Lately I have been spending a lot of time working with SQL on the AS/400 and IBM i power system. With my background in cranking out traditional DDS physical and logical file background I didn’t see the need for changing until I really dug in and understood how SQL is implemented on the i. And […]

If you have been hanging around an AS/400, iSeries or IBM i for any length of time you have undoubtedly used Query/400 or IBM i query. For cranking out reports it is a great menu driven tool that runs right on top of the familiar green screen. I like Query/400 primarily because it has an […]

When it comes to pulling out the Swiss army knife of all the tools available on the AS/400, iSeries and new IBM i midrange platforms you use a programming language called Control Language, or almost universally known as “CL” to insiders. Now when I say programming language, do not despair in believing you have to […]

The first step in tightening up your security policies on any computer system, including the AS/400, iSeries and IBM i, are enforcing security on user logins and profiles. This is especially true for systems that can be connected to from the Internet either directly or even indirectly via a secured tunnel such as a VPN. […]

The messaging system on the AS/400, iSeries and IBM i is an important system administration area that you need to understand. Messages are more or less simple ways that jobs can communicate status and errors, administrators can send important messages to signed on users and a way that the operating system communicates critical and important […]

One of the really nice features of the operating system built into the AS/400, iSeries and IBM i power system platform are the backup and recovery tools that are built right in. If you are used to using the backup programs on a Windows type platform and find that it stinks for recovery purposes, using […]

When it comes to maintaining user level security on your AS/400, iSeries and IBM i power system, there are a bunch of overlooked system values that help to define and configure almost every aspect from the initial startup sequence and resources and yes even enforcement of passwords. And when it comes to managing your users […]

I know that sometimes it can be a little confusing to understand how the operating system handles jobs on the AS/400, iSeries or IBM i system is setup to function. But really it is actually straight forward once you realize that there are two types of jobs that can run. All jobs fall into one […]

After ten years I find that, other than dealing with job contention and working batch jobs through clogged subsystems, printing tends to be an issue that prompts a user to call for help. And of course sometimes the job system and printing go hand in hand, it all depends on the job though. So let’s […]

One of the most basic areas any good AS/400, iSeries or IBM i administrator needs to be familiar with are the system values. These values define various ways in which your system functions and can greatly have an impact of ease of administration and performance. Let’s examine three common values you should be familiar with […]