IBM V7R5 TR1 Technology Refresh Details

IBM V7R5 Technology Refresh 1 TR1 builds on the simplicity of integration theme in the IBM i 7.5.0 base release, and includes many fixes and enhancements that improve performance of IBM i Power10 and Power9 servers as explained in the memo to IBM i customers. The IBM V7R5 TR1 enhancements and new functions released on December 2, 2022 are explained in this article below. IBM i 7.5 TR1 has been designated MF99401 PTF in PTF Group Level is SF99957, and has RS-750-B Resave Level and RE22291 PTF Marker. IBM V7R5 TR2 enhancements and new functions are explained in a separate article, and was released on May 5. 2023. IBM V7R5 TR2 has been designated MF99402 PTF in PTF Group Level is SF99957, and has RS-750-C Resave Level and RE23084 PTF Marker.

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IBM NVMe PASSWORD PROTECTION FOR DATA ON POWER10 SERVERS
COMPRESSION
CLUSTERING
IBM i NAVIGATOR
INTEGRATED WEB SERVICES SERVER IWS
IBM i ACCESS CLIENT SOLUTIONS
IBM i HTTP APACHE SERVER 5770-DG1
IBM i CCA FOR IBM 4769 CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROCESSOR
IBM i DB2 DATABASE
IBM i SERVICES
OPEN SOURCE
NODE.JS VERSION 18
tn5250 TLS SUPPORT
LINUX ODBC DRIVER
IBM i RATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIO 5770-WDS
IBM i RATIONAL DEVELOPER 5733-RDW
IBM i MODERNIZATION ENGINE FOR LIFECYCLE INTEGRATION
IBM i POWERHA SYSEM MIRROR
IBM i DB2 MIRROR 5770-DBM
IBM i WEB ENABLEMENT 5733-WE3
IBM i VIOS NPIV MULTIPLE QUEUES FOR VIRTUAL FIBRE CHANNEL
MANUALLY DISABLING AN IBM i DISK PATH
IBM i CLIENT VIRTUALIZATION
IBM i BACKUP, RECOVERY AND MEDIA SERVICES BRMS 5770-BR1
IBM i VISUAL STUDIO CODE VSCode

IBM i V7R5 TR1 Base OS400 Enhancements

IBM NVMe PASSWORD PROTECTION FOR DATA ON POWER10 SERVERS
IBM i NVMe is a storage access device and transport protocol used with IBM FlashSystem and IBM i SSD that delivers the highest throughput and fastest response times available for every type of enterprise workload. The IBM i NVMe device can be sub-divided up into multiple namespaces. A namespace is a quantity of non-volatile memory that may be formatted into logical blocks, of which the IBM i sees each namespace as a disk unit. All of the NVMe devices that IBM i supports are considered Self Encrypting Drives SED. This means that the data is encrypted at rest. However, the key that is used to encrypt and decrypt the data on the NVMe is not protected; thus any actor in possession of the device can access all the data. Some NVMe devices support the TCG Storage Security Subsystem Class SSC: Opal design architecture. This design architecture uses a client-supplied password to protect the data on an NVMe. If the NVMe is moved to another logical partition or loses power, the data on that NVMe becomes read/write protected. By supporting this Opal Storage specification, the device can protect the confidentiality of stored user data against unauthorized access once it leaves the owner's control. IBM i NVMe feature numbers supported include these IBM i NVMe disk drives:
IBM 5B53 Enterprise 800 GB SSD PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module Feature ES3A
IBM 5B52 Enterprise 1.6 TB SSD PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module is Feature ES3C
IBM 5B51 Enterprise 3.2 TB SSD PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module is Feature ES3E
IBM 5B50 Enterprise 6.4 TB SSD PCIe4 NVMe U.2 module is Feature ES3G

There exists a rare scenario where the NVMe might not be locked even when the NVMe is moved to a different logical partition:
The NVMe belongs to the IBM i logical partition NVMe password protection policy.
Then the IBM i logical partition terminates abnormally, or the Hardware Management Console HMC is used to power off the IBM i logical partition.
Then Dynamic Logical Partitioning DLPAR is used to move the NVMe to a different logical partition, all while the NVMe remains powered on.

The requirements to enable an NVMe password protection policy on an IBM i logical partition are:
Platform Key Storage PKS is enabled under the HMC.
Logical partition is running on a Power-10 processor.
Logical partition firmware is at least FW1030 or higher.
The NVMe supports the design architecture.
Running the IBM i 7.4 release or higher with a specific technology refresh.
There can be only a single NVMe password protection policy on each IBM i logical partition.

