Seiden Group Blog - Page 11 of 30

Learn about Merlin for IBM i

September 22, 2022/0 Comments/in News & Events, RPG /by Alan Seiden

You may have heard about IBM’s new Merlin tools for modern RPG development methodology. But what is it, really, and how would it benefit your shop?

Seiden Group’s Jack Woehr, one of the top Merlin advocates in the country, will be presenting three talks on Merlin at COMMON NAViGATE on Oct. 4–5, 2022:

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Encrypting IBM i ODBC Connections from Linux with TLS/SSL

September 16, 2022/0 Comments/in ODBC, Open Source /by Alan Seiden

ODBC connections between Linux and IBM i should be encrypted to keep their Db2 data safe in transit.

To encrypt ODBC data, IBM recommends the industry-standard TLS encryption protocol (the successor to SSL).

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Use IBM’s Apache Directive Finder Instead of Google

September 12, 2022/6 Comments/in Apache, IBM i /by Alan Seiden

When it comes to finding information on HTTP Server for IBM i (based on Apache), Google is NOT the way to go!

Recently Calvin did a web search for Apache’s ServerUserID directive. It returned old forum posts that could have taken anyone down a rabbit hole—a waste of time at best.

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IT Leadership Summit on Security — A Recap

September 7, 2022/0 Comments/in CIO Strategy /by Alan Seiden

Many thanks to IBM and COMMON for their recent IT Leadership Summit on Security, held August 3, 2022, at IBM’s Astor Place offices in New York City.

This free, noncommercial event for IT executives featured speakers with broad experience addressing industry security concerns. Speakers included:

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Be Careful When Using Yum Remove

August 9, 2022/0 Comments/in PHP /by Alan Seiden

The Yum install command installs open source packages. It also installs any sub-packages upon which the desired package relies.

Yum remove does the reverse. It will remove a requested package.

What some users don’t know: Yum remove also removes any packages that depend on the package you removed. This is true whether running Yum manually or via the ACS open source package manager.

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Requests for Enhancement are now “IBM Ideas”

August 3, 2022/0 Comments/in IBM i /by Alan Seiden

IBM i users have a new way to request enhancements from IBM. The Request for Enhancement (RFE) site has been replaced by the IBM Power Ideas Portal.

I immediately noticed an advantage of the new portal—we can now share links without requiring the recipient to log in! The new site seems faster, too.

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IBM Champion Jack Woehr Joins Seiden Group

August 1, 2022/2 Comments/in News & Events /by Alan Seiden

I’ve admired Jack Woehr’s contributions to the IBM i community—and his practical approach to IBM i modernization—for several years.

This spring, I asked him if he would deliver my ODBC session for POWERUp 2022. That discussion inspired us to get to know each other better and develop our working relationship.

I’m delighted to announce that, in June, Jack officially joined our growing team of Seiden Group consultants. With extensive IT experience, Jack brings a broad understanding of both current and legacy IBM systems. He excels in modernization, cross-platform integration, and APIs. He also knows SQL, RPG, COBOL. Vue, javascript, Java, PHP, Node.js, Python, C/C++, Maria DB, MongoDB, and Linux. Don’t even get me started on how many musical instruments he plays!

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Apache for IBM i: Where to Find Documentation

July 23, 2022/2 Comments/in Apache, PHP /by Alan Seiden

HTTP Server for i (Powered by Apache) is the IBM i integrated web server. Although this unique implementation of Apache is well documented by IBM, that documentation can be hard to find. Internet searches often return outdated or irrelevant links.

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What’s in Your ODBC Driver?

July 19, 2022/0 Comments/in IBM i, ODBC, Open Source /by Alan Seiden

Since IBM announced Yum support for installing the IBM i Db2 ODBC driver, as documented in our recent tutorial, users can update their driver more easily.

To help users determine what’s changed, IBM maintains a list of fixes and enhancements for each IBM i ODBC driver release.

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Using Yum to Install or Update the IBM i ODBC Driver

July 11, 2022/8 Comments/in ODBC, PHP /by Alan Seiden

The IBM i ODBC driver for Db2 has become easier to install.

Formerly available only as a download requiring several steps, the driver can now be installed and updated on IBM i with Yum or Access Client Solutions (ACS), as easily as with other IBM i open source packages.

Here are instructions for installing the ODBC driver using Yum.

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