Category Archives: IBM i Tech Info

Best Practices: Alway use a Shared System Console for Your IBM i Partition

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When working on an IBM i partition system console, the best practice is to always start the console as a shared system console. Here’s why. Continue reading

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Will Opening the CEC Cover Turn Off Your Power 7 System?

Be careful when you take the cover off your Power 7 IBM i Central Electronics Complex unit (CEC, commonly pronounced “Keck”). You could accidentally power down your entire Power 7 system. Continue reading

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IBM Updates External Storage Summary for IBM i on Power & PureFlex

IBM recently updated its IBM i on Power Systems External Storage Support matrix summary, during the 12-3-13 to 12-5-13 timeframe. Continue reading

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Translating IBM i Communication Traces to Wireshark Format

Did you know that you can get IBM i communications trace data in Wireshark format? Continue reading

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IT Jungle: Four Ways to Move an IBM i Partition, Part 1

IT Jungle just posted my latest article on the four different ways to move an IBM i partition from one machine to another. The four ways are: Restore in place or to a new location with same system name Restore … Continue reading

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Running a Batch IBM i Full System Save–Is It Worth It?

Here’s a link to a nice IBM post about how to run a full system save in batch mode while the system is restricted. Batch saves in restricted state are made possible by a Batch Time Limit parameter (BCHTIMLMT) added … Continue reading

Posted in IBM i Tech Info, IBM i Tools | 8 Comments

Using Generic IBM i Sign-ons for Reaching a Second System

Let’s say you have the following IBM i partitions at your location: PROD1 = Production machine (system 1) DEV1 = Development machine (system 2) Everyone has to log on to PROD1 but only selected people need to log on to DEV1 (mostly programmers … Continue reading

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IT Jungle: Minimizing IBM i IPL Surprises With The IPL Startup Kit

IT Jungle has posted my current article on properly prepping for an IBM i IPL by creating and using an IPL Startup Kit. I cover the following territory in this article: To help prevent surprises, here’s an IPL startup kit … Continue reading

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IT Jungle Potpourri: Determining IBM i Library Backup Dates, Limiting FTP Access, and Autostarting TCP/IP Servers

Click here to read a fast-moving IT Jungle article I wrote that details how to do the following IBM i administrative tasks:     How to determine the last time your IBM i libraries were backed up and whether they … Continue reading

Posted in FTP, IBM i Tech Info, IBM i Tools | 1 Comment

IBM i QuickTip: When You Can’t FTP from a Windows Desktop to an IBM i

Here’s a common fix for when you can’t perform a Windows FTP transfer with your IBM i partition. It’s common for a Windows-to-IBM i FTP transfer to get blocked when the Windows desktop firewall blocks port 20 traffic to the Windows … Continue reading

Posted in FTP, IBM i Tech Info, IBM i Tools | 4 Comments

IT Jungle: The 4 GB Access Path Size Time Bomb

From my latest IT Jungle article: The time bomb I’m referring to is the Access path size (ACCPTHSIZ) parameter in some application files. In older versions of the OS/400 operating system (the precursor to the modern IBM i OS), the … Continue reading

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IBM’s Damaged Object Detection (DOD) Tool for i 6.1 & 7.1

IBM is delivering a Damaged Object Detection (DOD) tool via PTF for IBM i 6.1 and 7.1. If you’ve ever had a backup stop dead in its tracks because of a damaged object, you’ll be interested in this puppy. The PTF … Continue reading

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IBM i QuickTip: IBM i 6.1 Fix for When You Can’t Start an FTP Session after a 6.1 Upgrade

During a recent IBM i high availability exercise, we found that we couldn’t use FTP on our Capacity BackUp server (CBU). Every time, we tried to start a FTP session to the CBU, the server would close the session and … Continue reading

Posted in FTP, IBM i Tech Info, IBM i Tools | 1 Comment

IT Jungle: A Complete Primer for Setting Up PC5250 SSL Connectivity

IT Jungle just finished posting the second part of my two-part series on setting IBM i Access for Windows 7.1 for PC5250 SSL connectivity. The big push these days is to dump PC5250 sessions for your IBM i access and … Continue reading

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IBM i: Do You Own Your Power System’s Enterprise Enablement Licenses?

In IBM parlance, Enterprise Enablement is the “…Capacity on Demand Advanced function that enables the system for 5250 online transaction processing.” It’s basically what allows you to run interactive green-screen applications on IBM i machines, and it is a machine … Continue reading

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