• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 36

  September 9, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  With the Labor Day weekend underway in the United States, a bank holiday in Europe the week before, and everybody having just about enough of the coronavirus pandemic, it was expectedly quiet on the PTF front in IBM i Land this past weekend when we took a look at the database of patches. Which is a good thing.

  But we like to be thorough and complete, and the IBM i PTF Guide always has some useful information you need and this is the most current way to get it.

  As for the PTF rundown by release, there weren’t any, so …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 34

  August 24, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  With so many people trying to take staycation – or maybe even an actual vacation – this time of year, in 2020, the year of The Great Infection, it is particularly kind for the PTF action to settle down for the IBM i platform. Whether or not this is intentional on the part of Big Blue, it is appreciated just the same.

  There are a few tweaks here and there for the releases, just the same, and we are always tweaking the IBM i PTF Guide, too, so there are some new things to look at.

  Here’s the PTF …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 33

  August 19, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  It’s August so that means it’s HIPERS season for the IBM i PTF guide. You will find HIPERS in the guide for the following PTF Groups: PTF Groups 7.4, PTF Groups 7.3, PTF Groups 7.2, and PTF Groups 7.1. Other than that, there’s not much else to report. We have no new or update links to report, and no new defectives this week (08/15/20).

  We do have a tip: When visiting the doctor for a routine checkup, take a phone charger and an overnight bag, just in case. When you walk in the door and your temperature shows high, you …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 32

  August 12, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  It is another busy week here in the summer of 2020, there is a lot of activity among our IBM i customers, and this is a blessing indeed. Better to be too busy than not busy enough.

  In the interest of time, we will get right to the point. This week there is a new release of Access Client Solutions: 1.1.8.5. There is also new release of SPT (System Planning Tool): V211.

  Here’s the PTF rundown by release:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.2:

  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.1:

  • Nothing

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 31

  August 5, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Forget the coronavirus pandemic, we have been crazy busy here at DLB Associates. So this week, of necessity, we will be short and sweet. Like Shirley Temple. Or barbeque ribs. Or real Italian espresso. Or memories from early childhood – well, some of the time.

  In PTF Land this week, there appears to be a new re-spin of the licensed internal code (LIC) for IBM 7.2, Q version to be precise. Here’s the PTF rundown by release:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • SAP Support Required PTF List for IBM i
  • QMGTOOLS

  PTF Groups 7.3:

  • HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
  • SAP Support

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 30

  July 27, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  As you know, IBM tweaked the entry part of the Power Systems lineup running Power9 processors, and The Four Hundred reported on this on announcement day, which was July 14.

  There are some PTF angles to this, which Steve Will, the System i architect at Big Blue, explained thus: “On July 14, several new IBM Power Systems announcements are happening, and to support those announcements, the IBM i 7.4 TR2 PTF Group (SF99737 PTF Group Level 2) and the IBM i 7.3 TR8 PTF Group (SF99727 PTF Group Level 8) will be made available on July 17.” We have …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 29

  July 22, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  OK, last week I said that the action never stops here at the IBM i PTF Guide. But it does slow down and it does get very much focused from time to time. And it is no surprise when things slow down during July and August. Even with the coronavirus pandemic adversely affecting all of our lives and loves, people are taking a little downtime from living at work – no, we are not working from home. It is the other way around, clearly. And most of us are living in a restaurant and many of us are living …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 28

  July 20, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  The action never stops here at the IBM i PTF Guide. Which is probably a good thing because if a platform isn’t being constantly updated, expanded, tweaked, and fixed, then it probably is not going to live for much longer in this fast-changing world. No one can say that about the IBM i platform. Nope.

  So for you security buffs, check this out. Security Bulletin: BIND for IBM i is affected by CVE-2020-8616 and CVE-2020-8617, which has an insanely long link buried here. The link above provides details, but the gist of it is also here by release: …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 27

  July 14, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to the second half of 2020 after a brief holiday hiatus from The Four Hundred and therefore the IBM i PTF Guide.

  There is another new HIPER for the Virtual I/O Server, or VIOS, which again we know all of you IBM i shops love dearly. The HIPER is IJ25390, and it is for slow TCP performance with the Virtual Ethernet adapter and large send. Here is some more on that LSO – short for large send offload – and specifically a link that explains it better than we did two weeks ago, plus another link to a …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 26

  July 6, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Well, we made it through half of 2020, and that is something of a miracle. Let’s hope the second half is not so dramatic. The odds are not favoring that at the moment, but hope springs eternal and that is how we have made it through the past 15,000 years of pre-history to today, if you think about it. It’s helpful to take the long view at critical times.

  As far as PTFs go, there is a new HIPER for the Virtual I/O Server, or VIOS, which we know all you IBM i shops love. The HIPER is IJ25390, and …

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