Note: The NVMe password protection policy is not related to IBM i disk encryption. The NVMe devices are already Self Encrypting Devices SED, so there is no performance penalty on I/O operations to NVMe under the NVMe password protection policy. Disk encryption is a mechanism that encrypts data that is stored in an auxiliary storage pool ASP. Basic disk pools and independent disk pools can be encrypted. To use disk encryption, the logical partition must have 5770-SS1 Option 45 Encrypted ASP Enablement installed. The disk units in an encrypted ASP can be of any type: SSD, External LUNs, Virtual LUNs, NVMe namespaces, etc. Disk encryption is controlled by the operating system. Disk encryption passwords are not stored in PKS; a different key storage mechanism is used. The I/O operations to a disk unit protected by disk encryption are summarized below:
Write: The operating system encrypts the data before the data is transferred to the disk unit to be written to the disk.
Read: After data is read from a disk unit in an encrypted ASP, the operating system decrypts the data.
There is a significant performance penalty associated with disk encryption; every disk I/O operation requires the data to be encrypted or decrypted by the IBM V7R5 operating system.

COMPRESSION
The ZLIB compression algorithm has been enhanced to automatically uses the Nest Accelerator NX GZIP, which compress data faster, consumes less CPU and produces smaller output size compared to MSD used with previously releases. The ZLIB compression enhancements only work when running in IBM Power10 compatibility mode on an IBM i Power10 server.

CLUSTERING
The DSPASPSTS command can now be used to view the progress of an IASP vary status, and will display inquiry messages requiring a response at the bottom of the screen from QSYSOPR message queue.

The Cluster Administrative Domain now synchronizes MAXSIGN, OBJAUD, and AUDLVL user profile attributes to help ensure profiles are the same on all nodes. The new IBM V7R5 MAXSIGN User Profile attribute can be set using the CRTUSRPRF or CHGUSRPRF command, whereas the OBJAUD and AUDLVL attributes can only be set using the CHGUSRAUD command.

The Cluster Administrative Domain now uses QSYSNOMAX for the job queue with INLLIBL(*NONE) and INLASPGRP(*NONE) when submitting a job to delete monitored resources to prevent problems associated with job queues being held, inactive subsystems and initial libraries in an unavailable IASP.

IBM i NAVIGATOR
Existing Navigator functions have been enhanced in IBM V7R5, and new capabilities have been added for Administrators that were previously available in the old IBM i Navigator Client. The IBM i Navigator runs under the ADMIN1 server, and can be viewed on your IBM i by entering one of the following unsecure URLs: http://hostname:2002/Navigator or http://hostname:2001/Navigator or using one of these TLS secured URLs: https://hostname:2010 or https://hostname:2003f using TLS and the default ports. IBM i Navigator enhancements include the following:

IBM Single Sign-On SSO with Kerberos for GUI Web interface
Permissions for Objects have been updated
IASP support for IBM i
IASP of initial system connection of Home page can be specified
IBM i DB2 Mirror ObjectConnect Configuration
Internet Printing Server IPP server and Internet Printing Protocol IPP printers can now be configured in the GUI Web interface, as well as run under the Admin1 server
Support for a large numbers of Active jobs has improved
Full LDAP management
IBM Integrated File System IFS tree navigation finally returns
Intrusion Detection Services IDS support
VPN functions for a New connection wizard, Dynamic key connection and Rules for key groups and packets have been added
The SECURITY_INFO Security Info has been updated
Performance information has been enhanced:
Removed IBM Performance Tools PT1 product requirement for Performance Data Investigator PDI perspectives
Job Watcher and Disk Watcher definitions can now be added, started, stopped
Job Watcher Interval Details panel has been added
Health Indicators functions have been added to the Investigate Data task that utilizes the Performance Data Investigator tool to view performance collections data. The Collection Services, Job Watcher, Disk Watcher, and Performance Explorer collectors each have content packages providing predefined perspectives of the performance data that can be used in conjunction with the Health Indicators to show a IBM V7R5 LPARs general health and configure thresholds.
Real-time metrics of top contributor monitors can be viewed in a designated panel.

