• Consider Modernizing Your Approach to IBM i Security, Too

  November 10, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Many IBM i users are facing the reality that they need to modernize their IBM i applications, especially those based on monolithic blocks of fixed-format RPG. But other aspects of the IBM i experience can use some renovating too, including how organizations manage their security settings. Luckily, in the last few Technology Refreshes to IBM i, IBM has provided a slew of new SQL-based services for doing just that.

  Traditionally on IBM i, administrators had two main approaches for viewing and changing security settings. They could view and control the settings directly using commands, often automated through CL programs. Or …

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• End of Life Looms for PHP 7.3

  October 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  Organizations that are running PHP version 7.3 have just over a month to upgrade to a newer version and avoid losing bug fixes and security fixes when 7.3 hits the end of life (EOL) on December 6. The good news is that PHP version 7.4 and 8.0 are stable and will be supported for some time. The not-so-good news is it appears a large number of IBM i shops are still running older releases of the PHP language.

  According to an informal poll conducted by Seiden Group last month, about half of the IBM i shops that participated in a …

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• New Nav Puts SQL Services Within Reach

  September 15, 2021 Alex Woodie

  IBM delivered new Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 last week, and there’s a lot of good stuff in there. Arguably one of the biggest announcements is the overhaul of IBM i Navigator, which the folks at IBM have taken to calling “New Nav.” But what makes New Nav so special?

  IBM rewrote New Nav from the ground up in Angular, a JavaScript framework for building Web and mobile applications, and PrimeNG, a popular component library for Angular. The combination of these two technologies gives New Nav a fresh-looking interface that will appeal to users of all …

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• Surprise! It’s IBM i Technology Refresh Time

  September 13, 2021 Alex Woodie

  IBM surprised the midrange world last week by announcing Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4, which became generally available on Friday. The fall TRs, which typically are announced in October, brought support for the new Power10-based Power E1080 server in addition to a slew of enhancements to the operating system and surrounding IBM i products.

  The big piece of news with the new TRs – IBM i TR 7.3 TR11 and 7.4 TR5 – is support for servers based on IBM’s speedy new Power10 processor, which is the first Power chip based on its 7 nanometer …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 16

  April 19, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  This is what we refer to as Download Heaven here at the IBM i PTF Guide. There is a lot of stuff going on this week. So brace yourself. First, there are new cumulative PTF package updates, or Cumes, as well as the new Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4. There is also a new release of Access Client Solutions.

  Here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level:

  PTF Groups 7.4:

  • Technology Refresh 4
  • Latest Cumulative PTF Package C1091740
  • SAP support required PTF list
  • IBM HTTP Server for i
  • IBM i

  …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 15

  April 14, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  It’s Ketchup Day here at the IBM i PTF Guide, now that we are back in the groove and getting them back on the normal Wednesday track.

  There was a little bit going in this week, ahead of the launch of the Technology Refreshes for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4, which were unveiled this week and which The Four Hundred will be analyzing in detail over the coming weeks. Many parts of the software updates will be available starting April 16, but the Database Group for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 and the Db2 Mirror …

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• IBM Completes Migration of Knowledge Center to IBM Documentation

  April 7, 2021 Alex Woodie

  For years, the IBM Knowledge Center has been the go-to place to get technical information about how things work in IBM i. Got a question about RPG opcodes or ALLOBJ authority? The Knowledge Center was the place for you. As part of its broader overhaul of its online resources and properties, IBM recently completed the migration of its Knowledge Center to the new site, called IBM Documentation.

  IBM i professionals can find all of the content they have grown accustomed to finding at the Knowledge Center on the new IBM Documentation site, which can be found at www.ibm.com/docs/en. There …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 13

  March 31, 2021 Doug Bidwell

  There is a lot of stuff going on this week. First, there are patches for Db2 Web Query, but only for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4, and we have to wonder if this will eventually be backported to IBM i 7.2 and maybe even IBM i 7.1 given that release has been given extended extended support and is not available on Power9 in limited form in logical partitions.

  There are also three security issues affecting the IBM i platform, as follows:

  • Security Bulletin: IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime for IBM i is affected by CVE-2020-14803 and

  …

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• IBM i 7.1 Extended Out To 2024 And Up To The IBM Cloud

  March 1, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  In case you have not figured it out, Big Blue has finally figured out that IBM i 7.1 is a wall that a lot of customers can’t get over. Which is something we have been saying for a long time. And to IBM’s credit, it is doing something about it. A bunch of things, as it turns out, and as part of the February 23 announcements last week, IBM did a few more things that will increase the long-term viability of this release.

  IBM i 7.1 went off regular support back on April 30, 2018, which was almost three years …

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• IBM i Software And Power Systems Upgrades Keep Rolling Forward

  January 18, 2021 Timothy Prickett Morgan

  During tough economic times, I am fond of reminding people – and especially myself as I try to remain calm in a recession or whatever the heck this is we are dealing with now during the coronavirus pandemic – that business, in the aggregate, never goes to zero. No matter how bad it gets, thus far in the modern era starting perhaps with the Renaissance and maybe even longer but certainly since the agricultural and industrial revolutions in the 1700s, people still need stuff and they need people to grow or make it.

  That doesn’t mean it is easy, however. …

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