i Can use IBM DVD Images with my USB 3.0 Adapter

IBM i began supporting USB flash drives back in 2012, but their use was restricted to save/restore and IFS options (refer to the blog IBM i Now Supports USB Flash Drives for additional background information). Many users downloaded the IBM Fix (PTF) DVD images, copied them to a flash drive, and then discovered they could not access the fixes because the entire DVD image was “just a file”.

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Meet the PowerHA Family

IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for i was first introduced in 6.1 and has received continual updates and new functionality since then. As PowerHA has grown, new features such as the recent HyperSwap technology continue to bring even more high availability and disaster recovery options to meet the ever-changing and diverse needs of businesses around the world.

PowerHA now offers solutions that fit customers both at the largest end of the spectrum with the largest Power Systems and latest storage area network (SAN) technologies as well as those with just one or two cores on internal storage.

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PowerHA for SMB

I’ve heard many clients state that PowerHA is too complex or expensive for the small-to-medium IBM i environments, so this week, Steve Finnes is here on ‘i Can’ to answer a few questions.

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Leveraging SSDs and IASPs with BRMS Migration

One significant change in IBM i 7.2 is the modernization of storage tiering in the BRMS migration function. In prior releases, the migration function in BRMS works only for library migration between auxiliary storage pools (ASPs) based on the specified policies for frequency of use. However, in IBM i 7.2 with PTF SI57831 applied, the BRMS migration function is enhanced to support the migration to independent ASPs (IASPs), migration of *LNK lists for IFS files, and migration of database files to different SSD and HDD storage tiers within the same ASP.

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Tracking IBM i System Limits, Part 2

My last blog was an Introduction to IBM i System Limits and Maximum Capacities. In that blog, I introduced System Health Services, which allow you to track system limits. System limits tracking support is provided via Db2 PTFs, so be sure to install the latest Db2 Group PTF when you start to explore this capability. The limits tracked vary by release and Db2 Group PTF level. 

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