INTEGRATED WEB SERVICES SERVER IWS and INTEGRATED REST API ENGINE
The IBM i Integrated Rest API engine of the Integrated Web Services Server IWS has adopted the latest industry standards and functions to help Developers integrate the IBM I with remote systems and services. IWS connections for Cross Origin Resource Sharing CORS headers and HTTP Strict Transport Security HSTS has been added to allow your server to communicate with clients that it accepts only HTTPS requests. In addition, Axis Client support now supports Binary Payloads.

IBM i ACCESS CLIENT SOLUTIONS 5770-XJ1 - ACS version 1.1.9.1
IBM i Administrators can now automatically push JRE installation and updates to Access Client Solution users. IBM i Access Client Solutions for Windows, Linux, macOS and PASE-based IBM i applications can now securely connect via the native ODBC driver via TLS to ensure secure transport of data between the client application and IBM i.

IBM i HTTP APACHE SERVER 5770-DG1
The IBM i HTTP Server 5770-DG1 has been updated to Apache Server version 2.4.53, which includes many updates, fixes, and improvements, including the latest PCRE regular expression engine levels.

IBM i CCA FOR IBM 4769 CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROCESSOR
IBM i Common Cryptographic Architecture CCA version 7.3.x now supports the IBM 4769 Cryptographic Coprocessor adapter with IBM V7R5 TR1 and required PTFs.

IBM i DB2 DATABASE
IBM i DB2 integrated database has the following SQL enhancements:
IBM Watson geospatial analytic functions, including projection-free Ellipsoidal support and native geohashes, which allow the IBM i clients to easily leverage Watson Geospatial technology using SQL.
SQL Error Logging Facility SELF has been added to quickly view details of application failures and user errors for quick remediation.
Ability to move rows with SQL without the need to use IBM i DB2 produce new values for SQL-generated columns has been added to help change management.
Some SQL language features have improved performance.
The SQL language is enhanced in several ways to allow IBM i clients to not only accomplish more with SQL but also to
SQL has been enhanced to accomplish more and the complexity of application logic has been simplified with SQL query.
The proactive data model management has new capabilities through SQL for accessing enhanced data database statistical catalogs.
Additional SQL enhancements not explained have also been added.

IBM i SERVICES
SQL and DB2 for i SQL Query Engine SQE was used to enhance IBM i Services ability to access IBM i objects and system information in new ways, including:
COMMAND_INFO: One row for every command, columns for every command attribute.
HISTORY_LOG_INFO: The SQL alternative to Display Log (DSPLOG) is easier to consume.
SYSTEM_STATUS_INFO: The addition of Batch job summary detail.
ASP_INFO: Enhanced to return Geographic Mirror insight and more.
ACTIVE_JOB_INFO: Shift the workload group information under the WORK option for improved efficiency of capturing only work management detail for active jobs.
AUDIT_JOURNAL_XX helper functions: Many new table functions are added to SYSTOOLS for specific audit journal entry type, making it possible and easy to understand the archive of security enforcement using SQL, or through Navigator for i.
Additional IBM I Services enhancements not explained have also been added.

OPEN SOURCE
IBM i Open Source technologies are almost all RPM-based now. All open source technology available in the 5733-OPS product is now available in RPM form, which makes installing, managing and using open source technologies even simpler. The yum package manager will show the packages available, but some of the more notable are: Node.js, Python, ODBC, Java, Apache, Kafka, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Camel, Nginx, Certbot LetsEncrypt, less utility, git, findutils updatedb and locate, GCC 6.3.0, automake, autoconf, m4, libtool, GNU, ls, grep, sed, awk, and GNU Nano.

NODE.JS VERSION 18
Node.js has many performance, security and diagnostics improvements in version 18, and has a long-term support LTS schedule available. Complete list of the Node.js release schedule can be viewed oh the Nodejs GitHub webpage: https://github.com/nodejs/Release

tn5250 TLS SUPPORT
The tn5250 open source terminal and printer emulator for Windows and Unix systems now enables connecting to an IBM i over TLS encryption for PASE. Visit the Source Forge Telnet Client tn5250 emulator project webpage for details: https://sourceforge.net/projects/tn5250/

LINUX ODBC DRIVER
IBM i Access Client Solutions ODBC driver for Linux is now much easier to install. The ODBC Linux Driver for IBM i Access Client Solutions is available on the IBM i Open Source RPM website as well as at the following links: https://ibm.biz/ibmi-odbc-download and https://kadler.io/blog/2022-05-20-odbc-repos/

IBM i RATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIO 5770-WDS
IBM i WDS Rational Development Studio has the following new features:

RPG support string operations by characters rather than by bytes or double-bytes for UTF-8, UTF-16, and mixed-SBCS/DBCS
RPG %CHARCOUNT built-in function returns the number of characters in a string, which might be different from the number of bytes or double bytes
RPG concatenating string functions %CONCAT concatenates several items with an optional separator and %CONCATARR concatenated the elements of an array with an optional separator.
RPG prototyped-parameter option *CONVERT is used for string or pointer parameters, to allow any data type to be passed as a parameter
RPG parameter %STR is used to specify the CCSID of the data for the pointer
ILE COBOL now has support for Target CCSID (TGTCCSID).

