• Checking Cache Battery Status Without STRSST

  September 28, 2011 Hey, Joe

  Concerning your article about debunking cache battery rumors, did you know that there’s another way to see cache battery information without going into System Service Tools (STRSST)? IBM is offering a new program called QSMBTTCC that allows you to display cache battery status from the command line. It’s enabled by PTFs. –Steve As a refresher, IBM uses batteries in its disk controllers to provide caching for its disk drives. The batteries have a useful life of about 2.75 to 3 years and the system will start sending warning messages to change your batteries when your controller cache batteries are

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• A Better Way To Read a Job Log

  September 28, 2011 Ted Holt

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. A job log is a wonderful thing to have when you’re trying to figure out why a good program went bad. The problem with job logs is that the few messages that point out what went wrong are entombed within myriad irrelevant messages. And job logs can be long. Just recently I dealt with one that was over 400 pages. I wrote a utility to help me make sense of job logs. Maybe it will help you, too. My utility, which I call Convert Job Log (CVTJOBLOG), reads

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• Data Needed to Debug Authority Failures, Part 2

  September 28, 2011 Patrick Botz

  In the first article in this series, I introduced the concept of debugging authority failures and described how the operating system determines whether an executing job should be allowed to access an object. Armed with this information, the topic of this second article, data needed to debug authority failures, will make much more sense. In my third article, I will describe how and where to find this information. Data needed for debugging authority failures can be classified into the following categories: Who, What, When, Which, and Why. Some of this information helps you find other pieces of data. All of

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• Stone Bond Hooks Up with K2 for Enterprise Integration

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  JD Edwards and Infor ERP shops are among the customers that are being served by a new partnership between data integration and business process providers Stone Bond Technologies and K2. K2 develops the BlackPearl suite of Microsoft-centric suite of business process management (BPM) and workflow tools. K2 has extended BlackPearl to several popular ERP environments by way of Stone Bond, which develops the Enterprise Enabler suite of tools for managing, federating, virtualization, and integration enterprise data. By virtue of the integration with Enterprise Enabler, K2’s customers can now use BlackPearl to build process-driven applications and workflows that hook

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• Hubspan Unveils Cloud-Based Invoicing

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Hubspan is augmenting its cloud-based B2B data exchange platform with an invoicing solution called SnapShot for Invoice. The solution, which is sold as an add-on to its core trading system, automatically renders PDF images of electronic invoices during the B2B integration process. Hubspan’s flagship trading platform, called the WebSpan SaaS Integration Platform, is a next-generation hosted EDI solution that helps simplify the tedious task of connecting buyers, sellers, and other participants in various industrial and commercial supply chains. The service automates various EDI-type tasks, including message translation, data validation, choreography, activity monitoring, and multi-party routing. It supports all types of

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• Symtrax Goes In-Memory with StarQuery BI Solution

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Symtrax yesterday unveiled a new version of StarQuery, its business intelligence software that’s often used in IBM i environments. StarQuery version 4 introduces two big features, including in-memory processing for faster report retrieval, and the capability to retrieve data from multiple databases at the same time. StarQuery is a Microsoft Windows-based BI tool unveiled by Symtrax in late 2003 as a replacement for its XL400 product. The core components of the StarQuery suite include a data mapping engine called MapDesigner that’s used to create user-specific views of a database (DB2/400 quite often); a runtime component and multi-dimensional database; an Excel

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• Cyber-Ark Launches Cloud MFT Service

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Cyber-Ark Software has extended its managed file transfer (MFT) solution to the cloud. Its new Inter-Business Vault as a Service, unveiled two weeks ago, starts at $1,900 per month. Cyber-Ark serves a variety of data security needs with its Digital Vault, a proprietary Windows-based application that’s designed to be an impenetrable silo. All communication with the Digital Vault is handled through its proprietary “vault protocol,” and is encrypted and extensively logged. The Digital Vault provides the foundation for several Inter-Business Vault (IBV) solutions, ranging from password and user session management to MFT. The company’s MFT solution supports the company’s proprietary

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• Apps Get Faster with Saved Search Function, mrc Says

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Developers and end-users alike will benefit from a new saved search function announced by mrc last week. The new feature in its m-Power development tool will allow users to quickly pull up complicated searches, specific views of reports, and other previously defined views in their Web applications. It will also save time for developers. Programmers are always looking for a faster way to write applications, and users of mrc’s m-Power rapid application development tool are no different. The tool already gives developers a leg up on the application creation front, by virtue of how it works, which is by generating

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• Shield Now Distributing Easycom PHP Connector in North America

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  Organizations eager to connect their new PHP applications with their existing IBM i data and programs may be interested to know that Shield Advanced Solutions is the new North American distributor for the Easycom software from the French developer AURA Equipments. Easycom was previously the IBM i-to-PHP integration glue that shipped with Zend Technologies‘s PHP stack, until it was replaced with the open source XML Toolkit, creating a minor controversy. The new XML Toolkit takes over integration tasks like making RPG program calls accessing DB2/400 data. It’s been available as a beta since Zend Server 5.1 for IBM

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• RJS Updates Signature Capture Software

  September 27, 2011 Alex Woodie

  RJS Software Systems last week unveiled a new release of SignHere, a software product that allows users to apply a digitally captured signature to an electronic document, including those originating from IBM i systems. The new release of SignHere brings better integration with RJS’ own content management system, support for new signature capture hardware, and improved customization options for the end user. RJS introduced SignHere last year to help bridge the divide between paper documents and digital documents. When a document, such as an invoice or a bill of lading, requires a signature, the RJS software automatically applies a digitally

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