• Jetty: An Efficient, Easy to Manage Alternative to WebSphere

  August 27, 2008 Mike Brown

  Note: The code accompanying this article is available for download here. In the past couple of years, I have talked with colleagues and read articles about the complexity of WebSphere and the resources it uses. There are alternatives to WebSphere when you need a Servlet or JSP container. Apache Tomcat is probably one of the better known competitors to WebSphere. However, I would like to introduce you to another one that is smaller, easier to manage, and just plain works: Jetty. Introduction to Jetty Jetty is an open source Web server–implemented in Java–that provides Servlet and JSP support,

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• Admin Alert: Giving Auditors What They Want

  August 27, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  Many i5/OS administrators hate system audits the way dental patients hate getting their teeth filled: they despise it with all their might, but realize the process might be somewhat healthy and beneficial for their system. This week, I’m going to look at some common system auditor requests for i5/OS configurations and show you how to retrieve that information from a Power i, System i, iSeries, or AS/400 machine. Default Passwords Your auditor may request a list of all users who use default passwords. Default passwords occur when the user’s password is the same as his or her user ID name

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• Serving Up Spreadsheets

  August 13, 2008 Paul Tuohy

  Our users are always looking for information in different formats. They want to see it on a screen, in a report, in a PDF document, in an email, or in a spreadsheet. There are many ways of achieving all of these but most require third-party products or quite a bit of study to master a new programming technique. Well, there is a very easy way to generate the spreadsheets your users require using nothing more then Excel, RPG, CGIDEV2, and a little knowledge of XML (no experience required). Excel (as of Excel 2002, I believe) allows you to save a

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• V6R1 Enhancements for Run SQL Scripts

  August 13, 2008 Skip Marchesani

  Among the many enhancements that V6R1 provided for System i and i5/OS are several for Run SQL Scripts, which improve its function and broaden its usability. Run SQL Scripts is part of the Database function in System i Navigator. Save Script to System i Source File Prior to V6R1, scripts for Run SQL Scripts (a.k.a. SQL Script Center) could only be saved as PC files with a .SQL extension, either on a PC or on the System i IFS. Starting with V6R1, these script files can now be saved on the System i as a member in System i source

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• Admin Alert: Common Mistakes When Failing Over to a CBU

  August 13, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  My shop ran its first high availability failover test in 2007. We’ve since run many more tests where we configured two different System i 550 Capacity BackUp (CBU) units to impersonate other systems. We’ve also made many mistakes in the process. Today, I’m focusing on common CBU failover problems and how to avoid them. Hopefully, this information will help make your failover process run smoothly. Meet the CBU In the i5/OS world, a CBU system is a specially configured Power i, System i, or iSeries machine that communicates with your production machine to continuously replicate production data and applications using

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• Tell Me About Your Exports

  July 30, 2008 Ted Holt

  I ran into an interesting situation recently. I was attempting to tie service program B to existing RPG program A, so that A could use some of the service program B’s routines. Guess what? Program A wouldn’t compile. The experience brings up a good point about procedure prototyping in RPG. To use a subprocedure requires a procedure prototype. The prototype defines the subprocedure’s interface–the list of parameters, how each parameter is defined, and so forth. RPG programmers commonly use the /COPY and /INCLUDE directives in order to include prototypes in the modules that need them. We have talked about this

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• So That’s What My Database Looks Like

  July 30, 2008 Paul Tuohy

  Today’s databases can be complex creatures with lots and lots of dependencies. Once upon a time all you had to worry about was what logical files were built over a physical and whether or not it was attached to a journal. But today you can have view, indexes, constraints (key, foreign key and check), triggers and journals related to a table (physical file). You can make use of the Display Database Relationships (DSPDBR) and Display File Definition (DSPFD) to see these relationships but, let’s be honest; these aren’t exactly the easiest reports to read. Alternatively, you could use some of

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• Admin Alert: Moving i5/OS Resources on the Fly

  July 30, 2008 Joe Hertvik

  With the newer Power i, System i, and i Series machines, IBM provides the ability to reconfigure your CPU and Main Memory (RAM) configurations on the fly. This week I’ll show you how to set up your system so that you can automatically transfer CPU capability and memory between systems. It’s not difficult, as long as you have the right version of the Hardware Management Console (HMC). A Framework For Moving Resources The best way to teach is by example, so let’s create a framework scenario where I can illustrate the concepts and techniques involved. Let’s say that our example

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• Control the Library List from a SQL Server Linked Server Definition

  July 23, 2008 Hey, Mike

  We are having more and more users call AS/400 jobs from a SQL Server session on their PCs, and we have trouble giving them the proper library list. Usually, just giving them the libraries in QUSRLIBL works fine. Is there a way to make sure every user, regardless of originating machine or system, gets the library list values of QUSRLIBL? –Barry Barry, I’m guessing that you’re using the SQL Server’s linked server facility to connect to the AS/400. If so, the first thing you need to do is check the linked server’s data provider. SQL Server will use either an

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• Print Part of an IFS File

  July 23, 2008 Hey, Ted

  Let’s say I have an IFS file with several thousand lines in it. Let’s say I want to print a few lines of that file. My current method is to copy the IFS file to another file, use Edit File (EDTF) with the copy to delete the lines I don’t want, and use EDTF’s Print command to get the report. Please tell me there’s an easier way. –Bob I recommend two Qshell commands. Sed, the stream editor, can select the lines you want to print. The Rfile utility can send them to a printer. Now, how do you want

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