Used IBM Servers | New Power9 Systems | QRadar SIEM Security

We said good bye today to a very dear friend and family member Henry Rodriguez.  It was a beautiful ceremony for a truly beautiful person.  Henry was loved by everyone that knew him, which showed by the huge turnout.  People flew in and drove to Florida from all over the country.  Those that had the opportunity to stand up to speak about him, knew exactly what to say.  Even if I were asked to speak, I do not know how I would have gotten through it.  The entire place had to be tears after hearing his sweet little daughter Oliva speak about her father, all the advice he gave her and how much she was going to miss him.  Ugh! If you were unable to attend, you can view the entire Annunciation Church ceremony on YouTube.  There is also a GoFundMe page setup for his family where you can also post a message. Henry was an amazing friend, father and husband, and we will all miss him dearly.  Everyone looked up to Henry… he set a great example for all of us, at work and as a human being.  I have worked for Henry for over 20 years, and I do not recall him ever losing his temper or getting mad at anyone.  You may have heard an “oh jeez” or “oh man”, but that was the extent of his outbursts.  You cannot teach or learn that type of behavior.  He was just a genuinely great guy.  In many ways, he was my shoulder angel.  Henry always did the right thing, which was probably why everyone loved him so much and why he was so successful in business.  People trusted Henry.  I believe most people would say he was the best in the industry at what he did.  Which is true, as he knew AS400s better than anyone, but at the end of the day, I think people just loved doing business with Henry because he was a great person. He was also very thoughtful and giving person, and always made time for everyone, no matter how busy he was.  Every holiday,...

IBM Linux server hardware performance and software license costsThe best Linux server hardware for enterprise open-source ecosystems will be the platform that delivers the best processor, memory and disk performance per core. Judging by the number of discussions in customer support communities, technical articles and blog posts on various Linux server performance troubleshooting, there is clearly a need for a better performing Linux server for both scale up and scale out infrastructures. This article will explain the importance of selecting the best performing hardware for your Linux server farm and how it affects software license costs. IBM POWER9 Linux Server Hardware models: 9009-22G S922 1-2 Processors, 8-22 Cores, 4TB Memory 9008-22L S922 1-2 Processors, 8-12 Cores, 4TB Memory9183-22X IC922 1-2 Processors, 12-20 Cores, 2TB Memory9006-12P LC921 1-2 Processors, 16-40 Cores, 1TB Memory9006-22P LC922 1-2 Processors, 16-44 Cores, 1TB Memory9009-41G S914 1 Processor, 4-8 Cores, 1TB Memory9009-41A S914 1 Processor, 4-8 Cores, 1TB Memory9009-42G S924 1-2 Processors, 8-24 Cores, 4TB Memory9009-42A S924 1-2 Processors, 8-24 Cores, 4TB Memory9009-22A S922 1-2 Processors, 4-10 Cores, 4TB Memory Should I scale up or scale out my Linux server farm?A scale up Linux server environment enables economies and performance of scale for all levels of the IT infrastructure, by reducing the number of physical systems and underlying ecosystem components that will require administration and support. Scaling up means less human resources needed, less software licenses, less hardware, less failures, less power, less vulnerabilities and less everything else that negatively effects costs. In addition, a scale up environment can have power and resources available to share much more efficiently than a scale out infrastructure, which must distribute workloads across multiple servers, will increase software licenses, as well as infrastructure and system administration costs at every level. Almost every virtualized Linux server environment can benefit from a scale up server approach to save money and improve performance. IBM Power9 Linux server performance results have consistently shown it is the most cost effective and fastest midrange Linux platform to run database, ERP, big data analytics, Java, video, cloud, Nutanix, web, file system, DevOps. Any CPU, I/O intensive or memory demanding Linux server workload running NoSQL like MongoDB, Relational DBMS like MySQL, PostgreSQL,...

