2 Recent IBM i Enhancements

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 General IBM i Operating System enhancements page linked above.

IBM delivered this change via PTFs late last year for all supported releases (7.4, 7.3, and 7.2). The change improves restricted state processing when performing GO SAVE and GO RESTORE menu options 21, 22, 23 and GO LICPGM menu option 40.

Previously while in unattended mode, the ENDSBS was always issued, regardless of whether or not the system was already in a restricted state. The ability to manually bypass the ENDSBS command was offered only while in attended mode, and only for user data menu option 23 of the GO SAVE and GO RESTORE menus.

When the PTF is installed, the system checks to determine if the system is already in restricted state, and if so, bypasses the ENDSBS command processing. An additional benefit is that it can avoid ending limited mode TCP/IP services that can operate while the system is in a restricted state.

For complete details, read Improvements to Restricted State.

ObjectConnect Over TCP/IP

Announced with 7.4 TR3, this new function adds TCP/IP support to ObjectConnect commands. You are no longer required to use Enterprise Extender (i.e., SNA) for ObjectConnect.

This solution provides a simple and secure method to transfer objects between IBM i partitions.

You must have the IBM i ObjectConnect licensed program product (5770-SS1, Option 22) and the PTF to support this new functionality.

For complete details, read ObjectConnect Over TCP/IP.

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