• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 41

  October 18, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  We have taken advantage of the lull in PTFs to restructure the IBM i PTF Guide. Check out the “Prior” worksheet, it is designed to let you know what the latest Cume (cumulative PTF patch stack) was on several prior releases. In many cases, these are available for order from IBM.

  We have also added a “Links” worksheet. It is a collection for the links we have found useful over the years. If you have any suggestions about what should be added for the benefit of all, send them in and we’ll add them on.

  There is one broken …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 39

  October 3, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The big story this week is that there are issues with Java. It seems there are more than 25 CVEIDs out for Java. That is the sad news. The good news is that they are all covered by PTF’s available in the latest Java Groups:

  • Release 7.3 – SF99725 level 6
  • Release 7.2 – SF99716 level 14
  • Release 7.1 – SF99572 level 29
  • Release 6.1 – SF99562 level 40

  For complete details on the CVEIDs, check this link: Additional information about Java on IBM i can be found at this link here. Just a side note, IBM is …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 38

  September 27, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Hello fellow IBM i-ers. (Yes, that looks ugly.) This week in the IBM i PTF Guide, you will discover that the Java Group for V6R1 has been updated. Even though V6R1 for IBM i is no longer supported, the licensed programs for that release may be on a different support level.

  By the way, Java Group has been updated in all releases, not just for V6R1, as have the HIPERs and the Backup Recovery Groups. Lots of PTF action this week. Best news is no new Defective PTFs since September 8!

  A big “Thank You” to Charles Charalambou for …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 37

  September 20, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood IBM i PTF Guide. Java 6 will be going out of support on December 31, 2017. So be sure to update your Java applications to Java 8 or Java 7 to ensure a safe and secure application environment.

  The licensed programs for both Java 7 and Java 8 are available on Entitled Systems Support (ESS), in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. They don’t take up much room, it is suggested you put them all on your system. Changing the default version of the JDK (Java Development Kit) is done by changing the …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 35

  September 6, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to the IBM i PTF Guide, which was designed to help you figure out what patches to apply to your releases so you can keep current and therefore keep optimal in terms of performance, stability, and security. This should be  your own personal IBM i Patch Wednesday, and frankly, with the Labor Day holiday in the United States, there was not a lot going on this week.

  The Recommended PTFs for all functional areas were updated, and summary lists for all three current IBM i releases were updated in *SF97VRM). ERP giant and in-memory processing upstart SAP also …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Numbers 33 And 34

  August 30, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  My perspective on PTFs is that the development teams at IBM work with me and for me. They are part of my development team. They are there to help me over the rough spots and to keep me focused on the application side without distractions from the operating system and licensed internal code side.

  When I am distracted, I am costing my company money or one of my customers money, and the shortest path to a solution should be taken to get me back to focusing on the applications. Toward that end, I have developed the “15 Minute” rule: If …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 32

  August 16, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Greetings IBM i shops. As you know, HIPER PTFs come out every two weeks, and the level is incremented each time they come out. The V7R1 HIPER level hit 201 this week. That means that V7R1 has been around at least 402 weeks. So in September we should hit the 408th week, or, at 52 weeks per year, four years for V7R1.

  Scanning the list of Last Updated dates for all levels at all releases, August and September are traditionally dead months. Not much happens in PTF Land. V6R1 had a flurry of updates back in 2015 in those months, …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Numbers 29 Through 31

  August 9, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  It is catch up week for us here in the PTF Realm of IBM i Land, with The Four Hundred being on hiatus for a couple of Wednesdays during the summer doldrums. So let’s go through what happened in the prior three editions of the IBM i PTF Guide in sequential order so you can keep track of it.

  In Issue 29, the PTF rundown looked like this. There were updates to Backup Recovery Solution for V7R3, V7R2, and V7R1, as well as for DB2 for IBM i V7R3 and V7R2. WebSphere Application Server V8.5 for V7R3, V7R2, and V7R1 …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 28

  July 19, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Firmware. That “stuff” in the middle that appeared in our world when the AS400 went away. In the beginning, when the computing world was created and this unique creation was created to be something special, there was an AS/400.

  This was an all-in-one OS/TIMI/hardware computing solution. During its evolution, names have changed, compute, memory, storage, and I/O capacity has increased exponentially, and, several architectural changes have been made. Some changes have been comfortable, some not so much. One of the not-so-comfortable things is firmware. This firmware has been around forever, we just didn’t know it as a separate beast to …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 26

  July 12, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  There is something new this week in the IBM i PTF Guide. We have added a link to the Memo to Users that is put out by IBM for each release. If you are not familiar with this Memo to Users, the developers working on the IBM i software stack try to put together a comprehensive guide to all the changes in the new release in the Memo to Users.

  It is a great “Shot across the bow” for those you venturing into a new release. With the sunsetting of V7R1 just months away, everybody should take a look …

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