IBM i RATIONAL DEVELOPER 5733-RDW D0C5FLL Version 9.6.0.12
IBM RDW has the following new programmer productivity capabilities and fixes:
Compiler error list support for CRTPGM and CRTSRVPGM.
RPG language updates: new opcodes ON-EXCP and SND-MSG; new BIFs %MSG and %TARGET (including updated program verifier).
Update JTOpen to 11.0.
Update IBM Java 8 JVM.
Add LPEX filter for subroutines and procedures.
Add preference for default case for Context Assist insertions.
Add preference to change default insert mode for editor.
Include Left Hand Indicators in Outline.
Add MONMSG to control codes when filtering view by control; improve [Shft]+[Ctrl]+[M] behavior.
Show file name in hover text for record formats.
Outline does not show the data structure is modified by XML-INTO.
Display contents of the save file (SAVF).
Quick fix to comment out unused variables.
Quick fix to create missing variables and procedures.
Single select compare with user input.
Add a right-click context menu item for toggling edit/browse mode.
Improve connection status monitoring and control.
Object Table quick filter entry fields should support [CTRL]+[V], [CTRL]+[C] for Paste and Copy.
Add a keyboard short-cut [ALT]+[SHFT]+[T] to the Extract Constants menu action.
Extract procedure: support embedded SQL statements in selection.
Learn more at the IBM RDI Information Hub: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1105665

IBM i MODERNIZATION ENGINE FOR LIFECYCLE INTEGRATION
IBM i MERLIN has new functions for its container-based ecosystem for application developers to build new applications and tools. The IBM Developer IDE within MERLIN now includes the ability for developers to leverage an interactive debugger to solve problems much quicker.

IBM i POWERHA SYSEM MIRROR 5770-HAS Version 5.2.2
IBM PowerHA SystemMirror has many new enhancements and features for web-based administration, FlashCopy automation and the administrative domain.
PowerHA has a new modern web-based interface, monitoring and management, providing at-a-glance health information from a web browser.
The PowerHA administrative domain synchronizes security and configuration-related objects across a PowerHA environment, including user profiles so that changes to resources monitored by the administrative domain are automatically synchronized with the other nodes. With this enhancement, PowerHA now supports synchronizing additional attributes on user profiles, including: Synchronization of user auditing (CHGUSRAUD) with the object auditing value (OBJAUD) and user action auditing (AUDLVL) attributes, as well as Synchronizing the new user-level maximum sign-on attempts (MAXSIGN) attribute.
Existing monitored resources in the administrative domain that previously monitored all attributes for user profiles will automatically begin monitoring the new attributes after all nodes are updated to PowerHA SystemMirror for i at IBM V7R5 level 5.2.2.
Previously, PowerHA introduced automation for IBM FlashSystems and Spectrum Virtualize IASP-based FlashCopy, reducing the need for customized scripts or external tools. This update provides additional Integrated FlashCopy automation enhancements, including the ability to run a user exit program as part of FlashCopy operations, and management is simplified with the ability to suspend and resume FlashCopy sessions

IBM i DB2 MIRROR 5770-DBM
IBM DB2 Mirror now supports replicating the state of a submitted job for IBM i HA and IBM i DR. In the event of a failure, it may be important to know which scheduled jobs were actually running and which ones remain in the job queue. Db2 Mirror now can select job queues and track the status of the submitted jobs on those queues. This status is replicated to the other node in the Db2 Mirror configuration. In the event of a failure, this status information can be used to resubmit a job to run on the other node.
Usability enhancement for setting up Db2 Mirror managed integrated file systems
The configuration of setting up and managing an IFS instance that can be accessed and changed from both nodes has been simplified by new GUI support. If geographic mirroring is being used for the IFS replication, all setup and management can be done from the Db2 Mirror UI (both command line and GUI).

