IBM i QuickTip: Time to Install Cume PTFs for i 6.1 or i 7.1?

Looking at IT Jungle’s latest System i PTF Guide, I noticed the following new cumulative PTF groups have been released for the IBM i 6.1 and 7.1 operating systems.

• i 6.1 – 2122 – Released around May 1, 2012
• i 7.1 – 2115 – Released around April 16, 2012

The last cumulative PTFs released before these packages were 1270 for i 7.1 (around September 27, 2011) and 1256 for i 6.1 (around September 13, 2011).

Which means that if you don’t have the latest cumulative PTFs installed (and their accompanying HIPERs, DBs, and other group PTFs installed), your operating system fixes are soon going to be at least a year old. And given the 24x7x365 nature of most business that run IBM i, I’d venture to say there are a lot of people running cumulative PTFs that are even older than the September 2011 groups.

To check what cumulative PTF package you’re running, type in the Display PTF command (DSPPTF) and look at the top PTF listed under the 5761999 Product ID for IBM i 6.1 or 5770999 Product ID for IBM i 7.1. If your cumulative package is at TL61256 or earlier for i 6.1 or TL71270 or earlier for i 7.1, it’s probably time to test and install new cumulative PTFs and attending HIPERs, DBs, and other group PTFs on your operating system. You may be running without the most current fixes and that could cause problems in your environment.

If you want to see a good example of what can happen when you’re running down-level PTFs, take a look at my recent IT Jungle article where my shop had to go through three emergency IPLs in six months and the solution for two of the IPLs was to install current PTFs.

So keeping current on PTFs can make a difference. I generally try (but don’t often succeed) in making sure my PTFs are not more than a year old.

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