Announcing IBM i 7.5 TR4 and IBM i 7.4 TR10
IBM i CTO Steve Will introduces the latest IBM i Technology Refreshes, covering Db2, HA/DR and more
Happy spring, IBM i community, and welcome to my first blog of the year. 2024 will be another big year for IBM i, and although we may say that every year, this year it will be particularly true with several key announcements for both the IBM i and Power platforms. We kick it off today by announcing IBM i 7.5 TR4 and IBM i 7.4 TR10, as well as the IBM Power S1012 server, a new hardware platform for IBM i clients. The theme for IBM i this year is “continuous innovation, continuous integration,” and these announcements are a testament to that.
For all the detailed information on everything included in each Technology Refresh, please see the support pages that the IBM i team does an amazing job of keeping updated:
Like all my announcement blogs, I can’t cover everything in detail, but I will pick out the highlights to cover here. With this announcement including the release of a new Power server for IBM i—not typical with a Technology Refresh—we will start there:
IBM Power S1012
Along with the IBM i Technology Refresh, we are announcing new hardware for IBM i today. The IBM Power S1012 is a 1-socket, half-wide Power10 processor-based system designed for both core IBM i business workloads and edge computing as well. It is available in both a 2U rack-mounted or tower chassis form factor. With the half-wide design, IBM i clients can reduce IT footprint by up to 75%, which is particularly valuable in locations that have limited space, such as a manufacturing facility or retail store. To learn more about the Power S1012, join the webcast here.
Database
With half of the theme for IBM i this year being “continuous integration,” we will get into the updates for Db2 for i in this Technology Refresh. As usual, we have made enhancements to SQL capabilities for the database, such as adding the ANY_VALUE built-in aggregate function, providing developers the ability to construct simpler grouping queries. The CREATE ALIAS statement now includes support for the keyword *LAST to be specified as the member’s name, offering SQL users an easier way to access data in the most recently created member. Find more information about these enhancements and others on the Db2 for i Technology Updates page.
HA/DR
The key word in our theme for IBM i this year is “continuous,” and part of that means continuous availability, critical for the nature of workloads and applications running on our platform. IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for i, our strategic Licensed Program Product for HA with IBM i, has several key enhancements with this Technology Refresh. In this enhancement, PowerHA introduces integration with IBM Spectrum Virtualize asynchronous policy-based replication. PowerHA has also expanded its range of SQL services which provide an alternative method of programmatically retrieving PowerHA information, including HyperSwap status information through SQL. Learn more about PowerHA for i here.
Security
Security continues to be top of mind for our community, coming in once again as the number one concern in the 2024 Fortra IBM i Marketplace Survey Results. With this Technology Refresh, the IBM i CCA CSP, delivered as IBM i Option 35, has been updated to support CHIM release 3.1.8 for configuring the IBM 4769 Cryptographic Coprocessor. With IBM CHIM, you can securely manage remote IBM PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessors located in IBM i on Power servers from a central trusted location, even in a hostile environment. Learn more about all security enhancements for IBM i in the Technology Updates page here.
System Administration
IBM Navigator for i and IBM i Access Client Solutions (ACS) have also been enhanced in this IBM i Technology Refresh. With Navigator for i, the entire GUI (graphical user interface) has been updated to Angular 17, and several style changes for a simplified and modernized GUI appearance have been made as well. In ACS’s Visual Explain feature, new toolbar buttons make it easier for users to adjust the highlighting of query optimization insights, and the actions menu has been rearranged to clarify actions applicable to the entire graph versus those specific to the selected icon. Learn more about the latest enhancements for Navigator for i here and Access Client Solutions here.
Open Source
Code for IBM i, our development solution for maintaining code from Visual Studio Code, continues to evolve to meet the needs of IBM i application developers. For the RPG programmer, this update includes tools to simplify the process of moving the source code from source physical files to Git-based source control. With Extract to Procedure, programmers can highlight a section of code and move it to a new procedure, providing developers with tools to expedite their refactoring goals. Visual Explain has also been added to the Database Extension, significantly improving the developer experience in working with Db2 for i. Learn more about Code for IBM i and get started here.
As always, I’ve outlined only a few high-level details about what is included in this latest Technology Refresh for our clients and users. For more details, register for the IBM i Guided Tour, and even better, join me in person in Fort Worth or Milan (or both!) for POWERUp and Common Europe Congress. Don’t forget to check out our latest IBM i client stories here as well. I look forward to seeing everyone in our community throughout the year.