Category: Technical Articles
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Using the VIOS VMR for system backups
My previous article discussed how you can upload and load ISO images into the Virtual Media Repository (VMR) to provide virtual optical images to the client LPARs. You may recall that the mkvopt command has an option, -ro, which forces the access mode of the image to read only. When a VMR image is set…
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Test your mksysb backup without NIM or a tape drive
There’s a really handy way of cloning an AIX operating system straight from a mksysb backup. Even if you don’t need to clone an OS, it’s a pretty handy way of testing that your mksysb backup will actually be suitable for rebuilding your AIX root volume group. As you know, the mksysb command creates a…
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Basic AIX performance monitoring for IBM i professionals
IBM Power Systems have the ability to run both the IBM i and AIX (as well as Linux) operating systems, so how can you leverage your existing IBM i performance analysis skills to provide AIX support? Every system, from Charles Babbage’s first mechanical computers in the early nineteenth century to the high-end Power Systems we…
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Tech tip: finding AIX’s save buttons
If there’s one thing that I will never get used to about Google Docs, it is that it doesn’t save your changes. Or rather, it does it for you. Well, Mr Google, I want the “save” button back. Even if it doesn’t do anything. There is something very consoling about a save button. It’s closure.…
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Tech tip: populating the VIOS Virtual Media Repository
One of the most useful features of VIOS is the Virtual Media Repository (VMR). This allows us to create and import ISO images and then map these to virtual DVD drives on our client LPARs. Most customers will use the VMR to store their IBM i and/or AIX install media and PTFs. Many AIX sites…
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A guide to RPG definitions
I would like to take you through the process of defining variables and files in RPG programs. In an effort to promote totally free-form RPG, all the examples shown in this article detail the latest enhancements. Additionally, I will show you equivalents to RPG in other programming languages. I hope that this will give a…
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Are IBM i Services the future of systems management?
IBM i Services are perhaps the best kept secret of managing and monitoring IBM i. Relatively few users of our favourite platform know what they are and even fewer use them regularly. This is a crying shame as they are truly remarkable. IBM i Services can tell you in seconds what it takes a skilled…
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AIX tech tip: Bye-bye loops – use the ‘apply’ command instead
One of the best kept secrets of the AIX command line is the “apply” command. Never heard of it? Well, welcome to the club. Two colleagues and I had over 60 years’ combined experience on AIX and, between us, we had never once come across “apply”. So, what does it do and why should you…
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Are you using the correct disk driver for your Storwize storage?
With so many customers now using Storwize and SVC storage in their Power environment with VIOS, it is important that we get the configuration of the system correct and supported. In the last few months, I have been involved with customers who already have their Power and Storwize systems up and running. Something I’ve found…
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Get started with the RPG debugging alternative
I wish to take you through the debugging of RPG programs or service programs with a tool some readers may not have come across called IBM System Debugger. It is a client-based tool that has the following advantages over the Rational RDi debug facility: • It is part of the base IBM i operating system,…
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Tips for a happy Zend Server on IBM i
We looked in my last article at how to get started with PHP on IBM i. Server side, this involved installing Zend Server – the PHP engine that makes things happen. In this article, I’m going to share some tips with you that relate to configuring this fine software to avoid problems and get the…
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How to delete directories from your IFS
This article was inspired by a recent support call I received. It made me realise that many of you may not have noticed that IBM added a handy parameter to the RMVDIR (remove directory) command back in v6.1 called SUBTREE. Let me set the scene and you can work out whether this is something that…