Redbook: Using independent disk pools on IBM i 6.1

The new Redbook, called “IBM i 6.1 Independent ASPs: A Guide to Quick Implementation of Independent ASPs,” includes chapters introducing independent disk pools, as well as others on managing, backup/recovery, and example hardware configurations.

A letter to Santa from the IBM System i community

The bloggers at iDevelop write to Santa with their four wishes for the System i server platform: respect, visibility, modernization, and no more name changes (at least for a while). I would add a fifth: Keep the System i identity and resist merging it completely with AIX/Unix simply because they both run on Power processors.

Changes to IBM Systems Magazine

The operation will be splitting up, providing more strategic and management news for CIOs and IT managers in its typical print format, and moving all technical tips and articles online.

AS/400 specialty engines?

In a recent column, IT Jungle suggests that IBM offer specialty engines on the IBM System i, similar to what they do with the mainframe.

Currently with its System z mainframes, IBM offers three kinds of specialty engines: the Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) to run Linux applications, the System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP) to run Java, and the System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) to run database applications, particularly DB2. Mind you, there is no physical difference between the mainframe’s central processors and its specialty engines. They’re the same chip. The difference lies in software licensing, which is free on the specialty engines.

IT Jungle thinks this philosophy could carry over to the System i and AS/400, particularly as IBM moves toward Power7-based machines:

On entry, midrange, and enterprise boxes that have more cores per chip activated, IBM would be wise to take a page out of its mainframe playbook and designate some engines for i/OS and others to run particular workloads as so-called “specialty engines.” These could be configured to run database queries, support Java virtual machines, run PHP applications, support various application modernization front ends from third-party tool suppliers, support Linux for infrastructure workloads, run firewalls, support fault tolerance and disaster recovery mirroring on a single system, or even allow for the harvesting of number-crunching capacity for analytics applications running on workstations.

While I don’t like the idea of i/OS engines carrying a premium price, lowering the overall price of a mixed workload system with i/OS and its DB2 for i database at the center of it all is a lot better than having a Power Systems i box that is too expensive to do anything but run the absolutely minimal amount of legacy code. I would prefer that these future Power7 boxes offer better value for the dollar than IBM’s AIX-DB2 combo, in fact.

The column hints at the benefit for both sides. System i pros can viably stay on the platform that they’ve know and loved, probably for decades. Meanwhile, IBM can prevent any mass migration off the System i by allowing shops to mix-and-match so-called legacy AS/400 applications with newer ones that run on Linux and PHP, for example.

Some IBM System i Redbooks

Here’s a pointer to some of the more recent IBM Redbooks around the IBM System i:

IBM Systems Director Navigator for i: Chapters in this Redbook on the systems management Web console include Network, Integrated Server Administration, File Systems, and Advanced Job Scheduler for IBM i.

End to End Performance Management on IBM i: Chapters in this self-explanatory title include Performance Management Life Cycle, Performance Data Analysis, Trending and Capacity Planning Tools, and Performance Management Best Practices.

DS8000 Copy Services for IBM i with VIOS: Chapters here include Virtualization with PowerVM, Connecting PowerVM Clients to DS8000, FlashCopy Scenarios, Metro Mirror Scenarios, and Global Mirror Scenarios.

The intermediate IBM i 6.1.1 version

I recently wrote about the next version of the IBM i operating system, formerly called i5/OS. It is due out next year. But in the meantime, IBM has come out with an intermediate version of IBM i 6.1.1. Once you get past all those decimal points, you may want to know what the heck it is, what it does, and why it might be useful to install.

For that we have Steve Will, the chief IBM i architect, who wrote about “What is This ‘.1′ Anyway?” for IBM Systems Magazine. Dawn May also writes about it in her post, “Install IBM i Over the Network.”

Several prominent speakers pull out of COMMON

Several prominent members of the System i community who usually give some of the best received presentations at COMMON user group meetings will not be doing that anymore, at least for the foreseeable future.

Jon Paris, Susan Gantner and Paul Tuohy are among the list of people who will pass on presenting at the COMMON show in Orlando next May. It is clear that COMMON’s recent cutbacks will have substantial effects on the look and feel of the show. Perhaps the biggest cut of all is COMMON’s decision to reduce compensation to volunteer speakers — whether that be in the form of a free registration, paying for travel and hotel, or other expenses. It certainly was one of the major factors that led to Paris’s and Ganter’s decision:

Had it not been for the need to examine our participation from a financial perspective, we would probably have continued on autopilot, delivering sessions along with our other volunteer duties, as we’ve done every time a COMMON conference rolled around. Being forced to think about whether we could afford to do that next year also caused us to think about why we were doing it in the first place and whether the time, money and energy we’ve been donating to COMMON represent the best way for us to help the community.

