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October 2012 iTech Solutions because IBM i (AS/400, iSeries) didn't come
with a System Administrator.
In This Issue
Technology Refresh 5
Cleaning up Save Files
Upcoming Events
get ready for Disaster
Recovery
Release levels and PTFs
Quick Links
More About Us
Upcoming Events
Quick Links
Register Now
Last Month'sNewsletter
More About Us
Common ConnectArticle on V6R1
Greetings!
i can do anything with iTech Solutions
If you live in the area impacted by Hurricane
Sandy, we hope this newsletter finds you
and your loved ones safe. We also wanted
to let you know that iTech Solutions is here
for you during this time.
We sent out a special newsletter on Monday
with instructions for performing a full
system backup. I believe that it is
important to review your backups, analyze
what is being backed up, and what isn't, and
what plans do you have to put your system
back together in the unlikely event that you
were to have another disaster. Remember,
backup isn't just about checking to make
sure there are error messages in QSYSOPR,
but actually testing a full system restore.
You want to test out the process when it
isn't an emergency. This isn't an option, it
is for a full test. If you don't have a machine
to test a recovery on, contact Paul and he
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How to make yourTransition to IBM i
6.1 easier
can setup a contract for you to use one of
our systems in your location, or our location
to perform a disaster recovery test.
It has also been a very busy speaking season
with presentations at local user groups in
Vermont and Rhode Island, COMMON Fall
conference in Columbus, Ohio, the iBelieve
event in New York city, and the IBM Power
Technical Conference in Las Vegas. The IBM
technical conference is usually all IBM
speakers, but Pete Massiello of iTech
Solutions will be there presenting 7 sessions
there. Of course one of them will be How to
successfully upgrade to IBM i 6.1 or 7.1. If
IBM relies on iTech Solutions to present OS
upgrade information to their users, shouldn't
you be thinking about using iTech Solutions
for your upgrade?
This issue of our newsletter has five articles.
In the first article, IBM has released
Technology Refresh 7.1 for IBMi and the
details are presented. The second article is
how to cleanup Save Files on your system.
The third article lists some of the upcoming
events in which iTech Solutions will be
participating. The fourth article is about
doing Disaster Recovery testing, and getting
the funding to afford what you need to
protect the business. The last article is for
your reference with updated PTF
information. Please note that we have
added a new PTF group to our recommended
list, which is the High Availability Group. If
you are an iTech Solutions PTF Maintenance
customer, you will receive this on your next
application of PTFs.
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If you are still on V5R4, send Pete an emailand he can help you upgrade to 6.1 or 7.1.With more upgrades than anyone else to6.1/7.1 done to date you know iTechSolutions has the expertise and know how.
iTech Solutions can help you improveperformance, perform security audits;implement a High Availability solution;perform health checks, systemsmanagement, remote administration, PTFmanagement, blade installations, iSCSIconfigurations, backup/recovery; upgrade anexisting machine; or upgrade to a newmachine. If you are thinking of LPAR orHMC, then think iTech Solutions. We havethe skills to help you get the most out ofyour IBM i.
For more information on any of the articles
below please visit us on the web at iTech
Solutions or email iTech Solutions. We
would love for you to let us know any
articles that you wish for the future, or if
you enjoy any of the articles in the current
newsletters.
Technology Refresh5.
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Right on schedule, IBM has delivered new
features, functions, and enhancements to
IBM i 7.1 with Technology Refresh 5 (TR5).
We have been running this release for a
while, and it has been extremely stable. You
install TR5 like installing a PTF Group or
Cumulative package. For a list of the
inprovements, please click this link
Instead of going into all the details, I am
going to provide a link. There is some very
cool stuff in the link, so just relax and do
some reading.
Identifying and
cleaning up
Save Files
(*SAVF).
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Disk space no matter how cheap disk prices
become, always seems to be an issue. I was
recently at a new client, which had so many
save files on their system they were just
drowning in them. In fact, they didn't even
realize actually how many they had so I
thought tracking and identifying save files
would be a good topic.