Endpoint security management might be best handled by a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) to monitor and manage, because over 70% of cybersecurity breaches originate from endpoint devices, and almost every company admits they lack the required resources. Our endpoint security management services provide a centralized monitoring and remediation service that proactively discovers device vulnerabilities using real-time cybersecurity AI, monitors for required services needed for protection, blocks malicious applications and ensures endpoints are up to date with required patches according to defined policies. Hackers know endpoints are the easiest way to penetrate a network, and companies’ seldomly have multiple security controls in place that would prevent unauthorized access. Network vulnerabilities caused by mobile devices and remote employees are the number one reason companies need to adopt strict endpoint security controls to prevent malicious intent. A centralized endpoint management solution can automate network access based on polices by identifying the device’s signatures, security level and configuration. The endpoint security management product or service you use needs support all the devices and OS versions you want to allow access your network and which applications and services can be used to connect to your network. All event logs should also be forwarded to a Managed SIEM service for complete visibility. Our endpoint security management services can be for customer owned Carbon Black, Palo Alto, Check Point, Sophos, CrowdStrike, McAfee or Symantec endpoint security solutions. Alternatively, our no charge endpoint assessment service can help recommend the best endpoint security management solution for your environment. Endpoint security management is perhaps one of the most critical components needed today to protect against cybersecurity threats and other malicious plots which require monitoring and prevention efforts 24X7, 365 days a year. What do endpoint security management solutions protect against?Ransomware attacks are the result of a hacker gaining access to an endpoint or multiple endpoints on the network, and then proceeds to encrypt files on these devices and makes them useless. Most ransomware attacks are successful, and will require an exorbitant amount of time to decrypt your files or you will need to resort to restoring your files from a backup. The hackers...

IBM i 7.4 TR2 Details: V7R4 Technology Release 2 Announcement for 5770-SS1 IBM i V7R4 TR2 Technology Release 2 for IBM POWER9 and POWER8 Systems with OS400 was announced on May 15, 2020, adding many new enhancements for security, encryption, virtualization, high availability, backup and recovery, web services, DB2 database, administration, architecture, APIs, development and many other major improvements that affect operating system components, software licenses and hardware features. IBM i 7.4 TR2 is supported on select Power Systems servers with POWER9 or POWER8 processors and OS400 operating systems. IBM i customers using Blades, PureFlex systems and older Power generation processors must first upgrade AS400 system hardware. IBM i Software Maintenance and Support is required for applying V7R4 Technology Refresh 2. IBM software maintenance and support allows OS and software release updates electronically, telephone support during the normal business hours, and provides Severity 1 assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the year. For additional details, go to the IBM Support Handbooks page. For a limited time, IBM i, iSeries and AS400 customers on older Power system models with expired maintenance and support can for take advantage of IBM’s Amnesty Program to get systems back on maintenance and support without a penalty or after license fee for a limited time. This offer allows companies to take advantage of free OS and software license upgrades for fixes, performance improvements, security updates, as well as access to IBM support. The IBM Software Maintenance Amnesty Program is available for select Power and Storage System models licensed and installed in the U.S. To qualify, customers must reinstated system maintenance no later than August 31, 2020. Contact Midland for details about the Amnesty program or to reinstate your system’s maintenance and support. IBM i 7.4 TR2 Details Transport Layer Security (TLS) has been enhanced to leverage POWER9 capabilities for low-level cryptography instructions. Obtain IBM i Security updates with the latest HTTP PTF Group PTF SF99662. View PTF MF66828 to improve data transfer rates for AES encryption GCM cipher suites. Elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange using Curve25519(x25519) and Curve448(x448) are now supported and enabled named elliptic curve...

Is it the right time for you to get a small business server?  While the process of growth within small businesses can be exciting, business owners are often faced with technology pains that accompany a growing team. With more people come more computers and the once effective peer-to-peer method of managing computers when there were just a handful of people no longer proves to be effective or sustainable. With this growth in your business, it may be time to consider getting a small business server. If you are beginning to manage a small fleet of computers that share printers, scanners, internet access or information, then a small business server may certainly ease your growing pains. Today’s servers are no longer designed with just large organizations in mind as they were in the past. Servers are now made to help simplify and grow businesses of ALL sizes and can be purchased at an affordable price point. Servers allow for non-stop, 24/7 business operations and play a big part in a productive organization’s processes.   Let’s take a look at some of the sure signs it’s time to consider a small business server for organization. Signs you need a small business server #1 – Your business requires files and data that currently resides on more than one computer to be secured from unauthorized access, corruption or total loss #2 – You manage multiple computers that share scanners, printers, fax machines, information or internet access #3 – You want the flexibility of accessing your files while away from the office, backing up business-critical items that reside on multiple computers or restoring deleted or previous versions of files #4 – You require a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) software and accounting programs to communicate with your customers and vendors #5 – You would like to dictate user rights and abilities to access certain files and data on the network  #6 – If a user’s computer goes down, you’d like them to be able to sign into another computer and resume their work #7 – You need employees to share software tools and databases #8 – You...