This weekend we found ourselves at the moment of truth, wrestling with the decision to either accept or decline our sessions that had been selected for the spring conference. We concluded that we still wanted to support the idea of COMMON, but increasingly it became apparent that the COMMON we wanted to support was an idealized organization that existed only in our minds. We had hoped the old COMMON could return and we worked with many other volunteers to make that a reality, but for whatever reasons COMMON’s direction seems to be set. For the time being we’ll remain members of COMMON and hope that things will change.

Paris and Gantner added that they won’t, by any means, just disappear from the System i landscape. They just plan to put their efforts into other System i educational and social endeavors, among them the Young i Professionals, iManifest, and local System i user groups.

Even those continuing to participate in COMMON shows realize the problems with the user group’s cutbacks to volunteers. Scott Klement, for example, will be going because Systemi Network is paying for him. But he said that he’s “not happy with COMMON’s attitude towards its volunteers, and (he) sincerely hope(s) they re-think their direction.”

Meanwhile, Don Rima, a longtime IBM midrange user who just recently started the Tennessee Valley Midrange User Group, let loose:

Oh, I think that Jon and Susan are the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come not only from a presenter standpoint but from an attendee standpoint. And as much as I like Jon and Susan and as super as thier presentations are, I find it hard to believe that there’s NOBODY else out there that can do presentations on RPG, ILE…etc… Yet, it was absolutely shocking to find that there were NO sessions on RPG, ILE, CL or any of the other traditional “AS/400″ languages offered at IBM’s tech conf this past September.

And if COMMON continues to capitulate to IBM’s demands that it become a AIX user group, it will also go the way of User Blue – even though User Blue had alot of help in its demise from SHARE, IMHO.

 

 

RPG Open I/O in IBM i 6.1.1 and 7.1

After attending the RPG & DB2 summit in October 2009, Profound Logic founder, Alex Roytman, got interested in some of the features that will be released in the upcoming versions of the IBM i operating system. Roytman is joined by Philip Roestamadji, marketing director at Profound Logic, and they discuss what they learned about RPG Open I/O. Two highlights include the possibility of using RPG to access non-DB2 databases, making RPG work with Oracle or MySQL databases, the other is using RPG to interface with browser applications to interface with browser applications, XML or mobile devices.

The team at Profound Logic is interested in getting feedback on what you would like them to cover in future videos. Leave your comments here or contact them directly.

Young i Professionals start Virtual Learning Center

The Young i Professionals group has launched its Virtual Learning Center, a way for IT pros go to get online tutorials on the System i platform.

One of the early goals of the group was educational, and the VLC is a step in that direction. The YiPs, which started a couple years ago and continues to chug along, have a few tutorials already up on the site, mainly on PHP, Rational Developer for System i (RDi) and WebSphere. Other categories not filled yet include others related to programming, such as RPG, Java and C, as well as hardware and operating system categories.

The free tutorials now are just text, but the VLC is able to expand to videos, Q&As and other formats.

What you can do to spur growth in System i

Trevor Perry writes this week about a recent System i conference he went to, and a panel session he moderated. Anyone who knows Perry knows that he complains about the complainers. That is, he criticizes those who bemoan platform name changes, IBM’s marketing of the System i, and so forth.

This time, however, I think he has a solid argument.

Perry recalled how, during the panel session, the discussion arose regarding the shrinking pool of System i developers out there. Some panel members pointed to the IBM Academic Initiative, which has gotten some System i-related courses in universities and community colleges. Attendees supported this kind of educational effort, but as Perry writes, the complaints continued:

And the conversation went around and around. And the complaints continued. While we all love love love the platform, there are not enough people who know about IBM i, not enough new programmers working on IBM i, not enough, not enough, not enough… So, I asked everyone in the room – about 40 or so, some questions I have used with the i community in the past. I had just not paid attention to the answer.

The questions were:

• “How many of you have talked to your local college or school and encouraged them to teach IBM i and RPG?”
• “How many of you have hired interns from local colleges to work with your IT department with IBM i and RPG?”
• “How many of you have told someone outside this community about this amazing platform?”

As Perry recalls, there was a lot of uncomfortable silence following those questions, and Perry knew why. Because they hadn’t actually done any of those things. He thinks that everyone in the System i community — not only IBM, the ISVs, the VARs and the consultants, but the end users too — should be participating and doing things to further the platform. He has a point.