Innovations 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
Upon checking the error log, a client noticed errors that were pointing to a fiber port on their system. While the port physically existed on the machine, a fiber cable wasn’t connecting that port to a switch. The client acknowledged the port could be needed at some point, but for now they didn’t want it […]
Articles2021 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 which will allow AIX administrators to create an Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) package. This utility will enable admins to capture a bootable OVA image of their AIX systems rootvg. This OVA package can then either be imported into PowerVC for automated VM deployment […]
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 […]
An 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 […]
ArticlesAutomate Your TSO Logons With Vista TN3270 Application Macros and a Windows Batch (.bat) File
January 13, 2021
In this tutorial, we look at all the steps that are involved in the process of automating TSO logons, using the Vista TN3270 application and a Windows Batch (.bat) file. Components Involved Step by Step Instructions Step 1: Create a new session file for your Vista TN3270 Terminal session Application As the very first step, […]
Articles2 Recent IBM i Enhancements
January 13, 2021
IBM recently delivered two enhancements to the operating system via PTFs and documented these enhancements on the General IBM i Operating System web page. Improvements to Restricted State This enhancement appears to be a stealth change, as I cannot find any mention of it in announcement materials. I found this enhancement by going to the […]
Articles4 Customer Journeys From Tape to Cloud
December 8, 2020
Necessity, it’s been said, is the mother of invention. Such was the case when information technology outsourcing (ITO) company Blue Hill Data Services faced a number of obstacles as it prepared for the data migration of four mainframe-based customers (including a state pension fund, a large state government, a state government department of labor and […]