As is now standard practice, IBM i 7.5 and 7.4 have received timely technology refreshes in TR4 (7.5) and TR10 (7.4). As ever, they are feature-packed but what are the standout enhancements designed to improve IBM i System Administration?
IBM Navigator for i
IBM Navigator for i now includes the welcome integration of the Administration Runtime Expert (ARE) Console. ARE is designed for System Administrators to help streamline and enhance the management of IBM i runtime environments. With a focus on proactive administration, Administration Runtime Expert equips administrators with insights into a variety of areas, and by leveraging the tool to its full capabilities better-informed decisions can be made. The integration allows the viewing of report files which was previously handled outside of Navigator. For now, templates are managed by the heritage interface, but I suspect that full integration is on the way in the future. In addition, two new authorization lists QNAVARECON (Console) and QNAVARETMP (Templates) have been made available.
Want to get started with Administration Runtime Expert on IBM i, take advantage of the recent Maxava white paper and associated webinar.
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Another welcome addition to Navigator is the new Data Mart feature now associated with the audit journal. Data Mart’s allow you to visually show audit types of interest over multiple days making it easier to identify areas of concern.
Furthermore, IWS, HTTP and IAS servers can now be stopped and started from within Navigator, plus log files can be viewed.
Access Client Solutions
Version V1.1.9.5 has been announced with a plethora of improvements that span Schemas, Visual Explain, Run SQL Scripts, 5250 (Display and Printer Emulation), IFS, Data Transfer, and Open Source Package Management.
The standout elements especially useful to System Administrators include:
· The ability to be able to copy text from the useful joblog viewer.
· Further examples added to the popular ‘insert from example’ utility within Run SQL Scripts.
· Visual Explain, a powerful tool designed to help analyze the performance of SQL statements has been improved from a useability perspective.
Further detailed information can be found on the IBM Access Client Solutions webpage.
IBM i Services
A regular feature of the Technology Refreshes are IBM i Services. Typically used by System Administrators via RUNSQL within Access Client Solutions, they once again have had 4 services enhanced along with 15 completely new services.
The standout new services being QSYS2.COMPARE.IFS which enables the user to run comparisons across two different IFS folders, optionally including subdirectories, and QSYS2.SYSTEM.OBJECT.TYPES which enables a simple method of looking for objects system wide, for example SAVFs.
Db2 Mirror for i
Improvements have been made in IBM’s continuous availability solution in Db2 Mirror for i. Most notable are the introduction of a monitor for disk attention situations in IAPs along with performance improvements centred around the replication criteria list and resynchronization.
Although not strictly associated with the latest technology refreshes, there have been some other notable newsworthy items of late.
Service Extension
The IBM i operating system 7.1 running on Power9 (it will not run on POWER10) reached its final Service Extension at the end of April 2024. 7.2 is currently supported via a Service Extension through to April 2026, and 7.3 until May 2026.
It’s worth noting that running on older, unsupported operating systems can compromise your system's security, lead to compatibility issues, and expose you to legal and compliance risks. It's essential to keep your environment up-to-date to mitigate these risks and ensure a more secure and efficient computing environment.
Maxava’s Migrate Live™ services will support you when you are upgrading your IBM i environment or migrating to a new system – but don’t want the problem of managing downtime or causing disruption to normal business operations.
Simplify IBM i Server Migrations with Maxava.
IBM Power Virtual Server
IBM’s public cloud offering for IBM i (plus AIX and Linux) continues to gain traction in the market and is now available in 21 data centers around the globe. The latest addition being in India.
To understand more about Power Virtual Server along with migration techniques and strategies please review the Maxava and IBM collaborative webinar Migrating IBM i From On-Premise to Power Virtual Server: Benefits and Best Practices
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