IBM i WEB ENABLEMENT 5733-WE3
Web Enablement for i 5733-WE3 can no longer be ordered as stated in Software Announcement LP22-0088 on May 3, 2022. However, now IBM V7R5 clients who need the WebSphere Application Server products delivered with Web Enablement for i can order the product. As stated in the May 3, 2022, announcement letter, Web Enablement for i products are not preloaded and not available on physical media.

IBM i VIOS NPIV MULTIPLE QUEUES FOR VIRTUAL FIBRE CHANNEL
IBM i Power10 and IBM Power9 servers with 16 Gb or 32 Gb Fibre Channel FC adapters now support multiple request and completion queues for storage I/O communication. Use of multiple work queues in the physical FC stack significantly improves the I/O requests per second IOPS due to the ability to drive the I/O operations in parallel through the FC adapter. IBM i PowerVM VIOS support for multiple queues for the interfaces between virtual FC client and server adapters support stated in Software Announcement LP20-0445 on October 6, 2020, exposed the physical FC adapter capabilities to the client operating system. The IBM i now takes advantage of that support to use multiple request and response queues in the IBM i virtual FC client adapter to provide increased parallelism throughout the entire virtual I/O stack, which can improve the overall virtual FC I/O throughput, reduce latency, and achieve higher IOPS.

MANUALLY DISABLING AN IBM i DISK PATH
Until now, the IBM i system would always automatically attempt recovery from errors on a disk path, which caused performance problems even if other better paths were available. A system administrator can disable a disk path with errors to allow a better path to be used instead.

IBM i CLIENT VIRTUALIZATION
IBM i Power Server clients requiring hardware virtualization capabilities have the following new product offerings:
The IBM Power10 S1022s now has an 8-core (2 x 4-core) option that supports IBM i natively at a P10 software tier, allowing more PCIe slots in the system unit compared to current P10 software tier offerings.
IBM Power10 E1080 servers have two new NVMe U.2 (15mm) Flash drive bays
New PCIe4 2-port 100Gb NIC/RoCE QFSP56 Adapter.
New PCIe3 4-port 10GbE BaseT RJ45 Adapter.
New PCIe4 64Gb 2-port Optical Fibre Channel Adapter.
New PCIe4 32Gb 4-port Optical Fibre Channel Adapter.
Support for VIOS 3.1.4 with VIOS dump improvements.

IBM i BACKUP, RECOVERY AND MEDIA SERVICES BRMS 5770-BR1
IBM BRMS has the following new features and enhancements delivered in PTF SI80273:

BRMS SQL service enhancements have been added for the BRMS enterprise function. These new services give users the ability to set up nodes in a BRMS enterprise network and to schedule and manage BRMS reports from a central system.
BRMS enterprise reporting has been enhanced to support the PRTMOVBRM command for reporting when using the new BRMS SQL service procedures.
BRMS has been enhanced with a new append to media volume selection that ensures mounted volumes are reserved to the job before using them for backups. The purpose of this new volume selection algorithm is to prevent concurrent backup jobs from using the same volume.
The following previously deprecated functionality has been disabled:
The parameter Option OPTION(*SECUREDDM) with Action ACTION(*SET) on the Initialize BRMS (INZBRM) command has been disabled and will fail with message BRM412B. BRMS encourages using the alternate method of implementing the QDDMDRDASERVER special value in the SERVER parameter of the Add Server Authentication Entry (ADDSVRAUTE) command.
The Work with Media Policies (WRKPCYBRM *MED) command interface to create or change a media policy with a Media class special value of *ADSM has been disabled and will fail with message BRM1174. The reason for this change is that IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager (TSM) reached End of Support (EOS) in April of 2015.
The BRMS PTF that delivered the enhancements is IBM V7R5 SI80273, and became available in September 2022.

IBM i VISUAL STUDIO CODE VSCode
IBM i VSCode is included in the IBM i Development Extension Pack along with Code for IBM i, IBM i Languages highlighting, RPGLE, COBOL, CL, RPGLE Free, Code for IBM i Walkthroughs, IBM i Notebooks, Db2 for IBM I, IBM I, Renderer, Error Lens and TODO Highlight. IBM i VSCode has been updated by the community and IBM with the following enhancements:
Database tooling has a new and improved schema browser.
SQL results for large queries are now only loaded "as needed"

Major RPGLE linter auto-fix performance improvements.
Improved globalization support.