• Configuring Messaging Software for Overnight Monitoring

  February 20, 2008 Hey, Joe

  For our System i messaging software, we email critical system messages to the BlackBerry phones that our techs carry. However, we want to make sure that the techs realize that an important message has arrived and that it doesn’t get lost in the tons of other email messages they receive. Do you have any ideas for segregating critical i5/OS error messages from regular email? –Jeff We recently went through a similar situation when we were deploying Bytware’s MessengerConsole monitoring and paging software on multiple System i boxes. Like you, we wanted to make sure that the important messages jumped out

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• IBM Apache Servers Needed by PHP

  February 13, 2008 Brian Kelly

  This is the second in a series of four articles by Brian Kelley on PHP. Of the “big three” elements needed to support the PHP language–namely Apache, PHP, and MYSQL, the System i has used Apache since V5R1. Before this, the AS/400 used the much more bulky HTTP server from CERN that was developed by Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee. This open source server from the Apache Foundation is now part of the standard fare of i5/ OS entitlements. IBM even gave it a product number–5722-DG1–so it can be differentiated during the PTF process. You don’t have to order it.

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• Microsoft .NET 2.0 for System i Developers: Building Windows Forms Using the DataGridview Control

  February 13, 2008 Michael Sansoterra

  This is the third in a series of articles by Michael Sansoterra on Microsoft .NET 2.0. Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. Part 1 and Part 2 of this series provided a general introduction to using .NET with the IBM System i. Attention was given to how much could be done in .NET without any coding at all. Part 1 started with a trivial example of how to build an interactive Web page capable of editing data in a DB2 table using ASP.NET. Part 2 built on that foundation by AJAX-enabling the majority of

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• Admin Alert: Printing and Emailing a System i Rack Config

  February 13, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  When requesting new hardware quotes for a System i, iSeries, or AS/400 server, your vendor will most likely ask you for a server rack configuration that was generated on the machine that you are upgrading. To alleviate confusion about this process, this column covers everything concerning rack configurations, including what a rack configuration is, why it’s needed, and how to generate and send a configuration to your vendor. What’s a Rack Config? A rack configuration (rack config) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a listing of all the physical components in the rack (or racks) that host your System

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• Setting Up A PHP/Web Environment On System i: Where Do I Start?

  February 6, 2008 Hey, Brian

  This is the first in a series of four articles by Brian Kelley on PHP. Our company has been following your sometimes promising, sometimes depressing, articles and responses regarding a natural modern interface to the System i and RPG. If IBM wants to build these interfaces for its other platforms, that’s fine too, but I don’t really care about those–at least right now. Though I would like the “Good Brian” to be correct in his opinion of the IBM reorganization (see IBM’s Reorg: The Good Me or the Bad Me?), what I have seen from IBM leads me to

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• Don’t Let SQL Name Your Baby

  February 6, 2008 Hey, Ted

  We have started using SQL Data Definition Language (DDL) to define our physical files. One feature we really like is that we can use column (field) names longer than 10 characters. One feature we don’t like is that SQL creates ugly alternate names of 10 characters that we end up using in our RPG programs. Is there any way we can rename these ugly names? –Paul I know what you mean, Paul. If a column name is more than 10 characters long, SQL creates a shorter column name from the first five characters of the field name and a five-digit

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• A Checklist For Moving System i Boxes

  February 6, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  For any number of reasons, you may sometime have to move a System i, iSeries, or AS/400 from one physical location to another. The move may be caused by a company sale or spin-off, or you may have a high availability machine that needs to be hosted off site. Whatever the reason, this week I’ll present a practical checklist of items to address when moving a System i box. My checklist is short and simple. It can be divided into the following three categories that cover the majority of moving issues that you’ll run into: Physically moving the box–What’s

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• Saving and Restoring External SQL Routine Definitions

  January 30, 2008 Hey, Mike

  A vendor whose software we use separates objects into two main libraries–a data library and an object library. I had to restore all the data, so I deleted the data library and restored it. After that, the application stopped working. The problem turned out to be that some stored procedures that they created in their data library got wiped out, and the Restore Library (RSTLIB) command didn’t put them back. The story ends happily because the vendor had a program in place for just such emergencies, but (and I’m sure IBM disagrees), I consider this a big old bug in

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• Create Multiple Directory Levels in One Swell Foop

  January 30, 2008 Hey, Professional

  Yes, you, the person who knows so much about making machinery serve your organization. You, the person who knows so many little, seemingly trivial and insignificant bits and pieces of information. Here’s a bit of info that maybe no one in your shop knows, and it can come in handy. It comes from the IT Jungle Web forums. Here’s the original question, after a bit of editing. During a payroll run, I need to create multiple directories (which will be subdirectories) that will contain various reports, for specific companies, for specific pay dates. The company directories already exist. For

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• User Storage Limits and Application Processing

  January 30, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  Every once in a while, I’ll run into a situation where for no apparent reason, a user can no longer run a process that either updates user-created System i data or creates an output file. The process will run fine one day and stop working the next day. After investigation, the problem usually has something to do with the user’s Maximum Storage Allowed (MAXSTG) parameter. The MAXSTG parameter is assigned to a user profile when that profile is created. Its mission is to tell the operating system how much auxiliary storage (in kilobytes) can be assigned to store permanent system

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