Creating your own commands, part 1

We have been able to create our own commands, I believe, since the AS400 was first launched. Why would I want to create my own commands?

I create them just for ease of use. In my opinion it is easier to remember:

ITTOOLS/ITTOOLS

Than this:

CALL ITTOOLS/ITT001

Having the source for suggested indexes created for you

Last year I wrote about using the Db2 for i index advisor to suggest indexes that would improve the performance of your SQL statements. I showed how you could copy data from its results to use to create for SQL statements to create the suggested Indexes. Recently I found a Db2 for i Procedure that makes this so much easier as it will create source members for the suggested Indexes.

I can use the Index Advisor View to see what Indexes are suggested for the FILE1 in the library MYLIB.

01 SELECT SYS_DNAME AS LIBRARY, 02 SYS_TNAME AS TABLE, 03 FIRSTADV AS FIRST_ADVISED, 04 TIMESADV AS NBR_TIMES, 05 KEYSADV AS ADVISED_KEYS 06 FROM QSYS2.SYSIXADV 07 WHERE SYS_DNAME = 'MYLIB' 08 AND SYS_TNAME = 'FILE1'

Making IP connections easier between IBM i partitions

I have mentioned in previous posts regarding using DDM files and configuring remote database connections that there is a difference in using SNA and IP for the connection protocol.

When you use SNA to connect everything performed on the remote IBM i is performed as the user profile QUSER. It is impossible to discriminate between valid requests for the files/tables and others trying to get at data they should not be authorized to.

CRTDDMF FILE(QTEMP/DDMFILE1) RMTFILE(OTHERLIB/RMTFILE) RMTLOCNAME(SYSTEM2)

IBM i 7.3 TR4 and 7.2 TR8 announced

I find it interesting that the announcements of new Technical Refreshes are always made on a Tuesday. After finding empty pages for the new TRs last week it was obvious that the announcement would happen soon. What does the latest announcement contain:

The biggest announcement are the new Power9 chips are coming.

Configuring database connection between two IBM i

In my day job I work in an environment where there are multiple PowerSystems servers, and many of them have multiple IBM i partitions. I was tasked to gather information from most of the partitions into one location. I decided to use SQL to fetch the information from the various sources.

I used the following two methods to connect to the other partitions using the partition name:

CONNECT TO SYSTEM2   or   SELECT * FROM SYSTEM2.OTHERLIB.RMTFILE

When debugging my program I found that when I tried to connect to some of the partitions I received a SQLCOD value of -950 and the following message:

New Technology Refreshes are coming

In the past the twice yearly Technology Refreshes updates for the current releases of IBM i were announced in the middle of February and the beginning of October, to coincide with Common USA events.

While Common does not appear to have a Spring conference this year (at the time I am writing this post their website is unavailable), the announcement of IBM i 7.3 TR4 and 7.2 TR8 could still be on track for this month as I have found empty pages for them in IBM developerWork's website.