• Bang For The Buck on Power7 Gen 2 Servers

  October 31, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  When the second generation Power7 servers were launched back on October 12, IBM said that it wanted to bring faster peripherals and doubled-up main memory to the Gen 2 machines, but it also wanted to keep the prices for the machines on the entry Power 710, 720, 730, and 740 machines the same as it was for the Gen 1 machines in terms of processor cards, processor core activations, and software. The new Power 770 and Power 780 Gen 2 machines also were supposed to be in the same pricing brackets. As readers of The Four Hundred know, I like

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• Limiting How Much Memory a Storage Pool Can Allocate

  October 26, 2011 Hey, Joe

  I want to run the i OS Performance Adjuster to automatically allocate system memory to my subsystems. But when I turn it on, most of the memory goes to the *INTERACT storage pool used by the QINTER subsystem. I want to take care of interactive users, but I also want some memory left over for other subsystems. How do I limit *INTERACT from using too much memory? –Jens This sometimes happens with using the i operating system automatic performance adjustment feature. By default in the i 6.1 operating system, the Performance Adjustment (QPFRADJ) system value is set to “2”. This

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• VALUES: A Truly Useless DDS Keyword

  October 26, 2011 Hey, Ted

  We had a recent crisis in our shop. When we dug to the root of the problem, we found that one of our files had an invalid value in one of the fields. I don’t understand why this was the case, because the programmer who wrote the DDS used the VALUES keyword on the field in question. Does the VALUES keyword not prevent invalid data from entering the database? –Paul No, Paul. One would think it does, but use of the VALUES keyword only applies to the workstation controller. That is, only the green-screen interface is restricted by the VALUES

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• 10 Facts You Should Know about Special Values

  October 26, 2011 Ted Holt

  Imagine not being allowed to code *FIRST in the MBR parameter of the Override with Database File (OVRDBF) command. Horrible thought, isn’t it? Special values make commands more sensible and easy to use. Here are 10 facts every IBM i developer should know in order to effectively use special values in his own commands. 1. Special values are character strings that are incompatible with validity checking rules. In this example, BATCH requires a three-digit number, and *ALL does not fit that description. PARM KWD(BATCH) + TYPE(*DEC) LEN(3 0) + DFT(*ALL) + REL(*GT 0) + SPCVAL((*ALL -1)) + PROMPT('Batch number')</all> 2.

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• On ‘GTFM’ and a Place for Experts

  October 25, 2011 Richard Shearwood

  IT Jungle‘s executive managing editor Dan Burger last week wrote: “But if all the manuals are Web-based, what will I do with all that space on my book shelves?” More importantly, what will you do when you are trying to work out why your Internet is down? Or, as often happens to me, working on a server in a DC screened for mobile signals and with no Internet access at the machine? Even more importantly: have you USED the IBM support portal? Unusable results and a clunky interface mean that even IBMers use Google to find stuff. It has

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• ALK Technologies Updates Routing Software for Trains

  October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Railroad companies that use ALK Technologies software to route their trains will appreciate the new AutoRouter function available in PC*MILER|Rail 18, which enables companies to avoid or favor certain railroad interchanges. PC*MILER|Rail is a Windows-based routing, mileage, and mapping application that’s used by many of the largest railroad companies in North America. The software automates many aspects of routing and scheduling railcar deliveries–such as fuel calculations, managing equipment, rail car mileage auditing, carrier selection, rate determination and negotiation, and ad valorem tax reporting. PC*MILER|Rail has six routing methods, including shortest, practical, fuel surcharge, auto racks, intermodal, and coal/bulk. With Release

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• ExaGrid Adds Support for IBM TSM with D2D Appliance

  October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

  ExaGrid Systems last week announced that its disk-to-disk (D2D) backup and data deduplication appliance now works in IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) environments. ExaGrid sells a line of Linux-based backup appliances that feature RAID-protected SATA drives connected to servers via NAS. The appliances feature byte-level data dedupe routines can shrink the size of daily backups by 20 to 50 times, according to the vendor. Customers can replicate data among multiple ExaGrid appliances connected through its “grid,” providing disaster recovery capabilities. When IT Jungle talked to ExaGrid just over a year ago to discuss its new support for backing up IBM

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• LANSA Takes the Pulse of the Midrange, Gives Away iPads

  October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

  LANSA is trying to gauge the health of the global IBM i community in its iPulse survey, which is currently in its second year. If you’re interesting in participating–and who wouldn’t be, considering LANSA is giving away three iPad 2s–you have until October 31 to fill out the questionnaire. LANSA is trying to top last year’s inaugural iPulse survey, which attracted 1,700 individual participants from IBM i shops in 50 countries and set a baseline for comparison for this year’s questions. The questions LANSA is asking include: What is the “threat level” is to the IBM i platform in your

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• Rocket Seagull ‘100 Percent Committed’ to RPG Open Access

  October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Rocket Software and its Seagull subsidiary are “100 percent committed” to using Rational Open Access: RPG Edition software to help customers modernize and extend their 5250 applications, a senior Rocket product manager told IT Jungle last week, putting to rest any question regarding the company’s support and future plans for using the IBM technology. “Rocket Software is 100 percent committed to OA:RPG,” Sam Elias, Rocket vice president and general manager of application development, integration, and modernization, said via email last week. “As is our standard practice, we have not yet publicly announced the features for our next release of LegaSuite

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• IBS Launches New Cloud and Mobile Apps for ERP Customers

  October 25, 2011 Alex Woodie

  ERP vendor International Business Systems (IBS), which was recently acquired by Symphony Technology Group, made a slew of aggressive product launches at its annual global user group conference this month. In one fell swoop, the embattled software vendor launched a hosted cloud environment for IBS Enterprise, unveiled new mobile interfaces for its ERP software, announced new sales and operations planning and performance management products, and debuted a new application exchange for customers. It’s been a tough few years for IBS, the Swedish ERP application developer that was bought this June by the Silicon Valley-based private equity group STG for

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