IBM recently introduced their newest POWER servers with the POWER9 processor to the marketplace. Has your business has been debating staying on the IBM i platform instead of migrating your data to the cloud or to another OS platform like Linux Servers or another x86 server solution? You really should consider the benefits of the latest POWER9 systems are and IBM i 7.4.  The AS400 iSeries POWER lineup of servers has long held a reputation for reliability and security. IBM i is all about integration and innovation. Businesses running high-traffic, mission-critical applications are deploying IBM Systems in their own data centers and in the cloud.  Digital transformation initiatives like the the IoT, business process automation, mobile and analytics demand a lot of resources for planning and strategy. iSeries hardware requires less maintenance and fewer resources, so IT teams can focus on delivering on strategic projects.  Faster, Highly Flexible and More Resilient  Running POWER9 in your data center or in the cloud offers advantages like surprising technical flexibility and affordability compared to other systems running Linux, Windows or flavors of UNIX.   IBM POWER is like a technical fortress for data and applications which enable and run business systems like: Enterprise applications like SAP, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Infor XA (MAPICS) Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, and High Availability Security monitoring and encryption. Business Intelligence and analytics applications which work with DB2. Artificial Intelligence and AI-powered Managed Security Service Providers Communication and file transfer If you are already running IBM servers in your IT environment, we’re likely preaching to the choir.  Let’s explore six of the many benefits of upgrading or converting to IBM POWER9 and the IBM i 7.x operating system.   1.  Technology Infrastructure Without Compromise  To keep pace with today’s fast-paced, digitally dependent business environment, companies of all sizes need stable, reliable technology infrastructure which can stand up to heavy workload. Businesses are deploying solutions like AI, the IoT and cloud on the IBM i platform because it provides an integrated platform without compromising on security, scalability or reliability.  POWER servers, like their AS 400 & iSeries predecessors, are world-renowned for reliability. Yet...

SFTP client software or Secure FTP that uses SSH (Secure Shell) and PGP encryption for secure file transfer over the SSH2 protocol as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) SSH (SECSH) working group. Customers with an AS400, iSeries or IBM i can use the Secure FTP (SFTP) for to automate secure file transfer to their bank or other trading partners in just a few minutes. Banks like Bank of America, BankOne, CitiGroup, JP Morgan Chase, State Street, US Bank, Vanguard and Wells Fargo have additional file transfer requirements such as PGP encryption, ASCII armored, RSA public key exchange, sign and verify, key import and export, and other common secure file transfer processes which the IBM i SFTP software also supports. Banks also commonly require trading partners use an SFTP client software that supports their environment, such as their exchange, EDI or Value Added Network (VAN) services, including GE eXchange Services (GXS), Sterling, Inovis, Pantellos and Advantis. The IBM i SFTP client software supports these services and allows for Public Key and/or User ID and Password for authentication. A few banks will also have unique and complicated requirements for non-standard FTP ports, directory changes, file naming conventions and scripts that use special User and Password specifications. The IBM i Secure FTP (SFTP) software is very flexible and feature rich tool that supports these unique requirements, and many other complicated scenarios. Perhaps the most cost effective SFTP Client Software for IBM i, iSeries and AS400 systems on the market, includes free installation, configuration support and trials. Send us your IBM i system information, and we will send you a download link and walk you through the setup. Run the following command: CALL PGM(QLZARCAPI) Press F1 on the message at the bottom of the screen, press F10 to display the full message and send us the copy/paste. Common secure file transfer requirements for banks include Remittance Transfers, ACH Payments, Bank Statement Transfers and Image Processing. The IBM i Secure FTP software also supports FTPS (FTP over SSL 'implicit'), and provides the same file transfer, automation and data conversion features as the SFTP protocol provides, however most banks will...

