PHP 8.4 Is Here
PHP 8.4 represents another step in PHP’s evolution, once again improving performance and adding features to help developers write more concise, high quality code.
PHP 8.4 is now available for IBM i from Seiden Group.
VS Code for IBM i: SEP Debugging Prerequisites
Code for i users have been showing interest in Service Entry Point (SEP) debugging. SEP permits debugging of applications that run in a different job than the programmer’s job, such as a web server or prestart job.
Available since Version 2 of the IBM Debug Service, SEP requires several prerequisites, including the IBM i Debug extension, PTFs, and Licensed Program Products (LPPs). This article focuses on the PTFs and LPPs, objects that are frequently overlooked.
JUNE 2025 UPDATE
Version 3 of the Debug Service is now available. For prerequisites, see the official documentation’s Debugging General Requirements.
Version 3 of the Debug Service is now available. For prerequisites, see the official documentation’s Debugging General Requirements.
What’s in Your ODBC Driver? A 2024 Update
Since IBM announced Yum support for installing the IBM i Db2 ODBC driver, as documented in our 2022 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.
Update Corrects an Issue Loading libpq.so
IBM has delivered a fix for an issue with the libpq (PostgreSQL) package. The libpq RPM installer script had a subtle issue where the symbolic links did not get created correctly. IBM i users saw warnings like these:
Use Those IBM i Service Vouchers — Program Ends In 2025
One of the best deals in IBM i services is about to end. Effective January 1, 2025, the “IBM i Service Voucher for Power” program is being withdrawn. The program has long provided Power hardware customers with vouchers for Expert Labs consulting. (Expert Labs was formerly known as Lab Services.)
Many companies are not even aware that they are entitled to vouchers.
Carol Woodbury’s Security Advice from CIO Summit at OCEAN 2024
Carol Woodbury
I had the privilege of hosting security expert Carol Woodbury as she led a roundtable discussion at this past summer’s OCEAN TechCon. Carol is IBM i Security SME and Senior Advisor with our friends at Kisco Systems.
Carol’s observations made a strong impression on both me and our CIO guests. Here are just a few.
Code for IBM i Minimum Requirements
The Code for i maintainers have updated the Code for i documentation 
with clearer minimum requirements.
Which PHP Versions Get Critical Security Updates?
Although there are many reasons—including performance—to update to newer PHP releases, the number one reason is to avoid losing security updates.
Each version of PHP (7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, etc.) has three years of support before it is considered end of life. For two years, it gets bug fixes and all security fixes. In the third year, it gets only critical security fixes. After that, nothing!
How to Protect Secure Websites & APIs from Certificates Expiring
If you have encrypted your website, API, Telnet server, or other service with TLS (SSL), good for you!
Now, do you know when those certificates will expire? If they expire without renewal, your service could become unavailable without warning.
In the past, to find expiration dates for digital certificates on IBM i, you’d either have to look in the Digital Certificate Manager (DCM), call the Retrieve Certificate Information (QYCURTVCI, QycuRetrieveCertificateInfo) API, or keep extremely good notes!
CERTIFICATE_INFO, an IBM i service recently delivered by IBM, solves all this. This SQL table function, documented here, returns a result table that contains information about server or Certificate Authority (CA) certificates, including their expiration date.
Here’s how to use CERTIFICATE_INFO to find expiring certificates.
Node.js v20 and Other Updated Packages Require New IBM i Repositories
As we mentioned in our article on installing ODBC via yum, the latest IBM i open source packages require new repositories.
A notable example is Node.js v20. When we hear users say, “I don’t see Node.js v20 listed in available packages, and yum returns ‘No package nodejs20 available‘,” the reason invariably is that the new repositories, ibmi-base and ibmi-release, have not been installed.