New with the 7.3 release is the ability to automatically download PTF groups to your IBM i partition. The PTFs are downloaded in save files and stored on your system, ready to be installed. This enhancement was requested by requirements received through the COMMON Americas and COMMON Europe Advisory Councils.
In order to use this new feature, you need to be able to connect to IBM to download PTFs. I assume all of you have done that already; a SNDSRVRQS *TEST is a simple way to determine if you can connect to IBM.
To enable the automatic download of PTFs, you have to change the service attributes. There are two new parameters on the Change Service Attributes (CHGSRVA) command:
- Order PTFs Automatically (ORDPTFAUTO): This is a simple *YES / *NO parameter that simple tells the system that you do (or do not) want to order PTFs automatically. The default is *NO, so you must change this parameter to have the system automatically download PTFs for you.
- Order PTF Groups (ORDPTFGRP): This parameter allows you to specify which PTF groups you want to automatically download.
Once you change your service attributes, you will find a scheduled job that will automatically order the PTF groups for you. This job is scheduled to run on the first on the month, but you can modify the job schedule entry to change that. The scheduled job will run and automatically download the PTF groups as specified in the service attributes.
Display Job Schedule Entry Details
System: DMI2
Job: QORDPTFGRP Entry number: 000001 Status: SCD
Last attempted submission:
Status . . . . . . . . . . . : Job not previously submitted.
Schedule date . . . . . . . . : *MONTHSTR
Schedule time . . . . . . . . : 00:01:00
Frequency . . . . . . . . . . : *MONTHLY
Recovery action . . . . . . . : *SBMRLS
Next submit date . . . . . . . : 12/01/16
Command . . . . . . . . . . . : QSYS/CALL PGM(QSYS/QESORDPT)
After the scheduled job has run and the PTF groups have been downloaded, you will see the uninstalled groups when you work with your PTF groups. You can then install the groups when you are ready to do so.
Display Job Schedule Entry Details
System: DMI2
Job: QORDPTFGRP Entry number: 000001 Status: SCD
Last attempted submission:
Status . . . . . . . . . . . : Job not previously submitted.
Schedule date . . . . . . . . : *MONTHSTR
Schedule time . . . . . . . . : 00:01:00
Frequency . . . . . . . . . . : *MONTHLY
Recovery action . . . . . . . : *SBMRLS
Next submit date . . . . . . . : 12/01/16
Command . . . . . . . . . . . : QSYS/CALL PGM(QSYS/QESORDPT)
After the scheduled job has run and the PTF groups have been downloaded, you will see the uninstalled groups when you work with your PTF groups. You can then install the groups when you are ready to do so.
The Power Down System (PWRDWNSYS) command was also enhanced with a Install PTF device (INSPTFDEV) parameter. This allows PTFs to be installed delayed before powering down the partition. This parameter defaults to *NONE; *SERVICE or a device name (which could be a virtual device with an image catalog loaded with PTF image files) can be specified.
You can also review and install your PTFs with Navigator for i. The nice thing about the Navigator interface is that you don’t have to use F11 to see the description of the various groups.
This blog post was originally published on IBMSystemsMag.com and is reproduced here by permission of IBM Systems Media.