There are many times that a customer will
ask iTech Solutions to come in and find out
where all their disk space has gone. We have
discussed the use of RTVDSKINF and
RTVDIRINF to gather the information in
previous newsletters. Sometimes we need to
do a little more analysis than these tools
provide. One area that is worth looking into
on your machine is the amount and size of
Save Files (also known as *SAVF). Save files
are a special type of file in IBM i (OS/400 or
i5/OS) which emulate a tape device, a file
where you can back up libraries or data.
Many programmers will back up a library to
a save file prior to running an update
program, or an operator will do a fast back
up of a library. While save files serve a great
purpose, people tend to forget to delete the
save files after they are no longer required.
So first let's look at how to create a list of
all the save files on your system. First and
foremost, we need to make sure we don't
clean up any save files in the IBM libraries:
those would be the libraries starting with Q.
So, let's then concentrate our investigation
into the user libraries. Generate a list with
this command:
DSPOBJD OBJ(*ALLUSR/*ALL) OBJTYP(*FILE)
OUTPUT(*OUTFILE)
OUTFILE(ITECHSOL/SAVFS).
You will want to submit this to batch since
this will be a long running command. When
it's complete, we need to review the list of
save files, and we can use either Query/400
or SQL to get our data. Here is basically
what we want:
Select the input file as
ITECHSOL/SAVFS
Select these fields ODLBNM, ODOBNM,
ODOBSZ, ODOBOW, ODLDAT, & ODUDAT
Sort by ODOBSZ
Select records by: ODOBAT EQ 'SAVF'
This will provide a list of our save files. The
field ODOBSZ will show you the size of the
save file, and we sorted by the largest save
files at the top of our list. The field ODLBNM
is the library and the field ODOBNM is the
filename. But just because the file appears
on this list doesn't mean you can delete
them. You should look at the last two fields-
-last date used and last date updated--to
see how recently the files have been used.
I would always make sure I have a good
backup before deleting any files that I'm not
certain about. Once you get rid of all these
save files that you no longer need, you will
then see your disk utilization reduced, and
most likely the duration of your backups will
also be decreased. If you are unsure or need
some help with this process, give us a call at
203-744-7854 or contact us via email and we
can work on this together with you.
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The more you clean, the quicker your
backups will be, the more free space that
will be on your system, and if you had to
restore the system, that would certainly be
quicker.
Upcoming Events.
Some of the events that we will be speaking
at, or exhibiting at are listed below. Don't
forget the iTech Solutions web site at
http://www.itechsol.com.
October 29 to November 2 - IBM Power
Systems Technical University - Las Vegas,
NV.
Tips and Tricks to improve performance
and reduce disk space.
Everything to Get Started with the new
Systems Navigator for IBM i
Understanding the HMC, FSP, Firmware,
and IBM i. Putting the pieces together.
What do you need to know when
upgrading to IBM i 6.1 & 7.1.
Building Virtual i partitions hosted by
IBM i.
December 11 - FASUG, in Norwalk, CT
www.fasug.org
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www.fasug.org
Programmer's future: Looking back to
see into the Future.
December 12 - LISUG in Woodbury, Long
Island www.LISUG.org
Programmer's future: Looking back to
see into the Future.
"The best way to
motivate management to
invest in a DR plan is to
set the building across
the street on fire" -
unknown
A friend of mine sent me that
quote in an email, and I had a
really good laugh. Now, I am
not advocating anyone do
anything crazy like that, but if
you sit back and think about
that statement for a minute, there certainly
is some truth in it. People don't get serious
about DR, backups, or recovery, until
something happens. Don't let that be you.
