• What’s New in IBM i Services and Networking

  May 18, 2022 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM delivered a slew of new IBM i services with the delivery of IBM i 7.5 last week, giving IBM i professionals handle new methods for working with various components of the platform. The new releases of the operating system also brings a number of enhancements in the networking stack, which are notable for several reasons.

  The past several new releases and Technology Refreshes (TRs) have brought new IBM i services, which are SQL-based alternatives to traditional ways of accessing things on the platform like IBM i objects, system information, and other components. At this point, IBM has …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 17

  April 27, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  It was a pretty quiet week in PTF Land, which stands to reason given the various holidays and the Spring Break that a lot of people had last week. It probably won’t last long, so take the downtime while you have it. There is stuff you need to deal with, of course.

  One reminder: A new build for Access Client Services (ACS) 1.1.9.0 is available for download (2170).

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs
  • Security
  • Backup Recovery Solutions
  • TCP/IP
  • QMGTOOLS

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • HIPERs
  • Security
  • Backup

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 16

  April 20, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  It is a new week, and there are two new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i platform. First, there is Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty for IBM i is vulnerable to spoofing and clickjacking attacks due to swagger-ui (CVE-2018-25031, CVE-2021-46708), which you can read more about here. The IBM i PTF numbers containing the fix for the CVEs:

  IBM i Release      5770-SS1 PTF Number      PTF Download Link

  7.4                          SI78971                                https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ptf/SI78971

  7.3                          SI78972                                https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ptf/SI78972

  7.2                          SI78973                                https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ptf/SI78973

  Then there is Security Bulletin: OpenSSL for IBM i is vulnerable to a denial of service due to a flaw in …

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• IBM Ships ACS Version 1.1.9.0

  April 13, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM this week delivered an update to Access Client Solutions (ACS), the popular Java-based utility that many IBM i professionals use to interact with the platform. IBM is delivering several enhancements with ACS version 1.1.9.0, some of which came through the request for enhancement (RFE) process. It also defaults to opening IBM’s new Navigator for i, rather than the old one, which is susceptible to the Log4j security vulnerability.

  ACS is the universal Java-based utility that IBM unveiled 10 years ago this August to replace older Client Access products, including the ones for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The software, which …

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• Guru: Debugging SQL Stored Procedures With ACS

  April 11, 2022 Mike Larsen

  I use Access Client Solutions (ACS) daily to help with different tasks. I’m usually running SQL scripts or working with the IFS, but recently I was asked if there was a way to debug SQL stored procedures using ACS. More specifically, they were looking for a way that a “non-IBM i” person can debug SQL stored procedures on IBM i.

  After browsing the various menus in Run SQL Scripts in ACS, I found a system debugger. I had seen the system debugger before, but never took the time to explore it further. With this new request in mind, I decided …

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• Guru: Backup to an NAS using RSYNC

  February 14, 2022 Dan Devoe

  Like many small shops, we use a simple tape drive to backup most of our libraries and the contents of the IFS. Each workday, the tape would be changed and the previous tape taken home by someone in IT in case of a disaster.

  But then, COVID hit – there was no one in the office to switch tapes and the same tape was being used to perform nightly backups. What if we discovered a problem with the data from two nights ago? Ordinarily, we would restore one or more libraries or files from the appropriate tape.

  I set up …

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• Log4j Hits Heritage Version of Navigator for i – No Patch Coming

  January 12, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops running the old version of the Navigator for i client should be aware that the software is vulnerable to the Log4j security vulnerability, and there will be no patch to fix it, IBM says in a new security bulletin. There will, however, be fixes coming to other vulnerable components, including IWS, IAS, and IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS), IBM says.

  Just before we hit the holiday break, the extremely severe Apache Log4j security vulnerability was disclosed to the world, resulting in a frantic effort to patch servers, desktops, refrigerators – just about anything with a …

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• 2021: An IBM i Year in Review, Part One

  December 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  It’s mid-December. and since nothing much else is going on, let’s take a quick waltz through the IT Jungle archives to see what kind of year it was. It all started back in January, when…

  Our esteemed founding editor tried to convince IBM what is plainly obvious: That the IBM i installed base is “still its very largest enterprise computing customer base” (emphasis added). Yes, there are more Red Hat licenses, but when it comes to unique companies, IBM i, with around 120,000 customers around the world, is still tops. Will IBM do the hard work to find a (virtualized) …

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• Security Threats, They Are a Changin’

  November 17, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Ransomware came into 2021 like a lion, but rather than going out like a lamb, it seemed to get bigger and meaner. Even IBM i shops, which so often are protected from the wider security storm, felt the panic and sense of helplessness of having their previous data held for ransom. But early indications are that the security threat we’re talking about this time next year may be entirely different.

  It’s tough to overestimate the impact that ransomware had on American businesses and other institutions through the course of the year. We had indications that something big was unfolding a …

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• Oracle JDK Is Free Again, But OpenJDK Still Recommended

  November 15, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Oracle has reversed course on a controversial decision to charge companies a licensing fee to use its Oracle Java Development Kit (JDK) and has once again make the Java technology free, starting with the recently released Oracle JDK version 17. However, the move hasn’t changed IBM’s recommendations regarding which Java package IBM i shops use to run Access Client Solutions (ACS) software

  Oracle angered the Java-using community back in 2018 when it decided to stop distributing the Oracle JDK version 11 for free and charge companies a fee for commercial use (starting at $30 per desktop per year, and $300 …

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