• IBM Bolsters ACS with Database and Administrative Goodies

  May 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Amid the many enhancements that IBM has delivered with IBM i 7.4 and IBM i 7.3 TR6 is a new release of Access Client Solutions (ACS), which has become the go-to client interface that many IBM i professionals use to access the system for a variety of tasks. Database engineers and system administrators are the big winners with this release.

  There’s no denying that IBM delivered a whopper of release with IBM i 7.4 and its sidekick, IBM i 7.3 TR6. There’s been so much news – starting with the availability and security enhancements in Db2 Mirror and Authority Collection …

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• Raz-Lee Offloads Virus Scanning from IBM i with ICAP

  May 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Raz-Lee Security is providing IBM i shops another option when it comes to anti-virus software by offering an ICAP client that offloads CPU-intensive virus scanning activities to an external server. The new solution is being sold as an extension to Raz-Lee’s existing Anti-Virus solution.

  While the IBM i operating system is essentially immune to PC viruses, they still pose a threat to IBM i shops, which typically have a smattering of Windows desktops and servers on the network. The problem is that Windows viruses (and assorted other malware) can infect the IBM i server’s Windows-like Integrated File System (IFS), where …

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• Does Db2 Mirror Kill The Market for Third Party HA?

  May 6, 2019 Alex Woodie

  IBM launched Db2 Mirror for i two weeks ago to great acclaim, as the clustering technology puts IBM i on par with how most other major systems provide continuous availability. But will Db2 Mirror destroy the platform’s heritage of high availability solutions? IT Jungle asked IBM and the biggest providers of logical replication solutions, and the answer is no. Here’s why.

  The first thing to understand about Db2 Mirror is that, at heart, it’s a database clustering technology. IBM figured out a way to make a single instance of Db2 for i run on two separate systems, in an active-active …

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• Guru: IBM i Save File Compression Options

  April 1, 2019 Michael Sansoterra

  As I finished populating some test tables with a large volume of data on a small and transient IBM i partition in the cloud, I thought life was good. But my countenance fell as I realized the tables plus OS hogged over 70 percent of the disk space. I wondered how to get all the data into a single save file for safe keeping.

  The buzzer in my mind was loud and clear: it ain’t gonna work, you don’t have enough room. As I loathed the thought of using multiple save files to save my test data, I remembered that …

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• Building Out The .NET Stack Around Mono for IBM i

  March 13, 2019 Alex Woodie

  The first release of a Mono .NET port to IBM i was issued last year. Since then, the IBM i open source community has been busy building many of the other middleware components that will make it easier for developers to build IBM i applications using Microsoft tooling.

  Mono was ported to AIX and IBM i (via the PASE AIX runtime) last year, which gave IBM i and AIX shops the capability to run the open source .NET runtime on Power Systems servers, thus opening the door to allowing Microsoft‘s highly regarded suite of development tools to be …

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• Guru: Open Access To The Rescue

  February 11, 2019 Jon Paris

  Recently I came upon a couple of questions on internet lists asking for an easy method to create flat files in the IFS. Not CSV files, but rather simple text files where individual data items are in fixed character positions. Various somewhat convoluted solutions were offered to the requestors, but to me this problem shouted “Open Access!”

  So, I set about quickly building an Open Access (OA) handler to perform the task. I find OA really useful for this kind of job because, once the handler is written, creating these kinds of files in the future become a trivial task, …

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• IBM Delivers New Goodies with ACS Update

  December 5, 2018 Alex Woodie

  IBM has issued a new release of Access Client Solutions (ACS), the indispensable Java-based client that delivers a range of functionality to administrators, developers, and users alike. In the new release of ACS, IBM delivers enhancements across a range of functions, including SQL queries, database schemas, data transfer, and printing and emulation.

  IBM first unveiled ACS way back in August 2012 as the strategic replacement for older IBM i client interfaces, such as Access for Windows, Access for Web, and Access for Linux. With a full 5250 emulator, support for printing, the capability to view IFS, spool file, and message …

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• What Is Happening With RFEs For IBM i?

  October 29, 2018 Alex Woodie

  IBM customers have been encouraged to vote on product enhancements for over a year as part of the Request for Enhancement (RFE) process, and a number of new features have actually made it into IBM i technology refreshes (TRs). What new or improved IBM i functionality will Big Blue work on next?

  It’s hard to say exactly which RFE items will strike a chord with IBM product managers, since the requests can be all over the board and impact a range of components, from the IBM i OS itself and the Db2 for i database to Access Client Solutions (ACS) …

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• PASE Versus ILE: Which Is Best For Open Source?

  October 22, 2018 Alex Woodie

  Open source has emerged as a driver of innovation in the past 20 years, and has greatly accelerated technological innovation. The proprietary IBM i platform has also benefited from this trend, thanks in large part to the capability to run Linux applications in the PASE runtime. But some members of the IBM i community are concerned that the fruits of the open source innovation have not tasted quite as sweet as they do on other platforms.

  Linux was the original breakout star in open source software, and so it should be no surprise that the vast majority of software developed …

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• Adventures In IBM i Encryption

  September 17, 2018 Tom Woolaway

  Are you impacted by the New York Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies? If you are a banking, insurance, or brokerage firm that uses a license to operate in New York, these regulations require specific cybersecurity practices be implemented. Section 500.15 Encryption of Nonpublic Information requires encryption at rest of non-public information. Or perhaps you have other reasons to want to encrypt your IBM i drives.

  This article focuses on encryption at rest of the disk drives of IBM i systems using 57XX-SS1 Option 45 – Encrypted ASP Enablement, where you end up with an unencrypted system ASP 1 and …

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