixed-length fields. Such files have certain advantages over CSV files, and there’s more to using them than the IBM documentation tells you. Don’t get me wrong. CSV files are great. I use them often. But consider that fixed-length data has its advantages. Two that come to mind are: Fixed-length character fields may contain any character without the nuisance of special treatment. In CSV files, character fields require special handling of the characters used

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• Create A Generic Auditing Trigger With SQL

  September 25, 2013 Hey, Mike

  Note: The document accompanying this article is available for download here. I am writing a trigger receiver program using RPG with embedded SQL that will go through the before and after record images and create an audit record in an audit file for each field that was changed on an update operation. I am developing a “shell” trigger program that I’d like to be able to modify slightly, and use the shell as a basis to write these audit records for each file with a trigger on it. Instead of writing multiple (IF this field changed THEN DO…) for

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• Liaison Enables More Flexibility in Tokenization Solution

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Customers who adopt the latest format-preserving tokenization software from Liaison Technologies will have more flexibility to adapt tokens to different types of data they want to encrypt, the company announced this month. Liaison sells an all-inclusive data security product called Liaison Protect that includes encryption, tokenization, and encryption key management for a range of platforms, including IBM i, Windows, Linux, and Unix. Most organizations are probably familiar with the types of encryption solutions that are available on the market. What makes Liaison Protect unique is that it also includes tokenization, which refers to the process of replacing sensitive data in

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• Attunity Looks to Bolster Replication Speed Over Slow Lines

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Attunity says the “TurboStream DX” data transfer engine in its newly released Replicate 3.0 software can deliver high replication speed from databases located in remote geographies or connected via low-bandwidth network lines. TurboStream DX is designed specifically for use in wide area network (WAN) data transfers, especially those involving big databases and data warehouses located in the cloud or remote areas, where high-speed networks are not available. It’s particularly well suited to satellite-based network connections, the company says. All data sent via the TurboStreamDX engine (the product also includes the TurboStream CDC engine) is encrypted. The new feature in Replicate

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• L.K. Bennett Ditches Tape for Asigra’s Online Backup

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  UK-based luxury brand L.K. Bennett has replaced its tape-based backup system with Asigra online backup service and an onsite backup appliance from Cisco. L.K. Bennett has developed a reputation for selling high-end luxury shoes, clothing, handbags, and other accessories. Since being founded in 1990, the privately held company has found success, and now counts more than 174 retail outlets around the globe. Supporting this company is a complex IT environment consisting of physical and virtual servers from IBM, HP, and Dell connected over a multi-protocol label-switching (MPLS) network. Up until recently, the privately held company relied on tape drives

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• TMW Systems Taps Profound Logic for Web Expertise

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  TMW Systems is gearing up to launch new “Web editions” of its various IBM i-based trucking applications, and Profound Logic is right there alongside it. Profound last week announced that the new Web Editions of the Innovative, TL2000, and TMT Fleet Maintenance products that TMW will launch at the TransForum 2013 conference were developed using its Web development and modernization tools. As part of the development process for the new applications, TMW Systems (now owned by Trimble) engaged Profound in creating a custom conversion theme using the Profound UI. To that end, developers were able to transform traditional 5250

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• UCG Signs California Water District to Vault400

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Santa Margarita Water District will have better protection of its critical IBM i resources now that it’s being protected by United Computer Group‘s VAULT400 cloud backup and disaster recovery program. SMWD provides drinking water and waste water services to 155,000 residents and businesses across several cities in southern Orange County. Like many special districts across the country, SMWD relies on the IBM midrange server to automate key aspects of its business. Recently, the district began looking for a replacement for its tape-based backup and DR strategy. The district settled upon VAULT400, the online backup and DR service offered by

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• Robot Gives Worm-Drive Manufacturer a Leg Up on Lights Out

  September 24, 2013 Alex Woodie

  Cone Drive, a manufacturer of precision worm drives, had automated about 60 to 80 percent of its IBM i operations following the first implementation of Robot products from Help/Systems. After the second go around and some training, the company made it to the holy grail of lights-out computing, or 100 percent automation. Cone Drive is a Michigan-based manufacturer of high-precision, double-enveloping worm gear sets, which deliver higher torque and last longer than other types of gearing. The company’s products are used all over the world in a variety of industrial applications, including solar tracking, satellite tracking, machine tools, plastic

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