Manage IBM i Jobs With Service Commander
August 22, 2023
IBM i can run more technology than ever before. As such, the types of jobs that can be run are quite diverse—ILE programs, Db2 tasks and PASE programs can happily coexist. This synergy is indeed powerful, but it does come with a cost. All these jobs can be difficult to manage! Consider the simple notion […]
ArticlesMonitoring IBM i With Prometheus
December 14, 2022
In my previous blog post, I demonstrated how to deploy a simple dashboard using Grafana, an open-source visualization tool. Today, we will explore a different approach. Rather than using a Grafana backend running on IBM i, we will leverage Prometheus. Prometheus defines itself as “an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit.” We can use Prometheus […]
ArticlesHow to Deploy a Simple Grafana Dashboard
September 14, 2022
A “hidden gem” among IBM i’s open-source examples is a sample backend for Grafana. Grafana is a popular tool for monitoring various parts of your IT infrastructure. Its GitHub page describes it as “The open and composable observability and data visualization platform.” In today’s exercise, we will deploy our sample Grafana backend on IBM i […]
ArticlesEverything You Need to Know About the New IBM i RPM Repositories
August 18, 2022
You’re probably familiar with IBM’s internet-based distribution technique for many open-source packages. As of today, IBM is restructuring how and where things get published. In today’s post, I’ll discuss why a change is needed and what actions you need to take in order to continue receiving updates. I will be using the word “repository” a […]
ArticlesUse Nginx to Make Web Content Zoom!
May 9, 2022
In my previous blog post, I talked about some open-source “hidden gems.” They can do everything from processing JSON to analyzing disk space. Coincidentally, as I started this blog, I opened a poll on Twitter. Of course, this data set isn’t significant enough to form large conclusions, but I was surprised by the results. I […]
10 Hidden Gems in the RPM Pile
January 24, 2022
As you probably know, IBM provides hundreds of open-source packages in the RPM Package Manager (RPM) format. This collection of software, which I affectionately call “the RPM pile,” has become a quintessential component of IBM i. The Node.js and Python programming languages, for instance, are now standard vernacular. Some open source, however, is not as […]
ArticlesLog4Shell Part 2: 3 Best Practices for Software Security
January 6, 2022
Security is as important a topic as ever! Organizations everywhere are grappling with their approach to cybersecurity. In my previous post, I addressed some basics about the highly-publicized “Log4Shell” security vulnerability. Log4Shell and others provide a constant reminder that IT security is a perpetual task. A properly protected technology stack requires certain best practices to be […]
ArticlesLog4Shell Part 1: Answering FAQs on the Log4Shell Security Vulnerability
December 14, 2021
You’ve likely heard of the Log4Shell (aka “LogJam”) security vulnerability that was recently published. It has gotten a lot of press, and understandably so; it can be easy to exploit, and it can allow an attacker to perform remote code execution. You definitely shouldn’t ignore this one! To help you understand what this means, I’ve […]
ArticlesUsing Power10’s Superfast AI With Event Streaming
September 28, 2021
IBM’s latest generation of Power processors is no incremental update. It comes with built-in acceleration for artificial intelligence (AI)! This is done by integrating matrix math assist (MMA) units right into the chip. Trust me, this is a game-changer for IBM i! I was first involved with IBM i and AI back in 2017. We […]
ArticlesUsing the New SQL HTTP Functions (Part 2)
September 15, 2021
In Part 1 of this series, we introduced some new HTTP functions. Indeed, they are fantastic additions to the set of IBM i Services available through SQL. Today, we will explore how they can be used to integrate indigenous IBM i technologies (such as Db2 and RPG) with open-source applications. Gluing Node.js and Db2 A community member recently asked […]