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IBM i 7.3 - TR11 Enhancements
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You are in: IBM i Technology Updates > IBM i 7.3 - TR10 Enhancements
IBM i 7.3 - Enhancements timed with Technology Refresh 11 (TR11) |
IBM i Anywhere
IBM i Everywhere
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Note: The announcement materials for IBM i 7.3 TR11 can be found TR11 RFA.
The remainder of this landing page intends to make it easy to see the supporting detail for these enhancements.
Db2 for i Enhancements |

Note: The following Db2 for i enhancements are delivered by Db2 for i PTF Group SF99703 Level 26.
Db2 for i - Functional enhancements
- New HTTP functions based in QSYS2
- QSYS2.HTTP_GET() & QSYS2.HTTP_GET_VERBOSE()
- QSYS2.HTTP_POST() & QSYS2.HTTP_POST_VERBOSE()
- QSYS2.HTTP_PUT() & QSYS2.HTTP_PUT_VERBOSE()
- QSYS2.HTTP_DELETE() & QSYS2.HTTP_DELETE_VERBOSE()
- QSYS2.URL_ENCODE() & QSYS2.URL_DECODE()
- QSYS2.BASE64_ENCODE() & QSYS2.BASE64_DECODE()
IBM i Services (new)
- QSYS2.COLLECTION_SERVICES_INFO
- QSYS2.WORKLOAD_GROUP_INFO
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_CD()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_CO()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_CP()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_DO()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_EV()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_GR()
- SYSTOOLS.AUDIT_JOURNAL_SV()
IBM i Services (enhanced)
- QSYS2.ACTIVE_JOB_INFO()
- QSYS2.DISPLAY_JOURNAL()
- QSYS2.SECURITY_INFO
- IBM i System Limits pruning global variables
Db2 for i - Services (new)
IBM Navigator for i
A brand new re-imagined version of IBM Navigator for i has been delivered to provide a easy to use modern web based interface to accessing, monitoring and managing one or many IBM i endpoint nodes.

A new multi node dashboard along with a multi node monitoring interface where the user can create custom metrics leveraging IBM i services.


The latest detail on how to take advantage of this new Navigator as well as how to get these updates can be found at: IBM Navigator for i Home Page
IBM Rational Development Studio - RPG Updates 

The RPG language continues on the journey to a Modern Business Language. The following new features are being added:
- %MAXARR and %MINARR built-in functions return the index of the maximum or minimum element in an array
- Sort a data structure array by multiple subfields with SORTA %FIELDS
- See the value of named constants in the debugger with DEBUG(*CONSTANTS)
Details and PTF delivery information can be found at the RPG Cafe
IBM Rational Developer for i - 9.6.0.11 

