Spring 2024 IBM i Technology Refresh Unveiled by IBM
May 8, 2024 Alex Woodie
IBM today took the wraps off the latest Technology Refresh for the IBM i platform. When IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10 ship on June 14, customers will find enhancements such as Merlin version 2, new features in Navigator and ACS, security improvements, a couple of RPG enhancements, HA and DR enhancements, and a host of new SQL-based database services, among other capabilities.
In addition to new features, which we’ll get to in a second, the launch of IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10 is important for an unexpected reason: It will mark the beginning of IBM’s transition to software subscriptions for the operating system for smaller customers.
Starting today, customers who acquire specific Power10 servers at the P05 and P10 tiers will need to either acquire a new IBM i subscription or convert from a perpetual license to an IBM i subscription. IBM announced the pricing for the conversions back on April 2, which we covered here.
As for the new goodies IBM is delivering with IBM i, there’s a little bit for everyone. Let’s start with Merlin.
Merlin 2.0
There are big changes coming to Merlin, the browser-based environment for application development and change management on IBM i that IBM launched in May 2022. The product, which officially is known as IBM i Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, bundled a VS Code-based development environment with DevOps software ARCAD Software, all running in a containerized Red Hat Open Shift environment.
Merlin version 2.0 is “a significant upgrade, especially on some of the underlying components that we’re running,” said Tim Rowe, the IBM i business architect for application development and systems management at IBM. “We’re moving from an Eclipse-based underlying support to running in full Dev Spaces,” which is a cloud-based development service for OpenShift.
“We’re also taking advantage of the full VS Code for i project,” Rowe said, referring to the open source Code for i plug-in developed by Liam Allan. Allan joined IBM a while back and now has a full team working for him to develop the plug-in and its various components, including database extensions for Db2 for i and the debugger, which came to VS Code in early 2023. Those are now all available in Merlin 2.0.
The second coming of Merlin also brings the latest releases of the ARCAD tooling, including Transformer, Builder, and Observer. Finally, the product can now run on a single node of Open Shift, which will simply the setup and administration and enable Merlin to run on smaller Power machines.
Navigator for i
Navigator for i, the Web-based administrator interface for IBM i, gains new capabilities with this batch of TRs. The headliner for Navigator, which saw a major refresh in the fall of 2021, is the addition of the Administrative Runtime Expert (ARE) console.
“That interface [ARE] is starting its journey from its existing location into Navigator,” Rowe said. “It will continue to see more of those older interfaces take steps towards Navigator.”
Other enhancements to navigator include tweaks to the GUI to keep it modern-looking; an improved sing-on prompt; networking improvements; enhancements to Performance Data Investigator (PDI); support for the Advanced Job Schedule for iASP (independent auxiliary storage pools); and Monitor Jobs support for Java 11 and 17.
ACS
The new TRs also include the latest release of Access Client Solutions (ACS), the powerful IBM i multi-tool. Among the new features IBM touted in the new version 1.1.9.5 release, which it shipped last month, is the addition of Visual Explain to RUNSQL Scripts.
Adding Visual Explain to ACS should make it much easier for administrators to troubleshoot and fix slow SQL queries, amongst other performance issues.
RPG
On the RPG front, IBM is delivering a pair of new features with the compilers that ship with Rational Development Studio (RDS) for i.
The first is support for the CONST keyword in data structures and standalone fields. The second is an enhancement to SND-MSG to allow the specification of additional message types, IBM said.
SYSTOOLS
In the fall of 2023, IBM delivered a number of enhancements to SYSTOOLS, which is a group of commands, functions, and capabilities that lives within the database. Those new capabilities were well received by IBM i customers, according to Scott Forstie, the business architect for Db2 for i.
“We had a big bang for SYSTOOLS tools last year, and that big bang definitely resonated with the community,” Forstie said. “We got lots of cards and letters and we even got a whole bunch of ideas. The first thing they said was ‘thank you.’ Second thing they said was ‘more and more and more.’”
For instance, in SYSTOOLS, there are commands for converting Db2 data into a spreadsheet and for emailing them. “GENERATE_SPREADSHEET is being enhanced in several ways and SEND_EMAIL is being enhanced in like four different ways to meet the needs of the community,” Forstie said.
IBM i Services
IBM is introducing a variety of new SQL-based services, including IBM i Services, with the upcoming two releases of IBM i.
One of those is a new comparison facility for IFS that allows the user to compare two separate IFS objects or subtrees. “And you can even do it across two different IBM i’s, so lots of innovation for SQL and how it can be applied to things outside of the database,” Forstie said.
Security and Data Mart
There are several security-related enhancements in this release, including an upgrade of the cryptographic co-processor or crypto service providers (CCA CSP) to support the latest NIST standards. Adopted authority is now supported in the cluster administrative domain.
The Spring TRs also bring the addition of a security data mart. IBM i’s audit journal generates a large number of security logs, or journal receivers, and customers often end up deleting the data due to space constraints. With a purpose-built data mart created on Db2 for i, customers will have a handy place to store and organize the security data.
“A data mart can capture by audit journal entry type those things that you want to have a longevity of study,” Forstie said. “It’s going to be very easy to use and that will enable not only a broader study and analysis of security information, but the performance characteristics of it will be incredible.”
HA and DR
IBM is updating PowerHA, its high availability solution, with several new capabilities, including a new FlashSystem asynchronous policy-based replication capability; enhanced administrative domain integration; new SQL services; and Web user interface enhancements.
BRMS, the native IBM i backup facility, is also getting two updates, including support for 3592-70F tape drives and media and support for software data compression for tape and virtual tape.
All of the new features and updates delivered with IBM i 7.5 TR4 and 7.4 TR10 are identical. In other words, there are no features available on one version and not the other, which is usually the case. IBM will begin shipping the features June 14. Much of the new capabilities will be delivered via group PTFs, such as for the database enhancements.
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