The IBM z mainframe system remains the workhorse for most of the largest and most successful companies in the world, maintaining both mission critical legacy software applications and new workloads. In the scope of sensitive data and security, the IBM z/OS protects the company’s jewels for good reason, but has a plethora of system and security event log sources that must be monitored and forwarded to a SIEM like IBM QRadar, AlienVault, Exabeam, Managed SIEM or a SYSLOG Server like the Splunk. Since IBM mainframe event logs do not conform to SIEM and SYSLOG industry standards, many IBM z shops are running batch reports and scrapping mainframe event logs manually before forwarding to their SIEM. As a result of this labor intensive process, only a few key event log sources end up being forwarded to the SIEM. With the huge volume of mainframe transactions, many important security event log sources are not getting forwarded to the SIEM: SMF records, RACF, Top Secret, SYSLOG, log4j, SyslogD, RMF, IMS, ACF2, Unix services, DB2, FTP, USS files, SYSOUT, and perhaps some application or other mainframe logs all contain critical security data for a SIEM’s AI and User Behavior Analytics algorithms. Which IBM z event log sources contain security data a SIEM needs to identify a security breach? There are many event log sources that contain critical security data that a SIEM can use to discover internal and external threats, even simple workstation log-in attempts from one of many SMF record types can help identify a compromised asset or intruder. The number of records written to the SMF files or datasets can be astronomical, and is compounded by the number of vendor products installed. The IBM z/OS can create terabytes of security, operational, historical, diagnostic and like data in SMF daily. Of the 256 SMF record types, roughly 140 are actually used on most z/OS systems. SMF record types 0-127 are for z/OS components, and types 128-255 are used by other vendors to record activity and information related to their products. Record types used by vendors is a bit like the wild west, but the IBM z...

Details of each POWER9 and POWER8 hardware enhancement provided by the release of IBM 7.4 (V7R4) are below the initial summary, organized by IBM Power generation and topic. The new IBM POWER9 and POWER8 hardware features provided for OS400 V7R4 are now all available for ordering as of June 21, 2019. Read about IBM i 7.4 (V7R4) announcement details here. IBM V7R4 announcement provides the following I/O enhancements for Power9 scale-out and scale-up system models: 1.6 TB, 3.2 TB, and 6.4 TB PCIe3 Enterprise SSD NVMe adapters for Power9 E980, E950, L922, S922, S914, S924, H922, and H924 servers1.6 TB and 3.2 TB Mainstream SSD NVMe U.2 modules for Power9 E980 serverPCIe3 6-Slot Fan-out Module, PCIe x16 to CXP Optical or CU converter Adapter, and Active Optical Cables for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer for Power9 E980, E950, L922, S922, S914, S924, H922, and H924 serversStorage Backplane with HI Performance plus 2x24-Port for Power9 E950 server IBM V7R4 provides the following I/O enhancements for both Power9 and Power8 scale-out and scale-up system models: 931 GB, 1.86 TB, 3.72 TB, and 7.45 TB 2.5-inch Mainstream Solid-State Drives (SSD) for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, E950, L922, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S812L, S822L, S824L, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, E880C, E850, and E850C servers387 GB, 775 GB, and 1.55 TB 2.5-inch Enterprise Solid-State Drives (SSD) for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, E950, L922, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S812L, S822L, S824L, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, E880C, E850, and E850C serversDeactivation of LPM for Dedicated Servers for Power E980, E950, S922, S914, and S924 serversIBM i V7R4 Indicator for the following IBM Power9 and Power8 System models: E980, S914, S922, S924, H922, H924, S814, S812, S822, S824, E870, E870C, E880, and E880C servers   Hardware Enhancements for POWER9 provided with V7R4 IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe AdapterThe IBM EC5B and EC5G PCIe3 1.6 TB SSD NVMe Adapters provide a low write latency and use nonvolatile flash memory (NVMe), which is a high-performance software interface for reading and writing to...