IBM Rational Developer for i continues to be improved and enhanced to help the IBM application developer create high-quality code in a modern way.
- Simplified new connection interface to provide a quick easy was for a user to create a new IBM i connection, find their source and start developing
- New 5250 emulator launch button from the PDM perspective
- Option to lock remove source members
- Extract Constants now support numbers
- New Icon in outline view to identify exported procedures
- Find Strings results can now be exported to a file or to clipboard
More details can be found at: Rational Developer for i fix details
- #EJ24 - PCIe x16 to CXP Converter Card
- #EJ35, #EJ37 - PCIe3 Crypto Coprocessor 4769
- #EB48 - 1 GbE Base-T Transceiver RJ45 for the 25/10 Gb Ethernet adapter
IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i (5770-ICC)
IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i (ICC) continues to be enhanced and improved.
- IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i has been enhanced to provide multi-threaded and multi-part (variable sized) uploads.
The ICC PTF that delivers these enhancements is: 5733ICC - SI76887 This PTF will be released late-September, 2021.
More details can be found at: ICC Home Page
BRMS for i (5770-BR1)
Backup, Recovery, and Media Services for i (BRMS) continues to be enhanced and improved.
- BRMS using IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i has been enhanced to provide parallel backup and recovery support. This improves the client performance by running multiple concurrent transfers using the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i.
- BRMS using IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i has been enhanced to provide support of full system FlashCopy environments. This provides the proper volume selection support needed to remove the current BRMS restriction preventing full system FlashCopy environments using the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i.
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The BRMS PTFs that deliver these enhancements are as follows. The PTFs will be released mid-September, 2021.
IBM i 7.3 - SI76737
IBM i 7.4 - SI76738 -
Follow this link to discover more detail on these and other BRMS enhancements:
https://helpsystemswiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/IWT/pages/165642446/Enhancements+to+BRMS
IBM i Security
Open Source
The open source ecosystem continues to grow, with particular emphasis on the RPM-based set of deliveries. To get started with RPMs, visit http://ibm.biz/ibmi-rpms
Node.js version 16
The latest release of Node.js that will be on a long-term support (LTS) schedule is available. This release has numerous improvements in performance, security, and diagnostics. For more information on the Node.js release schedule, see https://github.com/nodejs/Release
You might need to install the IBM i 7.3 repository. For more information, see https://ibmi-oss-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/yum/RELEASE_REPOS.html
GCC version 10
A newer version of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is available. This version brings numerous performance improvements, bug fixes, and support for newer language standards.
You might need to install the IBM i 7.3 repository. For more information, see https://ibmi-oss-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/yum/RELEASE_REPOS.html
A newer version of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is available. This version brings numerous performance improvements, bug fixes, and support for newer language standards.
You might need to install the IBM i 7.3 repository. For more information, see https://ibmi-oss-docs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/yum/RELEASE_REPOS.html
Python version 3.9
A newer version of the Python runtime is also available. In addition to being a newer Long-Term Support (LTS) release, the new version of Python brings numerous language enhancements including dictionary merge and update operators, string manipulation improvements, assignment expressions, and much more.
For more information, see https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.9.html
A newer version of the Python runtime is also available. In addition to being a newer Long-Term Support (LTS) release, the new version of Python brings numerous language enhancements including dictionary merge and update operators, string manipulation improvements, assignment expressions, and much more.
For more information, see https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.9.html
tn5250
The open source ‘tn5250’ emulator is now available for PASE. This enables easy 5250 access from any SSH terminal. For more information, see https://sourceforge.net/projects/tn5250/
The open source ‘tn5250’ emulator is now available for PASE. This enables easy 5250 access from any SSH terminal. For more information, see https://sourceforge.net/projects/tn5250/
dos2unix
Dealing with files with differing line endings has been a common pain point for people who have transferred files between operating systems. The dos2unix project provides a set of simple conversion utilities that convert newlines in files between DOS/Windows (CRLF), Unix (LF), and Classic Mac OS (CR). Most notably, the ‘dos2unix’ command converts between Windows-style line endings to Unix-style line endings, and ‘unix2dos’ does the opposite.
Dealing with files with differing line endings has been a common pain point for people who have transferred files between operating systems. The dos2unix project provides a set of simple conversion utilities that convert newlines in files between DOS/Windows (CRLF), Unix (LF), and Classic Mac OS (CR). Most notably, the ‘dos2unix’ command converts between Windows-style line endings to Unix-style line endings, and ‘unix2dos’ does the opposite.
hexdump
While there are several ways to view the binary contents of a file, there’s now an easy and robust tool for SSH users. With the ‘hexdump’ utility, one can easily analyze the individual bytes within a file.
While there are several ways to view the binary contents of a file, there’s now an easy and robust tool for SSH users. With the ‘hexdump’ utility, one can easily analyze the individual bytes within a file.
Cron
Cron, the popular UNIX scheduling tool, is now available on IBM i as part of the ‘cronie’ package. This software is a modern version of the cron daemon, used by most Linux distributions. The ‘anacron’ tool is also available, which doesn’t require that the scheduler is running continuously.
For more information, see https://github.com/cronie-crond/cronie
Cron, the popular UNIX scheduling tool, is now available on IBM i as part of the ‘cronie’ package. This software is a modern version of the cron daemon, used by most Linux distributions. The ‘anacron’ tool is also available, which doesn’t require that the scheduler is running continuously.
For more information, see https://github.com/cronie-crond/cronie
Ghostscript
Ghostscript is a PostScript and PDF interpreter. It is primarily used to generate PDFs from various input formats. Note the package’s AGPL license during assessment of this software.
For more information, see https://www.ghostscript.com/
Ghostscript is a PostScript and PDF interpreter. It is primarily used to generate PDFs from various input formats. Note the package’s AGPL license during assessment of this software.
For more information, see https://www.ghostscript.com/
FreeTDS Libraries
FreeTDS is a project to document and implement the TDS (Tabular
DataStream) protocol. This protocol is used by Sybase™ and Microsoft™ databases. FreeTDS includes interfaces for DB-Lib, CT-Lib, and ODBC.
For more information, see https://www.freetds.org/
FreeTDS is a project to document and implement the TDS (Tabular
DataStream) protocol. This protocol is used by Sybase™ and Microsoft™ databases. FreeTDS includes interfaces for DB-Lib, CT-Lib, and ODBC.
For more information, see https://www.freetds.org/
New bash built-ins: liblist, cl, getjobid
Several new built-ins are available in the latest release of the bash shell. These new functions greatly enhance the usability of the bash environment for the IBM i user, allowing easy manipulation of the current job, invocation of CL commands, or modification of the library list.
For more information, see https://kadler.io/2020/12/23/bash-builtins.html
Several new built-ins are available in the latest release of the bash shell. These new functions greatly enhance the usability of the bash environment for the IBM i user, allowing easy manipulation of the current job, invocation of CL commands, or modification of the library list.
For more information, see https://kadler.io/2020/12/23/bash-builtins.html
Integrated Web Services Server (IWS) - Rest API Engine
The Integrated Web Services Server continues to be updated and enhanced to meet the ever changing application landscape.
Web services based on ILE service program procedures can have up to 248 parameters. This support is limited to IBM i 7.3 and subsequent releases and can be found in the latest HTTP group PTF. Before this enhancement, procedures selected to be externalized as web services were limited to a maximum of 7 parameters. Details on this and other IWS news can be found at IWS Home Page.
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Modified date:
13 September 2021
UID
ibm16456989