Standing Pat Is No Longer an Option With the HMC
March 19, 2021
New POWER9 servers running new firmware won't work with your old HMC. Rob McNelly explains why, and provides some upgrade options.
E-BooksTechChannel E-book: Unlocking COBOL Business Value
March 9, 2021
The ubiquity of both the IBM Z platform and COBOL programming language comes from the forethought IBM put into each in 1964 when the first mainframe was launched. COBOL was optimized for business processing with no need to recompile programs. As a result, it continues to run the world’s economy today. But many COBOL shops […]
ArticlesUpdating to HMC v9
March 2, 2021
IBM brought out HMC v9 M910 in March 2018 for x86, Power and virtual HMCs. Since then, there have been numerous updates to the v9 code, adding features and fixing bugs. As new releases have come out, requirements for the HMC hardware have changed. The latest release (V9R2M950) no longer supports the x86 HMCs (7042-*) […]
ArticlesInnovations in the Terminal Emulation Space
February 23, 2021
A look at innovations in the terminal emulation space, and what to keep in mind when selecting a terminal emulator vendor
ArticlesClient Story, VIOS Tips, HMC News and Why You Should Move on From AIX 7.1
February 17, 2021
Rob McNelly explains why older AIX versions run slower, and why it's time to move on from AIX 7.1
2021 AIX Performance Tuning Update
February 12, 2021
Good systems management involves not only managing system reliability, but it also involves continually trying to maximize system throughput and reduce response time for the users. This requires monitoring and tuning system resources. In order to do that, you need to first determine what your key measurement and tuning criteria are. The first step is […]
ArticlesCreating Bootable AIX OVA Images
February 2, 2021
A new command is included with Technology Level 5 for AIX 7.2 allowing for a utility which will enable admins to capture a bootable OVA image of their AIX systems rootvg. Learn how in this tutorial.
ArticlesThe 2021 Arcati Mainframe Yearbook Is Now Available
February 2, 2021
I’m reliably informed that the 2021 edition of the Arcati Mainframe Yearbook has now been published. This fascinating publication is completely free and can be downloaded from the Arcati website. It’s interesting that there are still some mainframers who haven’t come across this publication, even though many mainframers look out for it each year in […]
ArticlesAn Introduction to IBM IMS OTMA
January 29, 2021
IMS Open Transaction Manager Access (OTMA) is a component of IMS TM and is a transaction-based, connectionless client/server protocol
ArticlesIBM i Performance Data Investigator: Memory Allocation Perspectives
January 22, 2021
IBM’s recent enhancements to the Performance Data Investigator (PDI) charting engine includes some new memory perspectives (charts) which provide additional usage statistics that help visualize and understand memory usage on your IBM i partition. IBM i memory tuning has traditionally been a dark art: adjust tuning parameters and see how the system behaves. It was […]