• Going Off IBM Hardware Maintenance A Risky Move

  April 15, 2019 Alex Woodie

  Organizations that are running older Power Systems servers have some tough decisions coming up. IBM ceased offering hardware support for Power 6 servers on March 31, and support for Power 7 will go away on September 30. Some organizations may choose to support themselves instead of upgrading to a newer machine, but that move comes with substantial risks.

  While there’s no central clearinghouse for this sort of information, it would appear that a good percentage of IBM i customers – if not most of them – have hardware and software support agreements with IBM. Big Blue provides three years …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 15

  April 15, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  And the PTFs just keep on rolling. . . . This week, there are patches in the HTTP Server Group for IBM i 7.2 and IBM i 7.3. There is also a new Database Group for IBM i 7.2.

  And, as is common with most production operating systems these days, especially those that have a lot of components derived from open source software where things get discovered and patched out in the open where everyone can see and with a rapidity that operating systems of days gone by did not have to deal with, there is a continual stream of …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 14

  April 10, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  We have some new items to report with this week’s PTF Guide. There are new HIPER and Security groups for all three supported releases. And there is a new MQ group for 7.3 and 7.2. Plus, there are new links for the System Passport Advantage and Passport Advantage Express. That’s a lot of new for you to chew on.

  Sadly, there is nothing new to report for tips this week. That would have been too much to hope for, anyway. There are also no new defectives to review this week.

  Here is the last defective PTF rundown for each release: …

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• IBM Patches New Security Flaws in Java, OpenSSL

  April 3, 2019 Alex Woodie

  IBM this week patched a series of flaws in IBM i’s Java environment, including a pair of very serious problems in the OpenJ9 runtime that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code, in addition to a series of less-severe Java vulnerabilities. The company also fixed a new flaw found in IBM i’s OpenSSL implementation.

  A total of seven Java flaws that impact IBM i versions 7.1 through 7.3 were addressed with one security bulletin issued by IBM on March 29. IBM issued Group PTFs for each release of the operating system to address them. A single OpenSSL flaw also …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 13

  April 3, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  This week in the IBM i PTF Guide, we are obsessing about security. There is a security bulletin out that explains that there are multiple vulnerabilities in IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime that affect IBM i. There is consequently a new Java Group for all three releases – IBM i 7.1, IBM i 7.2, and IBM i 7.3. See this link for further details.

  There is also a separate security bulletin, CVE-2018-14647, relating to Python that affects IBM i, and this affects all three currently supported releases as well. See this link for the scoop. For Python 2.7 …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 12

  March 27, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  So brace yourself. HIPERs, Backup and Recovery, and QMGTOOLS are all new this week, and there is this little gem of a security bulletin: Vulnerabilities CVE-2018-5407 and CVE-2018-0734 in OpenSSL affect IBM i. That second one is elegant but deadly!

  The link for this fix can be found here, and the fixes are here:

  • Release 7.2/7.3 – SI68727
  • Release 7.1 – SI68726

  And don’t forget about this security bulletin: Vulnerabilities CVE-2019-5739 and CVE-2019-5737 in Node.js that affects IBM i. The link for this vulnerability is here, and this affects IBM i 7.3, 7.2, and 7.1. For Node.jsv6, SI69165 …

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• Five Skills You Don’t Need To Manage IBM i (And Two You Do)

  March 25, 2019 Tom Huntington

  (Sponsored Content) Much has been said to debunk the myth of an IBM i skills shortage or decry it as a disappearing act. Yet, year after year, respondents to the annual IBM i Marketplace Survey by HelpSystems list IBM i skills as a top concern. The results also show that organizations are addressing these concerns by adding automation, modernizing development, and getting rid of obsolete technology that breeds the dreaded word: legacy.

  But why do we on IBM i continue to carry the perception that so-called “IBM i skills” are scarce? Is it because the keywords in …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 11

  March 20, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  Enjoy the quiet while you can, there are no new cumes or groups for any release this week. However, regarding updating QMGTOOLS, here is the command that checks for and pulls down the update if necessary, then installs it:

  QMGTOOLS/CMPVER NOPROMPT(Y)
  

  You might want to think about putting this command into your scheduler for every Sunday morning.

  There are no new defectives this week, but once again here is the most recent defective PTF rundown (The last defective for each release):

  	Defect		Defective	APAR	Fixing
  	Date		PTF			PTF
  	--------	--------	-------	-------
  7.3	03/05/19		MF65608	MA47478	MF65690 (Available!)
  			MF65603
  			MF65584
  			

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 10

  March 13, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  All you people looking for some PTF action, you have some stuff to keep you busy this week. So grab the coffee and let’s get going. First of all, there are new HIPERs for IBM i 7.2 and IBM i 7.3, as well as Database group PTFs for IBM i 7.3. And don’t forget to check the defectives below.

  As for new links in the IBM i PTF Guide sheet this week, try these on for size:

  • System: IBM Administration Runtime Expert (ARE) for i
  • PTF: Temporary Storage PTFs – All Releases

  And now, for your weekly tip: Before there …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 9

  March 4, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  This week, the new PTFs coming out of IBM are just for WebSphere Application Server 8.5, and only on IBM i 7.2 and IBM i 7.3. There isn’t much going on otherwise, and this is a blessing, most definitely not a curse.

  I have added a bunch of new links to the spreadsheet that encompasses the IBM i PTF Guide, and these include:

  • IWS/IAS: How To Change the Ports Used by IBM IAS v8.5 and IWS v2.6 Servers
  • WireShark: Instructions for Collecting a Wireshark PC Sniffer Trace
  • AFP: Are AFP Utilities and AFP supported on IBM i 7.3?

  And …

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