Latest Navigator for i Enhancements

Late in December 2016, IBM released the latest update to the HTTP Server Group PTF.  

• 7.3 – SF99722 Level 5
• 7.2 – SF99713 Level 18
• 7.1 – SF99368 Level 44

The Navigator for i PTFs page summarizes the PTF groups you need for each release and you will discover you also want to install the latest level of the Java group and the Performance Tools group.

With this update, there are some important changes:

• HTTP is now the default protocol:
  If you access Navigator using the 2001 port (e.g., http://MySystem:2001), you will now be directed to HTTP port 2004 instead of HTTPs port 2005.
  If you want to use HTTPs, you will need to manually enable the support.  There is an IBM Support document, Enabling SSL for Navigator for i, that has detailed instructions on how to configure SSL for Navigator.
  Please note the above applies to all the supported IBM i releases

• Support has been added for Safari and Microsoft Edge, but Internet Explorer is no longer supported.
• As I had mentioned in a couple articles last year, many of the the Navigator enhancements that were added in the 7.3 release would become available on prior releases – the dashboard and the system monitor enhancements are two examples.  Some functions cannot be taken back to prior releases due to dependencies within the operating system.  Graph History, for example, is only available with the 7.3 release.

You can find documentation on the enhancements and fixes in this update on the Navigator for i developerWorks page here.

This Navigator update also includes several enhancements: subsystem configuration support, Application Administration improvements, and more.  I’ll write on these topics within the next few weeks.

By the way, updating my IBM i 7.3 partitions to this HTTP Group level was super-simple since I have set up Automatic Download of Group PTFs.  The Group PTFs were all downloaded and all I had to do was initiate the following command and check back later.

PWRDWNSYS OPTION(*IMMED) RESTART(*YES) ENDSBSOPT(*NOJOBLOG) INSPTFDEV(*SERVICE)