IBM i backup performance is affected by many variables, and many data transfer rate bottlenecks can be very easy to resolve. Some simple changes you can try to improve backup performance may only require using the correct media generation for your tape library/drive, minimize resource sharing, shortening the distance between the IBM i PCIe I/O adapter and tape library/drive, using backup optimization settings or restructuring your backup processes. These minor changes are virtually free to try and may have a significant impact on optimizing your IBM i backup transfer rates and without having to spend a lot of time analyzing the root cause. Other factors affecting your backup transfer rates may require a deeper analysis of interfaces involved in the backup and restore processes, including the capabilities of the tape library/drive, I/O SAS adapter and other IBM i hardware components, LPAR configuration, directory structure, types workloads and sizes of files being backed up. Using general IBM i backup performance test results and some key assumptions, here are some ways that may have the most significant impact on optimizing backup and recovery performance:Replace slow IBM i PCIe I/O adapters like the 5901 (57B3), EJ1P and EJ1N (57B3) 3 Gbps SAS Adapters with the faster EJ10 or EJ11 (57B4) 6 Gbps SAS Adapter, or ideally use a EN0A (577F) or EN0B 16GB Fiber Adapter or a 5735 8GB Fiber Adapter. Keep in mind, the length of the cable used to connect your tape library/device will also affect the data transfer rate performance.Use a Virtual Tape Library (VTL) that ingests backup data at disk speed, versus tape drive and media speeds. The maximum backup data transfer rates on some VTLs can be up to a blazing 4.5 GB/s (14.4 TB/hr), compared to LTO-9 708 MB/s, LTO-8 360 MB/s, LTO-7 315 MB/s, LTO-6 160 MB/s and LTO-5 140 MB/s. Most VTL’s support running many parallel backup streams simultaneously which can also significantly speed up backups.Other IBM i system resources that affect backup speeds include type and amount of HDD or SSD, memory, processing and PCI placement. For instance, if you have open bays available for adding...

Keeping your IBM i optimized for optimal response times requires regular monitoring of system resources and identifying various elements that affect application performance. Poor response times of only two or three seconds delay can quickly get compounded over time when poorly written applications are involved or database maintenance has been neglected. Like most performance degradation issues on the IBM i, response time issues only get worse as the number of transactions multiply. Ignoring system performance issues affects productivity and frustrate customers, which in turn increases costs and affects revenue. Below are some ideas to consider if a major IBM i upgrade is not a viable budgetary option. Consider the cost benefits of optimizing your IBM i system resourcesThe number one factor that affects response times is available processing power (CPU), and the most expensive resource in your IBM Power system. Even new Power9 systems can experience performance degradation. If your system is experiencing poor response times, keep an eye on capacity utilization throughout the day, and check how close CPU utilization gets to 100%, especially during peak periods of the day. If you spot a pattern, perhaps there are some jobs you can plan on running a different time of day when CPU is regularly underutilized. Any system administration and batch jobs that can be scheduled at lighter periods are good examples. Take note of the applications and types of jobs consuming the most CPU resources. If these jobs involve SQL, pay attention to the number of file opens they are performing. If this number is high for the system, the fix can be as simple as changing how the programs run queries to keep files open between calls. You also may consider using IBM i Workload Groups to control the amount of CPU, memory pools and sub-systems to ensure critical applications get the resources they need to run optimally, while restricting less important jobs from stealing their needed resources. Most IBM i systems contain between 15-40% of obsolete and unnecessary data consuming disk space, which is often due to poor database and spool file maintenance. Bloated databases will definitely impact response times...

IBM EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID Plus SAS Adapter is the highest performing raid controller (SAS adapter) for IBM Power9 and Power8 systems that will significantly improve raid performance. The IBM EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID PLUS SAS Adapter has four 6 Gb connectors enabling the highest performance HDD or SSD SAS controller capabilities for IBM Power systems using PCIe Gen3 technology and IBM’s latest SAS RAID adapter technology. The EJ14 PCIe3 SAS adapter builds on the success of the EJ0L PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID SAS Adapters, but delivers up to 100% more write IOPs than the older EJ0L SAS Adapter, and can support almost 2X more drives (72 SSDs and 96 HDDs). A pair of EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID PLUS SAS Adapters can deliver up to 1.6M read IOPS, or up to 360K write IOPS, or up to 878K IOPS using a 70/30 combination of write/reads. In comparison, the older EJ0L PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID SAS Adapter can only support 48 SSDs and 96 HDDs. A pair of EJ0L PCIe3 adapters running RAID 0 SSDs can only provide up to 750,000 read IOPS in a PCIe Gen1 slot, 800,000 read IOPS in a PCIe Gen2 slot, and about one million read IOPS in a PCIe Gen2 slot using RAID 0. For a very low cost, significant performance gains can be achieved by replacing the older EJ0L RAID SAS Adapter with the latest EJ14. In addition, you may even be able to shrink your hardware footprint and ongoing maintenance costs. If your IBM Power system has any of these PCIe SAS adapters (EJ0J, EJ0M, EL3B, EJ0L, ESA1, ESA2, ESA3, and 5913), and you are noticing latency or performance degradation, consider replacing your existing RAID SAS Adapter with the EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB Cache RAID Plus SAS Adapter. Read detailed performance comparisons for IBM Power9 and Power8 Raid Controllers and SAS Adapters here. Raid performance of the EJ14 PCIe3 12 GB RAID PLUS SAS Adapter using RAID5 and RAID6 parity is absolutely amazing. A pair of EJ14 Adapters can achieve 1.6M read IOPS using RAID 0 and random 4 KB...

