• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 43

  October 24, 2022 Doug Bidwell

  We are happy to report that there are no new security vulnerabilities in the IBM i stack and related open-source software this week – at least as far as we know. So, rejoice in that. There are a bunch of HIPER PTFs and fixes for Java that span the current IBM i releases on support and extended support, so be aware of those.

  And just a reminder to keep checking out The Four Hundred in each issue as we drill down into new details related to the Tech Refreshes announced this month, and that are coming in December.

  Now, here …

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• Are Code Freezes a Thing of the Past?

  October 5, 2022 Alex Woodie

  After months of work on your modernization project, the consultant helping you is almost done. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the consultant is now asking you to put a code freeze on changes to your old application. It’s not clear whether the code freeze will lasts two months or two years, but it’s absolutely necessary, you’re told.

  That’s the scenario that many enterprises have faced over the years. Whether it’s a monolithic RPG application running on IBM i or a distributed Node.js application running in the cloud, if there are tight dependencies in the components that …

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• Software Supply Chain Attacks Are A Growing Threat

  October 3, 2022 Alex Woodie

  There’s a lot going on in the world right now, so you probably don’t need something more to worry about. But the cat-and-mouse world of cybersecurity never sleeps, and one of the threats keeping the good guys up at night right now is the growing risk of software supply chain attacks. Unfortunately, security through obscurity won’t provide as much protection for the IBM i server this time around.

  Just what is a software supply chain attack? According to the U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a software supply chain attack occurs when “a cyber threat actor infiltrates a …

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• Thoroughly Modern: Latest IT Trends – Bring Security, Speed, And Consistency To IT With Automation

  August 8, 2022 Alan Hamm and Chris Koppe

  The irony of many IT departments is that they have spent many decades automating aspects of the business, literally encoding business processes and interactions with customers, partners, and suppliers to make those processes consistent and fast, but many of the processes used in the IT department itself are done manually and rely on the “tribal knowledge” of the system and application experts.

  This is not only not necessary in many cases today, thanks to a myriad of automation tools that can be brought to bear on IT operations, but it is also dangerous and extremely risky. The systems that run …

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• Guru: IBM i Experience Sharing, Case 5 – Using IBM i PDI Charts To Answer Performance Questions

  July 18, 2022 Satid Singkorapoom

  During my long career as an IBM i performance specialist, it was natural for people to ask me performance-related questions of various kinds. But in many cases, it seemed to me that the customer could not understand my answers, and I could not provide supporting evidence due to the lack of a performance reporting tool that could produce easy-to-understand explanatory information. The situation changed for the better with the availability of IBM i Performance Data Investigator (PDI) tool as of release 6.1. I would say that the PDI tool provides charts of information that resemble those used by business people …

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• Support For Java 7 Ending WAS 8.5 On IBM i

  July 18, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBM i shops that are running the traditional version of WebSphere Application Server 8.5 atop a Java 7 codebase will need to upgrade to Java 8 or risk running out of support from IBM.

  At the end of July, IBM will cease to support WAS Traditional 8.5 running on JDK 7.0/7.1. Customers will need to upgrade their WAS 8.5 environments to JDK 8.0 to maintain support with IBM. IBM currently provides full support for WAS 8.5 and WAS 9.0 running on JDK 8.0. You can read more about this on the Official Support Statement for the IBM WebSphere Application Server …

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• Merlin Development Framework Now Supports IBM i 7.3

  July 12, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Big Blue has decided to support IBM i version 7.3 with Merlin, the new application development framework that was introduced in May as part of the IBM i 7.5 launch. The decision should help widen the potential user base for Merlin, even while discouraging operating system upgrades.

  Merlin is a new software package from IBM designed to enable IBM i developers to create new ILE programs from scratch or to modernize existing ones. The software, which is officially called Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, is based on a mix of open source and proprietary tools from IBM, Red Hat, …

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• IBM Mulls Using DataMigrator as Cloud Warehouse Pipeline

  June 29, 2022 Alex Woodie

  IBMers are playing around with an update to a little-known ETL tool called DataMigrator for i that would make it easier for IBM i shops to move transactional data to cloud-based data warehousing platforms. The update would use Apache Kafka for the final connection to the cloud.

  DataMigrator ETL Extension, as the product is formally known, is an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool created by IBM back in 2015. The product was developed to work with Db2 Web Query, the Java-based business intelligence tool that it OEMed from Information Builders (now owned by TIBCO).

  DataMigrator for …

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• Multiple Security Vulnerabilities Patched on IBM i

  June 22, 2022 Alex Woodie

  In recent weeks, IBM has disclosed a handful of vulnerabilities in its IBM i operating system and related IBM i products, including Db2 Mirror, WebSphere, Navigator for i, the Java development and runtime tools, and OmniFind Text Search Server. IBM has shipped PTFs for the security problems, which range in severity from medium to high.

  IBM warned of security holes in the HTTP Server (the one powered by Apache) in a June 13 security bulletin. The flaws, identified as CVE-2022-22720 and CVE-2022-22721, carry the risk of a HTTP request smuggling that could poison the Web cache, bypass firewalls, and …

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• IBM Looking To Open Up Debugging On IBM i

  June 8, 2022 Alex Woodie

  Things are moving quickly now in the IBM i development world, particularly when it comes to lightweight, Web-based IDEs, such as IBM’s new Merlin. However, the need to debug programs and the lack of a debugger for these IDEs is causing a bit of a roadblock to developer productivity with these newer IDEs. That’s why IBM is seeking a way to get IBM i debugging capabilities into more people’s hands.

  The official IBM i Debugger product is bundled as a JAR file with IBM Toolbox for Java, and is directly integrated with Rational Developer for i (RDi), IBM’s flagship …

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