• One IBM i Shop’s Close Call With Ransomware

  July 28, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Think the ransomware epidemic won’t affect you, that it’s somebody else’s problem? After reading this story about one IBM i shop’s recent experience with cybercriminals, it may have you thinking twice about your approach to security.

  Greg is the IT manager at a midsize distribution company located in the South. IT Jungle is abiding by his request to keep his last name and the name of his company out of this article. But Greg was determined to share his story with the wider IBM i community, in the hopes that it will spur them to take the ransomware threat seriously, …

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• Guru: One-Shot Requests and Quoted Column Names

  July 19, 2021 Ted Holt

  If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me to query data for them over the years, I could have retired already. (I did not say I would have, but that I could have.) It’s nice when the users can retrieve the information they need to do their jobs without help from IT, but when a request is too complex for them, I’m always glad to help.

  I’ve used many tools over the years for one-shot requests for raw data. These days my tool of choice is the Run SQL Scripts tool, which is part of IBM …

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• Guru: Understanding Database Performance Using The Performance Data Investigator, Part 2

  June 28, 2021 Dawn May

  This is the second in a two-part series on how you can use the Performance Data Investigator (PDI) to investigate performance of Db2 for i. While the SQL Performance Center in Access Client Solutions is more commonly known than PDI, using both tools is a good way to analyze database performance.

  In Part 1, I reviewed the Database content package, focusing on the charts for I/O reads and writes, SQL CPU utilization, and database locks. In this tech tip, I continue by reviewing the charts related to SQL Cursor and Native DB Opens as well as the SQL Performance …

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• Guru: Understanding Database Performance Using The Performance Data Investigator, Part 1

  June 21, 2021 Dawn May

  This is a two-part series on how to use the Performance Data Investigator (PDI) for investigating performance of Db2 for i. While the SQL Performance Center in Access Client Solutions is the tool of choice for Db2 performance analysis, there is valuable information that you can get from using PDI. PDI is often a useful starting point to help guide you in the correct direction when trying to identify performance issues. In my experience, PDI is under-utilized for Db2 investigation. For those not familiar with PDI, you may want to read the article, Getting Started with the Performance Data Investigator …

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• Guru: Use SQL To Replace Reports

  June 14, 2021 Ted Holt

  Does anybody write report programs anymore? If so, why? Reports are so twentieth-century. The people we serve want spreadsheets, Web pages, cell-phone apps and other modern conveniences. What we need is an easy way to make our report programs write the same information to modern interfaces without having to perform major surgery on them.

  Some 10 years or so ago, I built a scripting language to enable me to reformat spooled files into stream files in CSV format. I called my utility BASS. It was, and continues to be, a successful project.

  But BASS is not the only way …

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• Major Bug In IBM i Access Client Solutions

  May 3, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  Stop. Don’t click that mouse or hit Enter just yet. There is a major bug in Access Client Solutions 1.1.8.7. Here is the story that we got from one of the many Dougs we know in the IBM i Rebel Alliance, in this case J Douglas Robertson, who is a certified maintainer of IBM Power Systems and who ran into the issue when doing the upgrade.

  JD shares the workaround he figured out after the ACS console flew up its own port hole after the upgrade. These words are straight from his own mouth, in italics so you know JD …

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• IBM Unveils New and Improved IBM i Services

  April 14, 2021 Alex Woodie

  If you like IBM i Services — those SQL-based methods for executing a range of tasks in the operating system — then you’re in luck, because IBM has included a handful of new and improved IBM i Services in the Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.4 and 7.3, which were unveiled yesterday and ship this Friday.

  IBM has developed an affinity for IBM i Services in the last few releases of the operating system. And why not? Users seem to like having a SQL-based alternative to CL commands and APIs. And since the IBM i Services are so easily …

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• Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 Predicted for IBM i Shops

  March 17, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic lockdown will have a long-term impact on how IBM i shops operate, a panel of experts said during the IBM i Futures Conference yesterday. From being innovative and agile to the importance of security and disaster recovery, there are lessons to learn across the board.

  It’s been exactly a year since governments around the world instituted severe lockdowns to, ostensibly, stop the spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The lockdowns have come, gone, and come again in many parts of the world, injecting a level of uncertainty into our work lives …

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• What’s In the Top 5 Hottest IBM i RFEs

  March 17, 2021 Alex Woodie

  The IBM i platform’s greatest strength is its committed user base, whose long-lasting loyalty is unique in the annals of the business computer industry. IBM encourages its committed customers to get involved with shaping the future of the platform through the Request for Enhancement (RFE) process, which plays out in the public for all to see.

  IBM’s RFE process also supports the ability for users to submit requests privately, and there are undoubtedly plenty of these requests made. Obviously, we have no insight into these private RFEs (although they would be fun to read). Among the public RFEs, there …

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• Guru: Getting Yum And Bash Up And Running

  March 15, 2021 Rob McNelly

  In the March 1 edition of The Four Hundred, I noted that an emphasis on things like system/application modernization and open source solutions gives IBM i newcomers a degree of comfort with the platform. I also made the point that no matter how long you or I have been at this, there are always people, young or not so young, who are new to the platform and come to this site seeking introductory information about various tasks and capabilities.

  With this in mind, I want to delve further into open source for those who are new to it. As …

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