The support for these Functional Enhancements is included in the IBM i 7.5 TR8 PTF Group:

• Virtual Ethernet Multi-Queue support
• Configurable Secure Access for Linux Remote Virtual Consoles

IBM Backup, Recovery and Media Services for i (BRMS) (5770-BR2)

What’s New in BRMS GUI Version: 2026.2.0

• BRMS Log —
  • Filter by severe messages, highlighting message IDs considered critical and capable of causing a control group to fail.
  • Filter by messages that contain "objects not saved" text.
• Backup History Management — 
  • New views showing object-level and file-level details.
  • Ability to restore from an object level when object detail was included in the save
  • Ability to restore Link data from a file level when object detail was included in the save
• Backup List Management —
  • Ability to add, copy and remove Backup Lists
  • Ability to edit Backup List entries
• SQL View Documentation —
  • Added documentation link on the SQL Views
• Administration —
  • Added a new role-based usage type: *SYSOPR
    • Allows read/view access to media and backup information
    • Allows capability to perform backup and restore operations
    • Restrict change, copy, and remove actions unless the user owns the BRMS item

These and other enhancements are described in the Enhancements to BRMS landing page.

Rational Development Studio (5770-WDS) 

Rational Development Studio 5770-WDS continues to respond to the requirements from the user community to meet the needs of our RPG applications.  The following new features have been added:

• Assertion operations ASSERT-F and ASSERT-T

  Assertion operations provide a self-documenting way to verify correctness.

   assert-f cust_id = 0 %msg('Customer ID cannot be zero');
   assert-t %upper(name) = name %msg('The name should already be upper case');
   

  The ASSERT Control keyword sets the mode for processing assertion statements.

  • The assertion operation codes allow you to do assertion-based coding.
    • During development of your application, you operate in ASSERT(*EXCP) mode so your application fails immediately with an exception if an assertion fails.
    • After your application is deployed, if you don't want your application to fail immediately:
      • Use *WARN mode if you want the information about the failed assertion to appear in the joblog to aid in problem determination later.
      • Use *NONE to completely disable the assertion statements.
  • Assertion statements in ASSERT(*CALL:prototype-name) mode may be useful in a unit-testing environment since the specified program or procedure is called for every assertion statement indicating whether the assertion succeeded or failed.

• You can specify a generic message ID for ON-EXCP

  The generic message ID can end with an asterisk. For example, 'ABC*' monitors for any message ID beginning with 'ABC'.

   MONITOR;
      ...
   ON-EXCP 'ABC*';
      ...
   ENDMON;
   

• You can define an item like a single field in an external file

  Use the LIKE(*EXT) keyword. Either the short name or the alternate name can be specified for the external field name.

   DCL-S salary1 LIKE(*EXT : 'EMPSALARY' : 'MYFILE');
   DCL-S salary2 LIKE(*EXT : 'EMPLOYEE_SALARY' : 'MYFILE');
   

• You can search an array or table for the first element that is not equal to the search argument

  Use the %LOOKUPNE built-in function to search an array and use %TLOOKUPNE to search a table.

• You can search an array or table for the first element that is not equal to the search argument 

The latest details can be found at the RPG Cafe. 

System Management  The Access Client Solutions and the web-based Navigator continue to be enhanced as we strive to help the IBM i Administrator manage and update their IBM i systems.

This release has the following new features and enhancements:

• Framework
  • Navigator for i on IBM i 7.6 or 7.5 will run with Java 21 if available.
  • New left-side launch with overlay 
  • Login - improved messages for certificate or login errors.

• Dashboard

  • Dashboard is now optional per user
    • Improvements to single system and authority handling
    • Home > User Properties page allows all Navigator users to select the "Manage GUI node" option, regardless of their authority.
    • 
• Multi System
  • New CVE Information table to display CVE counts for each system.  From here you can launch to specific CVE table for one system. 
• Performance
  • Support for Notebooks in Navigator.
  • Performance Data Investigator (PDI) - new charting
    • New function: Save PDI as favorites
    • Database *FILEs support restored in package "Database Files".  There are two perspectives for each with multiple views (charts) - combination of bar and pie charts.
      • Plan Cache Event Monitor & Plan Cache Snapshot has:
        • SQL Overview - 11 views
        • SQL Attribute Mix - 9 views
      • SQL Performance Monitor has: 
        • SQL Overview - 11 views
        • SQL Attribute Mix - 9 views
  • Manage Collections - Added support for setting column-level field for library name.  Now handles move and copy in batch.
  • Export for PDI now includes the context panel information for all formats.
• Network 
  • Web Administration 
    • Allow LPAR to be enabled and disabled on Navigator GUI - Idea delivered
    • Will see all ports configured for server, along with TLS setting, all IAS/IWS/HTTP servers TLS Wizard:
    • Upgrade ports properties dialog for IAS/IWS.
    • HTTP Apache configuration validation added
    • Websphere Liberty Express Start/Stop multiple instances at once
    • Certificate Table >  open certificate store
    • Network TLS Wizard - support for TCP/IP servers
    • TLS Configuration - Added LDAP support
    • Add ADMIN servers to Network TLS configuration
    • HTTP config changes.  Config file selection.
  • EIM debug toggle - SSO Debug Tracing:
  • SMTP support for OAuth - phase 1: Use Navigator to configure - see SMTP - Open Authentication.
• Work Management
  • Active Jobs - added filter for query specifics and multiple filters performed with SQL on server side
• Security
  • Check status of the Save/Restore Master Key and load parts in Connection Properties > Cryptographic Services
    • New requirement for Save/Restore Master Key to be set to a user-chosen value (on IBM i 7.6 with PTF installed)
  • New Remote Key Agent Configuration Wizard (Cryptographic Services > Manage Master Keys)
  • New Manage External Key Manager Descriptions (EKMD) Files
    • Create, include, change, and delete EKMD files for external key management operations
  • CVE Information table added using the SQL table SYSTOOLS.CVE_INFO()
    • 
  • Support for new SQL Services for AUDIT_JOURNAL_JD and AUDIT_JOURNAL_RU
• File Systems
  • IFS - New functions to Copy, Move, Rename, & Send files
• ARE - Administration Runtime Expert 
  • Move to using file '/qibm/userdata/OS400/TCPIP/QTOCHOSTS' 
  • New PTFs - server side
• AJS
  • GUI side version  7.2.26.149
  • Scheduled Jobs > Properties - The Commands list now has a Move Up and Move Down option. You can also change the sequence number of specific commands to adjust their placement in the list. 

ACS has been updated to provide significant value for the every day users, the database engineer, as well as the general user that is leveraging SQL for their daily use.

• Run SQL Scripts 
  • Support for SELF utility
  • Save to Source Physical File without inserting x25 line endings
  • Enforce record length rather than wrapping lines when saving to Source Physical File
  • Many new Insert from Examples
• IFS
  • Favorites menu for keeping track of favorite directories
    The list can be updated using the new star icon next to the parent icon
• Visual Explain
  • Enhanced the numeric values in attributes to be formatted based on user locale
  • Enhanced the "Indexes Considered" dialog to show SQL schema and name when available
• SQL Performance Center
  • Added columns to Index Advisor that display the related MTI info

For the latest details - https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-access-acs-updates

To obtain the latest version of ACS click on the ‘Downloads’ link on the Access Client Solutions Home Page