FLRT, NIM, DNF, HMC and More: Technical Lessons From 2023
November 15, 2023
2023 has been incredibly busy, but I have also learned a lot during that time. It was great to attend TechXchange, see everyone in person and share ideas and thoughts with everyone. In this article I have tried to distill some of the things I learned throughout the year: Updates to tools How to install […]
ArticlesAIX SR-IOV VF and Cisco CDP
November 11, 2023
Yesterday, IBM released Technology Level (TL) 2 for AIX 7.3. With TL2, a new capability is delivered for AIX systems using native Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) adapters (logical ports). With this update AIX administrators can now display information for Cisco network devices (switches) that are directly connected to their AIX logical partition (LPAR). This […]
ArticlesA Warning About Running ezh and eezh Scripts in Updated HMC Environments
October 31, 2023
In 2020 I wrote about a couple of scripts called ezh and eezh: “EZH is a script for the [HMC] to provide an alternate, easier to use, command line interface for many common commands, and the goal of the project is to make the HMC command line interface easier to use for day to day […]
ArticlesPower10 Lessons Learned in 2023
October 30, 2023
2023 has been a busy year with lots of Power10 implementations. And I have learned a great deal during that time from a combination of experience, IBM documents and tips from friends. It is important that you follow the instructions on how to set up your Power10 server. The addition of the VMI (Virtualization Management […]
ArticlesPreparing a VIOS for Maintenance Using the HMC
October 17, 2023
Did you know that, starting with Hardware Management Console (HMC) V9.2.950.0 and later, you can use the HMC user interface (UI) to prepare a Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) for maintenance on your IBM Power server? If this interests you, please read on to find out how. The VIOS is considered an appliance or (like) firmware […]
The Complete Beginners’ Guide to Hacking a Mainframe
October 12, 2023
Any movie or TV show makes hacking seem like a trivial affair. A couple of minutes of screen time and some nerdy kid shouts, “I’m in.” Five minutes later, all the data has been stolen and dangerous applications have been rewritten (compiled and executed). We know that’s not how it happens, but the worrying thing […]
ArticlesIBM Support Insights: Infrastructure Management Simplified
September 7, 2023
Like many of you, my organization manages servers, switches, storage devices, etc., in multiple data centers located throughout and even outside of the country. With collections of devices this large, naturally, there are many challenges. How do you manage hardware inventories? How do you know when a new device is added to your environment? How […]
ArticlesThe Subtle but Significant Differences Posed by Power10 Hardware and the New HMC
August 24, 2023
In March, Jaqui Lynch wrote about connecting HMCs to Power10 servers. If you’re in the process of moving to Power10/updating your HMCs, this is a must-read. If you’d like me to summarize it, I can do so in a pithy phrase: The only constant is change. The modern HMC has different connectivity methods compared to […]
ArticlesManage 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 […]
ArticlesPerformance Implications for CICS Applications Using COBOL Version 6
August 2, 2023
Rocket Software’s Ezriel Gross highlights a methodology for CICS problem analysis and performance tuning—and shares how it led to a 92% savings in CPU for a heavily used transaction