i Can Blog Archive
Technical Tips for i by Dawn May
IBM i QSYS2.Services_Info and Navigator for i
The QSYS2.Services_Info service is an easy way to see all of the available services along with an example of each. It shows both the IBM i Services and the Db2 for i Services, which are the ones specifically related to the database. This service was made available with 7.3 and added to 7.2 via PTF.
read more…Search the Job Log of an Active Job
Job logs for ended jobs, where the job log is in a spooled file, are easy to search on the green screen. When viewing the spooled job log, you simply enter your search text in the find field and press F16. In addition, you can use F14 to limit the columns in which your search is performed, then press F16 to search.
However, when using the green screen, there is no find field when viewing the job log of an active job. Jobs with pending job logs have a similar problem.
read more…Improved Temporary Storage Tracking for IBM i (Part 9)
IBM continues to enhance temporary storage tracking and management, which was significantly improved beginning with IBM i 7.2.
read more…Copy Performance Data using ACS IFS Tasks
This week, I want to review considerations to copy performance data to a different partition. Many IBM i shops may want to analyze performance data on a partition other than the production system. The Performance Data Investigator uses SQL, and it may be desirable to keep that SQL workload off your production partition.
read more…Editing a File in the IFS with Navigator for i
Navigator allows you to edit IFS files with a simple text editor.
Last week I compared the features of the Integrated File System between Navigator for i and Access Client Solutions in Working with the IFS: Access Client Solutions vs Navigator for i. One key difference is with Navigator you can edit files in the IFS, while with ACS you can only view files. I had also previously written about the support to edit files in Navigator with the IFS Enhancements to Navigator for i article. Navigator allows you to edit IFS files with a simple text editor.
read more…Working With the IFS: Access Client Solutions vs. Navigator for i
You can access the Integrated File System (IFS) using either the Navigator for i web console or Access Client Solutions (ACS). ACS added support to work with the IFS back in October 2016. There are differences between the capabilities; which interface you use will depend upon what you want to accomplish.
read more…How to Save 5250 Configurations as Default Profile
There’s a handy (but somewhat hidden) feature that allows you to save customizations made to your 5250 session configurations. It also allows you to have those customizations be the default settings for any new sessions.
read more…Workload Groups and Performance Considerations
I’ve written about workload groups in the past in Workload Group Configuration with IBM i 7.3 and Manage Workloads better with Workload Groups.
This blog reviews how to understand possible performance implications when using workload groups.
read more…IBM i 7.2 Improved Temporary Storage Tracking (Part 8)
Temporary storage is tracked in a set of buckets; each active job has its own bucket, and there are global buckets used for temporary storage, but not associated with a specific job.
This week I want to let you know of an article written by IBMer Tim Clark of IBM that was recently published on the IBM i Developer site titled: Temporary storage and the database, Part 2 – Manage your Maintained Temporary Indexes (MTIs).
read more…Subsystem Management With Navigator for i, Part 2
Last year, I wrote about Subsystem Management with Navigator for i, which summarized the enhancements that were made to allow you to view and modify your subsystem configurations via the graphical user interface.
read more…Active Memory Pools with Navigator for i
On the “green screen” you can see what pool a job is running in with Work with Active Jobs (WRKACTJOB); press F11 one time and you’ll find a column with the pool number. That’s nice, but you need to know the description of the pool that number is associated with.
read more…How to Identify Your Active 5250 Session
I’ve been using tabbed sessions in the ACS 5250 emulator for a long time now. I really like the tab feature; tabs along with watermarks made it easy to identify which system I am logged in to. With a bit of configuration, you can make it easy to identify the active tab as well as customize the appearance of inactive tabs.
read more…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”.
read more…IBM i Embraces Syslog
Syslog is a very popular reporting system that runs on many devices and OSes. It uses various parts and programs to encode, transmit, consolidate, and analyze messages from a wide range of devices. Everything from Windows and UNIX to firewalls and IoT devices participate in sending and centralizing messages from across the enterprise. That is, except for IBM i. Of course, we always must be different (usually for good reasons). However, when a security team wants to have an enterprise-wide view of events with a tool such as a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), we sometimes feel left out. Until now!
read more…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.
read more…PowerVM LPM/SRR Automation Tool
Earlier this month I wrote about PowerVM Live Partition Mobility and Simplified Remote Restart, and I hope you want to get your I/T environment LPM and SRR capable to exploit these features.
read more…STACK_INFO IBM i Service
IBM i Services have become quite popular, and it has become typical for new and enhanced services to be included with IBM i announcements. STACK_INFO is one of the new services that is part of the recent IBM i 7.3 TR3 / IBM i 7.2 TR7 announcement.
read more…PowerVM Live Partition Mobility and Simplified Remote Restart
This article explains how to leverage two IBM Power Server features to reduce downtime for maintenance and migrations and unplanned outages. Let’s start by reviewing some important PowerVM features that give customers more flexibility to keep their LPARs up and running for a variety of data center changes.
read more…System Monitoring for HTTP
I’ve written about system monitors in Navigator for i two times before; first when system monitors were added to Navigator in IBM i 7.2, and then later, when system monitors were enhanced with Visualize Monitor Data in the 7.3 release (which has also been taken back to IBM i 7.2).
read more…Manage Trigger Programs in Production
Trigger programs are a data-centric technology to deploy business logic by establishing code that will run (fire) when the associated triggering event occurs.
read more…