Category: Technical Articles
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Data-Queues and DB2 Services
In this article I will be taking a look at how DB2 SQL Services can help with using data-queues. Data-queues are a great way for open source to communicate with traditional objects on the IBM i. For example, an RPG program may place order details on a data-queue, where a Node.js program will pick up…
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The new new in the New Navigator for i
The New Navigator for i has the potential to change the way people work with IBM i. If you are a developer or a system administrator, it does not matter here. Up to now we have all been using 5250 emulation, some of us on a daily basis. This New Navigator for i brings DB2…
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Overview of New Navigator for i
The NEW Navigator for i is a great improvement on the present Navigator. It is modern (just look at the screen shots), responsive (3 seconds vs 10 seconds), and fairly comprehensive (Active Job columns 126 vs 31). Click the icon top left (looks like a stack of books) and you get a list view. Notice…
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Power10 First Look
The waiting is over and Power10 is here. So, it is time to take our first look at the new chip architecture, in general, and the new E1080 server, in particular. There is too much material to include in one article. So, in the spirit of the new chip name, I will give you my…
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Installing ACS on Ubuntu
Recently I found myself installing Ubuntu 20.04 on a desktop in the office. Long story short I wanted to (dis)prove whether a problem with the PC was due to windows power settings. Since it was there, I thought I’d take the opportunity to see how easily you can get started with ACS on Linux. For…
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Open-Source Package Management Signon
For those of you who follow either my articles on PowerWire or my videos at learning.formaserve.co.uk you will know my inclination over the past few years is in Open-sourceon the IBM i, and one of the easiest ways of obtaining packages is via the Access for Client Solutions (ACS) application from IBM, unless you are…
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A Java on IBM i Intro
A bit different this one. I was recently asked by a fellow IBM Champion to give him a quick run through on Java on the IBM i, so I thought I would write a quick article on this topic for others out there. Installation of Java Java has to be installed on our IBM i…
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A Screen a Story – to desire or to require
You may think that a Hardware Management Console (HMC) is a luxury that is only needed by larger POWER user environments but in this article I am going to try and explain why you should think again. A LAN console may be technically sufficient for your needs and does not put much weight on your…
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Removing drives from guest partitions
“You’ve not done a lot during lockdown, so it’s time to trim the fat.” Technically words from my GP, but I figured perhaps I could apply it to my partitions as well! To set the scene, I want to do a system save of a Power7 with the slight issue that the tape drive isn’t…
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A screen a story – to include or to filter
Once in while an ad hoc job ends up on your desk. A while ago I had such a day, although the disk space usage was around 70 %, the backup of the Integrated file System (IFS) part of the system was consuming more and more time every night. The decision was made not to…
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Who is using that IFS object?
Sometimes the simplest of questions that come into our support desk can fill us with dread and before the advent of IBM i Services, finding out which job had a lock on a particular IFS object was definitely one such question. Back in the olden days we would have to write a custom program or…
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IBM Champion Tweets
As you will hopefully know, in my last few arcticles for PowerWire, I have been writing about retreiving tweets and storing them in a SQLite database on the IBM i. I have a scheduled job on my IBM i that finds the tweets that have the hash tag #IBMChampion. Now we have a few weeks…