How many times do you think about disaster
recovery, but just know the boss isn't going
to sign the PO to get a second machine for
High Availability, or even signup with a Hot
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Site for Disaster Recovery? I was at a new
prospect a while ago, and I got on their 170
machine to just "poke around", and I noticed
that they didn't have any disk protection
(i.e. no Raid nor Mirroring). That machine is
over 12 years old, how much longer before a
disk failure? They are living on borrowed
time. I then looked for when the last time
they did a full backup, and it was over 4
years ago. So, I asked them "When was the
last time you backed up the machine?". They
told me "last night". I said to them, "No, you
just backed up your data library last night,
when was the last time you did a full system
backup". They gave me the funny look, like I
have no idea. I said, "How about 4 years
ago". They said "No way", and went over to
the filling cabinet (not a fireproof cabinet,
but just a filling cabinet you purchase at
Staples to hold files) to pull out the last full
save. She read the label on the tape, looked
at me and said "How did you know that?". I
then ask her, "What would happen to your
business if you lost this computer". We
scheduled a full system save for that night,
and moved it off site to the CEO's house.
While that isn't the best location for the
tape, being off-site 15 miles away is
certainly better than 5 feet away from the
machine.
Many shops don't understand the need for
taking an occasional full backup, and also
moving that backup off-site. They
understand when a disaster occurs and they
need to recover. The reason the title of this
article is so apropos, is that don't let a
disaster happen in your shop or across the
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street to then examine your plan. Can you
sleep with your answers to these questions:
How often do I do a full system backup?
Is it at least monthly?
Do I have written procedures off-site
that describes what is backed up and
how to recover?
Are the tapes off-site?
Are the tapes labeled?
Have you thought about backing up to
the cloud instead?
Do I know which tapes and how to
recover?
Have I tested my plan in the last year?
Do I have a site that I can run a test
recovery on?
Do I have a site I can recover to?
What happens if my staff isn't available
to recover?
What about the other machines in your
network?
If you have HA software, when was your
last roll-swap?
If I have an HMC can I recover that?
Is my I_BASE_01 CD/DVD someplace
safe and accessible?
Disaster Recovery is a vital function that
your company can't afford to just gloss over.
It starts with good solid backups. If you
don't understand backups, aren't sure if you
are doing backups correctly, or wonder if
you have everything? Then bring in iTech
Solutions for our Backup/Recovery analysis
and we will insure your backups are
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complete. While there are some customers
who can't afford a second machine, or others
that don't want a cold site (where you
restore your backups to). Check out iTech
Solutions answer to these problems at
www.i-in-the-cloud.com. The easiest thing
to do is a full backup at whatever frequency
you think you can afford. I would
recommend at least monthly, but some
customers will do this quarterly. But just
remember, you can't recover without a good
backup. If you are unsure of what you are
backing up, you can be sure you will have no
idea what to restore and if you restored
everything.
We are working with a few customers right
now to either bring in a second machine in
for High Availability or host them in our
cloud with High Availability, as well as
working with a few customers documenting
and testing their disaster recovery. These
customers have seen the holes in their
disaster recovery, and are doing the right
steps to insure in a disaster they can recover
their machine and the data on it. Would you
wait for the building across the street to be
on fire before you test your fire
extinguishers? Probably not, so why wait to
test your DR plans. As IT professionals, I
believe that it is our responsibility to make
management aware of the need for a proper
DR plan, and the risks they are taking by not
testing and investing in a good DR plan. If
management isn't willing to invest in any
plan, make sure you have written evidence
that you made suggestions and they decided
to not fund them. This is what we call CYA.
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I certainly hope you look at your plans right
after reading this article, and don't wait
until you see the fire trucks coming down
the road. If you need some help, send Paul
an email so that he can get you out a quote
for help. Perhaps an early response to an
SOS - Save our System.
