• 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 …

  Read more

• 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, …

  Read more

• 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 …

  Read more

• 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 …

  Read more

• 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 …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 25

  June 28, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  Welcome to your own personal IBM i Patch Wednesday and the IBM i PTF Guide that helps 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.

  In this week’s rendition, we see that the High Availability Group has some new fixes for us. I am a week or two late in reporting them for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.2, but they are here and available for us. The newest fixes allow for additional logging for better error determination in special resynch …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 24

  June 21, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  It is interesting to note in this week’s IBM i PTF Guide that support for Samba Windows-style System Message Block (SMB) file serving has been added (in 5733-OPS, Option 11) and that it is being patched as needed. The Security PTF is because the Samba project has added bug and security fixes into the Samba 3.6 source that need to be included in the IBM i PASE package.

  Additionally, the HIPER and Security Group PTFs are being updated on V7R3 and V7R2, and the HIPERs on V7R1. As always, its recommended you stay as current as possible on at least …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 23

  June 14, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The only group updated this week was the SF99706 High Availability for V7R1 group. It has approximately 30 fixes, dealing with everything from missing disks to security breaches. It is well worth putting this HA group on your system if you are in a PowerHA world, or dealing with iASPs. For fun, we have listed a few of the PTFs in the group below:

  SI57128 - OSP-OTHER Fix Poodle vulnerability issue. The Poodle vulnerability issue was found in CIM. This has been fixed. Disable SSLv3, the RC4 and RSA Export ciphers in CIM.
  MF62562 - LIC-OTHER Additional Debug Support. Added 

  …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Numbers 21 And 22

  June 7, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The first couple of PTFs in the HIPER group are enough scare the wits out of you, so we just went with them. The important thing is to get them on your systems as soon as possible. You need to install the whole HIPER group.

  There was a time, a long, long time ago, when the CUME PTF pack sufficed when it came to keeping the system up to snuff. The CUME hasn’t contained all of the patches necessary to keep your systems running smoothly for quite a while, though. We need to pay attention to our Group PTFs and …

  Read more

• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 19, Number 20

  May 24, 2017 Doug Bidwell

  The most amazing fix that Big Blue has ever done for the techies who administer and program the IBM i platform happened last week: After 16 years of playing the same snippet of song in a loop for those dying on hold waiting for the support line, IBM finally relented and changed its tune.

  I had to hang up and call back to have them put me on hold so I could verify that it was not an accident. Amazing!

  In this week’s IBM i PTF Guide, there is a bunch of stuff going on. The MQ for IBM …

  Read more

Previous Articles Next Articles