Is it time to upgrade your IBM i Power System? Or do you need to upgrade your IBM i Power System? Most companies upgrade their IBM Power systems on a scheduled interval, but there are instances when response times and throughput bottlenecks cause unacceptable performance levels, and a quick fix is needed. IBM i response times and throughput rely on common system resources and can have a similar effect on performance from an end user experience, but the variables that cause them are very different and are often difficult to figure out.   IBM Power system processors, memory, SSD, disk drives and other components use a very complex set of instructions to share and distribute system resources for all the transactions on the system. When individual transactions are delayed by another transaction already using the system’s resources, they are put into a wait queue. As the IBM i workload increases, throughput increases, but so does the queuing and response times. These IBM i performance metrics can have the opposite effect on the performance experienced by the end user. In fact, high throughput can cause slower IBM i response times. Understanding the source of the bottleneck can save your company from investing in an unnecessary major upgrade. The IBM i has very powerful performance logging and analysis capabilities to help administrators figure out any performance bottleneck source. The number of general and very specific performance settings on the IBM i that can be adjusted to effect various outcomes are considerable. Before spending much time analyzing and investigating performance issues, be sure to install the latest cumulative, group PTFs and technology refresh, as many performance problems can be resolved by simply updating the system. Any IBM i upgrade requirements due to performance issues, should be based on a professional performance analysis to ensure the Power system’s resources are being used efficiently. Some performance problems can be fixed by fine tuning the IBM Power configuration. However most significant performance issues today are often due to poorly written applications accessing the IBM i DB2 database using Java and ODBC connections. IBM has well documented best practices...

Sporadic IBM i performance issues and prolonged degradation that slowly creeps up over time can sometimes be abated by fine tuning memory pools, disk, database, applicatons, jobs and threads, but it’s not a task an untrained administrator should be attempting. IBM i response times and throughput performance issues can be due to numerous factors, and often requires a lot of man hours to pin point by a trained expert. If your IBM Power iSeries already has the Performance Adjuster enabled (view QPFRADJ system value) and other dynamic performance optimization features enabled, it often makes economic sense to simply add memory, disk drives or when appropriate, use enterprise IBM SSD with eMLC for write intensive workloads or mainstream solid state drives for applications that are performing less than 2 writes per day. Upgrading the IBM i Power system main storage is a cheap and quick solution to stop high page faulting rates due to insufficient memory or when too many jobs or threads are fighting for memory resources. You can view the memory storage pools and to see if the faults per second is greater than 10. Adding more disk arms or upgrading HDD to IBM SSD for a particular workload type may be the solution when disk utilization is greater than 40% and system wait or service times are unacceptable. It is not even that uncommon for a company to experience performance issues on a brand new system or after performing an OS400 or application upgrade. The IBM i has many tools you can use to analyze and monitor the performance of your iSeries Power system, including Job Watcher, Disk Watcher, Performance Tools, Navigator or even using WRKSYSSTS, WRKSHRPOOL, WRKDSKSTS and WRKACTJOB commands. For a quick and simple report, start a performance trace using STRPFRTRC command during peak hours or when the degradation is occurring, and view the system and components report to identify the bottlenecks in the trace table QPM_STRPFRTRC created. A performance analyst tuning your system resources may need to understand the symptoms better and require collecting additional statistics before making any recommendations. After the performance assessment is completed, the analyst can then use...