Release levels and PTFs
People are always asking me
how often they should be
performing PTF maintenance,
and when is the right time to upgrade their
operating system. I updated this article
from last month with the current levels of
PTFs. Let's look at PTFs. First, PTFs are
Program Temporary Fixes that are created
by IBM to fix a problem that has occurred or
to possibly prevent a problem from
occurring. In addition, some times PTFs add
new functionality, security, or improve
performance. Therefore, I am always
dumbfounded as to why customers do not
perform PTF maintenance on their machine
at least quarterly. If IBM has come out with
a fix for your disk drives, why do you want
to wait for your disk drive to fail with that
problem, only to be told that there is a fix
for that problem, and if you had applied the
PTF beforehand, you would have averted the
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problem. Therefore, I think a quarterly PTF
maintenance strategy is a smart move.
Many of our customers are on our quarterly
PTF maintenance program, and that provides
them with the peace of mind of knowing
their system is up to date on PTFs. Below is
a table of the major group PTFs for the last
few releases. This is what we are
installing for our customers on iTech
Solutions Quarterly Maintenance program.
Releases
7.1 6.1 V5R4 V5R3
Cumul. Pack 12279 12122 12094 8267
Tech. Refresh 5
Grp Hipers 70 132 186 169
DB Group 17 27 33 24
Java Group 10 21 30 23
Print Group 6 24 46 20
Backup/Recov. 17 30 48 33
Blade/IXA/IXS 12 24 15 -
HTTP 14 26 32 17
TCP/IP 6 14 21 16
Security 22 36 30
High Availability 2 1
Hardware 2 2
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The easiest way to check your levels is to
issue the command WRKPTFGRP. They
should all have a status of installed, and you
should be up to the latest for all the above,
based upon your release. Now there are
more groups than the ones listed above, but
these are the general ones that most people
require. We can help you know which group
PTFs you should be installing on your
machine based upon your licensed programs.
Here is a nice tidbit. The Cumulative PTF
package number is broken down as YDDD,
where Y is the year and DDD is the day it
was released. Therefore, if we look at the
cumulative package for V5R4, the ID is 9104.
We can determine that it was created on the
104th day of 2009, which is April 14, 2009.
Look at your machine and this will give you a
quick indication of just how far out of date
in PTFs you may be. I left V5R1 & V5R2 off
the list, because if you are on V5R1 or V5R2,
you don't need to be worrying about PTFs,
you really need to be upgrading your
operating system. The same can be said for
V5R3, but there are still customers who are
on those releases.
If you have an HMC, you should be running
V7R7.5 with Service Pack 1. If your HMC is a
C03, then it should stay at V7R3.5 SP4.
For your Flexible Service Processor (FSP)
that is inside your Power 5 or Power5+ (520,
515, 525, 550, 570), the code level of the
FSP should be 01_SF240_417. Power 6 (940x
M15, M25, & M50 machines, and 8203-E4A,
8204-E8A, & 8204-E4A) customers should be
running EL350_132. For Power6 (MMA, 560,
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and 570 machines) your FSP should be
at EM350_126. If you have a Power6 595
(9119) then you should be on EH350_126.
Depending on which POWER7 model &
generation (B or C). The firmware level is
AL730_095 for 8202-E4B & 8205-E6B (710,
720, 730, 740), AL730_095 for 750 (8233-
E8B) & 755 (8236-E8C). Use AM730_095 for
770 (9117-MMB) & 780 (9179-MHB). The
firmware level is AL740-088 for 8202-E4C &
8205-E6C (710, 720, 730, 740). Use
AM740_088 for 770 (9117-MMC) & 780 (9179-
MHC).
If you need help with upgrading your HMC or
FSP just give us a call. We will be happy to
perform the function for you or assist you in
doing it. Contact Pete Massiello.
We have the skills to help you get the most
out of your IBM i. For more information on
any of the articles please contact us at
[email protected] . We would also like to
know what you think of this newsletter and
any items you would like us to discuss in
future issues.
Our staff of Certified i5/OS professionals can
help you get more out of your machines.
Remember,
i want everything to work.
i want control.
i want an i
i need iTech Solutions.
Sincerely,
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Pete Massiello
iTech Solutions
www.itechsol.com