• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 21

  May 27, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  As we report elsewhere in this issue, there really is not going to be a Technology Refresh as we know it and as we were all lead to believe was coming for IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4, but rather just a refresh of all the pertinent groups through the PTF process.

  Also, IBM’s Entitled Systems Support (ESS) has finally finished shedding its old coat, and the new one contains current resaves and a new way of asking for things! So be aware of that and take a gander. Moreover, Domino links have changed, thanks to Michael Mayer in …

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• Database Enhancements Galore In Technology Refresh

  April 20, 2020 Alex Woodie

  Db2 for i is the beating heart of the IBM i server. There’s no doubt about that. So when IBM delivers the next set of Technology Refreshes (TRs) for IBM i 7.3 and 7.4 next month, you can bet that they’ll be loaded with new and improved features to keep the database humming.

  To get up to speed with the database-related enhancements in IBM i 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8, IT Jungle caught up to Scott Forstie, a senior technical staff member at IBM’s lab in Rochester, Minnesota, and the database architect for Db2 for i.

  There’s …

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• Here’s What’s In the Latest IBM i Technology Refreshes

  April 15, 2020 Alex Woodie

  As expected, IBM today officially unveiled its spring Technology Refreshes for IBM i. Among the goodies that will become available for IBM i 7.4 TR2 or IBM i 7.3 TR8 (or both) are enhancements to Db2 Mirror, a new approach to tape library virtualization, improvements to open source, and new features and functionality around Db2, RPG, RDi, and security, too.

  Months ago, IBM execs circled April 14 on their calendars as the day for the big IBM 7.4 TR2 and IBM i 7.3 TR8 reveal, with the idea that the following week’s POWERUp conference in Atlanta, Georgia (now canceled, but …

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• Big Blue Changes Gears Slightly With IBM i TR Plan

  April 6, 2020 Alex Woodie

  The coronavirus has infected over a million people around the globe and forced hundreds of millions of employees to work from home. But it won’t stop IBM from announcing the next batch of Technology Refreshes, ostensibly IBM i version 7.4 TR2 and IBM i version 7.3 TR8, sometime in the next couple of weeks. Its plans for sharing the information, however, have changed.

  IBM has essentially shuttered its lab in Rochester, Minnesota, which falls under that state’s social distancing orders to help prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. More than 80 percent of the United States is …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 9

  March 2, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  There is rarely a week that there isn’t something going on with PTF patches for the IBM i operating system, its integrated database, and the whole stack of software wrapping around that operating system. This would be one of those normal weeks, where there is nothing too crazy going on but there is stuff to pay attention to.

  We also had a leap year Saturday for the IBM i PTF Guide, which doesn’t happen very often. The Gregorian calendar has a 400-year – well, 146,097-day – cycle, and of these days, there are 97 days that correspond to February …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 6

  February 12, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  Alright people, the big news for the week is that Rational Developer for i, version 9.6.0.7, has just been released. Other than that, it has been relatively quiet on the PTF front. There are some nips and tucks for the three releases that are still being supported.

  They are as follows:

  PTF Groups 7.4

  • SAP support requited PTF list for IBM i

  PTF Groups 7.3

  • SAP support requited PTF list for IBM i

  PTF Groups 7.2

  • SAP support requited PTF list for IBM i
  • Temporary Storage PTFs

  PTF Groups 7.1

  • Nothing to see here, move along. . . .

  New …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 22, Number 2

  January 15, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  As you well know, there is an issue with LPARs that are hanging on machines that have the latest Technology Refreshes applied to IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 in cases where the Hardware Management Console (HMC) is not managing the partitions. The details of the issue with the Technology Refreshes are outlined in APAR MA48101, and what it means is that a guest partition created with Virtual Partition Manager (VPM) inside SST or Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) will hang on IPL after the apply of the TRs. This gets real elaborate, so we strongly suggest you review …

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• IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Numbers 51 And 52

  January 6, 2020 Doug Bidwell

  The PTFs keep rolling even through the holidays, so this is our time to get caught up with the last two weeks of patches in 2019 as the new year is beginning.

  In PTF Number 51, we dug a little deeper into the issue we found out about just as The Four Hundred was going on hiatus where LPARs are hanging on machines that have the latest Technology Refreshes applied to IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 in cases where the Hardware Management Console (HMC) is not managing the partitions.

  The details of the issue with the Technology Refreshes …

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• Important: Some LPARs Hang With New TRs – IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 21, Number 50

  December 16, 2019 Doug Bidwell

  Listen up, folks. This one is serious. A few weeks ago, there were some bad patches on the Db2 for i database for IBM i 7.3, as we detailed here, and as last week was coming to a close, we found out that LPARs are hanging on machines that have the latest Technology Refreshes applied to IBM i 7.3 and IBM i 7.4 in cases where the Hardware Management Console (HMC) is not managing the partitions.

  The details of the issue with the Technology Refreshes are outlined in APAR MA48101, which is essentially a bug report that warns …

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• IBM i TRs Bring Database Enhancements, Too

  October 30, 2019 Alex Woodie

  The heart of the IBM i server is its database, so it’s natural that we would see some enhancements to Db2 for i with delivery of IBM i 7.4 Technology Refresh 1 and 7.3 TR 7 next month. The new features may not be earth-shaking, but they deliver some useful functionality nonetheless.

  Let’s start with some foundational changes to the database itself, including the way that database engineers architect the tables that store information in the database. With 7.4 TR1, IBM i shops can now add a new child table to the database without having an exclusive lock on the …

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