Written by: Bob PiccianoOpen any business publication or digital journal today, and you will read about the promise of AI, known as artificial or augmented intelligence, and how it will transform your business. The fact is, AI will not only transform your entire business, whether you are in health care, finance, retail or manufacturing, but it will also transform technology itself. The essential task of information technology (IT), and how we measure its value, has reached an inflection point. It’s no longer just about process automation and codifying business logic. Instead, insight is the new currency, and the speed with which we can scale that insight and the knowledge it brings is the basis for value creation and the key to competitive advantage.   IBM Engineer, Stefanie Chiras, with the IBM Power System AC922. (Photo: Jack Plunkett).   This trend is fueling a surging interest in deep learning and AI, or, as IBM calls it, cognitive computing. According to IDC, global spending on AI-related hardware and software is expected to exceed $57.6 billion in 2021, almost a five-fold increase over the $12 billion that will be spent this year. The real promise of AI is to unleash actionable insights that would otherwise be trapped in massive amounts of data. Much of that data is unstructured data, such as the data that’s generated by such things as written reports and journals, videos, social media posts or even spoken words. Since we introduced IBM Watson, and our powerful AI cloud platform, we’ve continued on our journey to reinvent computing for this new era. And we’ve learned that to meet the new demands of cognitive workloads, we need to change everything: from the algorithms and mathematics that are the foundations of the software, to the hardware that drives it and to the cloud that deploys it. Organizations that apply deep learning and AI, which are the superchargers for extracting insight, need to use the right architecture to ingest and analyze very large data sets. And you need to be able to do it at lightning-fast speeds, or faster than your competitors. IBM is unveiling...

Database clustering involves database replication to achieve high availability (mirroring, redundancy and disaster recovery), workload balancing for performance or scaling (queries, reporting, business intelligence, analytics and data warehousing), maintenance (upgrades, migration, testing and development), database consolidation and other objectives for data access, efficiency and better decision making. It is use database clustering and replication services where the source and target databases are at different version levels and even different types of databases all together, such as PostgreSQl to Oracle replication, or DB2 to SQL. Database clustering can be implemented for a mix of on premise, virtual and cloud environments, using any of the following replication scenarios for various objectives: from one database source to one target database (one way)from one database source to multiple target databases (distributed)from multiple database sources to one target database (consolidated)from one database source to one or more target database cascaded to one or more targets again (cascaded)one or more database sources to one or more target database (bi-directional)one source database to two different databases or even a hybrid combination of any of these scenarios (hybrid) Most database clustering solutions cannot meet complex business requirements when disparate platforms are a part of the equation or if complicated and long distance replication scenarios exist. Businesses with unique or complicated plans for database clustering should check out the advanced Database Replication software for clustering, with built-in conflict resolution and collision monitoring. It allows companies to replicate in real-time and transform data to and from the following databases: Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Azure SQL, IBM DB2, Oracle, Oracle RAC, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Teradata, IBM Informix and Sybase, of which the source and targets can be different combinations. Removing these technical barriers is key to real-time data sharing, which do not require abandoning existing investments and spending a lot of time and money on integration. Today’s business demands, mergers, acquisitions and tougher regulations are driving the needs for access to data in real-time. Advanced database replication abilities address these requirements, enabling companies to effortlessly replicate data from virtually any database to almost any other database, without large integration costs. Regardless of the...

Database migration and conversion projects can be a time consuming and costly endeavor without the right software, and converting large complex production databases with real-time replication and transformation requirements significantly compound the risks. Using a database migration and conversion tool to map fields of disparate databases correctly and keeping them in sync is key to a successful and non-disruptive conversion. Critical business applications utilizing the database to be converted will add risk to the migration process. Traditional database migration and database converter processes usually take hours or days for large databases, costing businesses unnecessary downtime. Some companies have wasted millions of dollars in failed database migration and conversion projects using internally developed tools or having to rely on multiple database converter tools to get databases in sync, tested and matching accurately. No Time for DowntimeNot an uncommon database requirement. Accuracy is the number one goal of any successful database conversion, but minimal or no downtime for production databases is a close second. By using the right database migration software, both requirements can be accomplished very easily. Using real-time replication will keep the target database in sync, which will make testing easier, improve efficiency, and ensure no downtime incurs of critical production applications. Companies wanting to make adjustments and enhancements to the new database. Using a database conversion and transformation tool that can perform this process on the fly, and keep the data in sync using database replication would be ideal for testing applications on new database. Database Migration Using StandardsDatabase conversions should use a single migration tool capable of completing the entire process for disparate source and target databases, which may include: Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Azure SQL, IBM DB2, Oracle, Oracle RAC, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Teradata, Informix or Sybase, that are physical, virtual or in the cloud. Using a simple GUI interface will drastically reduce complexity, mistakes and costs by showing an easy to understand before and after comparison of the new and old database fields. The database migration and converter tool you use, should utilize the Enterprise Data Movement EDM model, so you do not have to rely on complex custom scripts,...