IBM i 7.3 - Enhancements timed with Technology Refresh 6

The remainder of this landing page intends to make it easy to see the supporting detail these enhancements.

Db2 for i - Functional Enhancements

• INSERT with DEFAULT VALUES
• CREATE INDEX - optional alias and rename controls for field names
• New QSQPRCED() - QAQQINI statement level override controls
• SQL Precompiler enhancements

Db2 for i - Performance Enhancements

• IASP vary on performance is improved

Db2 for i - Database Management Enhancements

• System Limits - by Table Size
• System Limits - QSYSOPR warning uses a new message - SQL7062  
• Health attributes added to the SQL Plan Cache Properties

IBM i Services (new and enhanced)

• QSYS2.DATA_AREA_INFO()
• QSYS2.DATA_AREA_INFO
• QSYS2.GET_JOB_INFO()
• QSYS2.OBJECT_PRIVILEGES
• QSYS2.MESSAGE_FILE_DATA
• QSYS2.ASP_INFO
• QSYS2.ASP_JOB_INFO
• SYSTOOLS.FIRMWARE_CURRENCY
• SYSTOOLS.SPLIT()
• SYSTOOLS.SPOOLED_FILE_DATA()
• QSYS2.SYSLIMTBL
• QSYS2.SYSLIMITS

Systems Management and Power HA

• Access Client Solutions 1.1.8.2 - Latest download site 
  • Run SQL Scripts
    • SQL Syntax verification 
    • SQL Formatting
    • Last used DB connection remembered 
    • New SQL Examples added to Insert from Examples
  • IFS
    • New include support to allow server side limiting of entries returned 

• Clustering enhancements to automate and simplify operations
• IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for i enhancements:
  • Support for DS8000 HyperSwap with a Global Mirror link
  • Automation of administrative domain operations
  • Support for disaster recovery of a Db2 Mirror deployment
  • Support for replication of IFS data in a Db2 Mirror deployment
  • For more details, see the PowerHA 7.4 Wiki page 
• IBM Backup, Recovery, and Media Services for i (BRMS) enhancements:
  • Turn-key cloud control group deployment for easy set-up
  • SAVLIBBRM default now backs up changes to journaled objects
  • Support for new 3592 tape device
  • Support to easily back up all spooled files, which improves restore performance
  • Enhanced logging to help preserve message order when log entries occur at the same second

Hardware

• PCIe4 2-port 100 Gb ROCE EN adapter adds dedicated driver & native SR-IOV NIC
• PCIe3 6-Slot Fanout Module for PCIe3 Expansion Drawer
• PCIe x16 to CXP Converter Card
• New Enterprise SSDs
• New Mainstream SSDs

Application Development

• REST APIs - Integrated Web Services
  • IWS engine now supports the ability to send SQL directly though the HTTP connection

• CL
  • Now create CLLE programs and CL commands can be compiled directly from IFS stream files
• JTOpen JDBC driver supports
• Easier retranslation of program objects

Open Source updates
 

IBM i Access ODBC driver ported to IBM i. 
Allows any standard ODBC client to be able to communicate to the local database on i. It also allows an application to be developed using the IBM i Access ODBC driver for Windows/Linux and deployed to IBM i using the same ODBC driver. 

Node.js Ecosystem Enhancements

• idb-connector and idb-pconnector 1.x released  - provides direct API access to Db2 using conventional (callback-based) JavaScript conventions. See idb-connector  and idb-pconnector for details.
• itoolkit package - SSH or ODBC connections can be used to communicate with ILE IBM i objects. See itoolkit for details.
• Loopback - a JavaScript framework that allows for rapid creation and deployment of REST API’s

Python Ecosystem Enhancements 

New packages allow for security enhancements, more options for application development, data science, and machine learning.
Python Machine Learning and Data Science libraries. The following RPM Packages are available:

•  Pillow
• asn1crypto
• bcrypt
• cffi
• cryptography
• devel
• ibm_db
• idna
• itoolkit
• lxml
• numpy
• pandas
• pip
• pycparser
• pynacl
• scikit-learn
• scipy
• tkinter

R

R brings another programming language to IBM i. Although it has a wide variety of uses, R excels at statistical computing and data mining. Db2 can be accessed from R by installing the “odbc” package and using the newly-delivered ODBC driver.

Open Source Tools

• Apache ActiveMQ, a robust message broker with support for several protocols including OpenWire, STOMP, MQTT, AMQP, REST, and WebSockets. For more information, see Apache ActiveMQ for details
• Apache Ant  build automation tools.  For more information, see apache for details
• Maven  build automation tools. For more information, see Maven for details
• vim, a terminal-based editor. For more information, see vim for details
• yum-utils, a collection of tools and programs for managing yum repositories and installed software for more advanced users. For more information, see yum-utils for details
• Midnight Commander, a terminal-based utility for exploring the filesystem which enables the user to access FTP sites, compare files/directories, edit files, run things from a subshell, and lots more! The interface also has mouse support, allowing for menu-based access to functions and scroll wheel support. For more information, see Midnight Commander for details 

Other Product Updates 

Domino 

• 5733D10: IBM Domino 10.0.1 and IBM Traveler 10.0.1.
  • Many New Features  - Latest feature details 

Administration Runtime Expert - 5733ARE 

• Many new features added to the ARE for better PTF management support