• A Match Made In The Midrange: IBM i And FlashSystem

  June 3, 2024 Steven McIver

  If you are only looking at IBM i from the “green screen,” not much has changed over the years. We run mostly the same commands and access the same operating system menus. It can seem like time has stood still and IBM i has not changed at all.

  However, from the infrastructure point of view, that is certainly not the case. In this article, I want to focus on the popular external storage option for IBM i systems, which is FlashSystem. There have been some great new features that have been added lately to make the storage administrator’s life easier. …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 20

  June 3, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  Here is something you need to be aware of: IBM i APAR and PTF records have migrated to Known Issues records and Fix Information records to be consistent with other IBM patching systems for other platforms and software. So read up on it at this link here.

  And, as often happens, we also have three new security vulnerabilities to cope with.

  First, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty are vulnerable to an XML External Entity (XXE) injection vulnerability (CVE-2024-22354), which you can find out more about here. Here are the …

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• IBM Developing AI Coding Assistant for IBM i

  May 22, 2024 Alex Woodie

  During his keynote presentation at the POWERUp 2024 conference Monday, IBM i CTO Steve Will announced that IBM is actively exploring ways to incorporate generative AI into the IBM i platform. The most promising of three individual but related projects is a plan to build a large language model (LLM)-powered coding assistant for IBM i that will initially provide three functions to support RPG development, with more expected in the future.

  The genesis of the coding assisting project for RPG, which doesn’t have a name yet, can be traced to last year’s launch of watsonx Code Assistant for Z, which …

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• The Power Of Modernization: Igniting Business Growth With IBM i Upgrades

  May 22, 2024 Tom Horan

  Staying competitive is key in a fast-paced business world. For many organizations, IBM i systems play a crucial role in their operations. These systems, known for their reliability, scalability, and security, have long been the go-to for critical business applications. But as technology advances, these systems must evolve, too. Upgrading your IBM i infrastructure isn’t just an upgrade – it’s a strategic investment that can fuel business growth.

  So the question is: Why modernize?

  Boost Efficiency and Performance

  Modernizing your IBM i systems can significantly increase efficiency and performance. Upgrading to the latest IBM i operating system and hardware (IBM …

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• Finding Replacements for EOL’d Ecommerce App for JD Edwards

  May 22, 2024 Alex Woodie

  Fiserv is no longer selling or supporting ERP2Web, an ecommerce product used in JD Edwards environments. Companies have several options for replacements, including open source ecommerce applications like Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) running in the cloud, which is the path recommended by Briteskies.

  ERP2Web is an ecommerce product from Fiserv designed to extend JD Edwards ERP systems with B2B capabilities around order entry, order management, product catalog, item availability, pricing, tax information, shipping, and sales order inquiries, among other capabilities.

  Earlier this year, Fiserv announced that it was ending support for ERP2Web, it obtained with its $22 billion acquisition of …

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• Big Blue Offers Managed Services For PowerVS Private Cloud Pods

  May 22, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  There are lots of ways to skin the cloud infrastructure cat. You can rent cloudy capacity and manage it yourself. That is called Power Virtual Server. You can buy your own virtualized Power Systems servers and manage them with the same control plane as is used for the PowerVS cloud. That is called Power Virtual Server Private Cloud, of PowerVS Private Cloud for short. (Sort of.)

  And now, with announcement letter AD24-0420, Big Blue is offering a version of PowerVS Private Cloud that has a managed services provider layer on top of it from the company’s own …

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• What, And Who, The New Power S1012 Server Is Aimed At

  May 20, 2024 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  As you know full well by now, we have a new and final entry into the Power10 line of systems from IBM, the Power S1012, also known by its codename “Bonnell.” The Power S1012 entry server was announced two weeks ago and we did an architectural dive into the system last week based on the announcement letter and the Redbook on the system.

  After digging around a bit, this week we are going to do a comparative analysis on the Power S1012 machine compared to its predecessors, particularly the Power8-based Power S812 Mini machine from 2017, which was a similar …

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• COMMON Hosts Its Annual Conference, Welcomes New Board This Week

  May 20, 2024 Alex Woodie

  COMMON today kicks off its annual POWERUp conference, bringing the global IBM i community together in beautiful downtown Fort Worth, Texas. The world’s largest IBM i user group is also wrapping up an election for its board of directors, which features three candidates for three spots.

  For many decades, COMMON has hosted the single largest annual gathering of IBM i professionals, and that run of success will not be broken this week, with expectations of about 1,000 attendees at the show. This year’s annual COMMON conference, dubbed POWERUp 2024, features four days of education, networking opportunities, and other events in …

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• Guru: Testing URLs With HTTP_GET_VERBOSE

  May 20, 2024 Gregory Simmons

  In my previous article Fooling around with SQL and RPG, I explored having a little fun with the HTTP_GET function to fetch a witty Dad Joke from https://icanhazdadjoke.com/. In this article, I want to demonstrate a more practical use of this great function. Or should I say, another version of HTTP_GET, that is HTTP_GET_VERBOSE, which also was introduced to us by the DB2 team in V7R3.

  In its simplest implementation, I can insert the URL I want to test into an SQL statement:

  select *
  from table(QSYS2.HTTP_GET_VERBOSE('https://icanhazdadjoke.com/',''))
  

  I will later want to run this embedded in an RPG …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 26, Number 19

  May 20, 2024 Doug Bidwell

  You will need a little time to deal with some security vulnerabilities this week, so set aside some time. There is also a warning about infrastructure changes for electronic fixes from IBM and, for those of you who care, a new release of the IBM MQ message queuing middleware.

  You can find out about the new MQ 9.4, which delivers improved cross-platform connectivity, observability, and modernization capabilities, at this link. And  as for preparing customer firewalls and proxies for the upcoming infrastructure changes – Call Home, Electronic Fix Distribution – check out this link.

  That leaves the three …

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