In a previous article, we looked at some of the big enhancements that were in the new TR10/TR2 combo for 7.1/7.2. But those celebrities weren't all. This article looks at what's left.
To start, if you haven't read the previous article about these enhancements, I suggest you start by doing that. Now, let's move on to the rest of the stuff.
Support for Deployment of RESTful Web Services
The ability to develop and use web services is becoming increasingly critical on the IBM i. Up to this point, all of the services that could be developed and put out there were using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) architecture. SOAP is sort of the original way in which web services were packaged, so it was natural that i5/OS was originally set up to support it. But REpresentational State Transition (REST) is rapidly finding adherents and is becoming the default architecture to use for mobile and newer apps. Why? Because it's simpler and more efficient than SOAP.
Fully understanding REST (or SOAP for that matter) is not something that can be tackled in this article. For a brief understanding of REST, I recommend this IBM article. For a more detailed understanding, you might consider a four-article series on Site Point written by me and Tim Boronczyk.
In short, however, RESTful web services have a number of things in common.
First, the transfer mechanism that they use is always HTTP. This is not true for SOAP, which can use a variety of options, but REST is tied to HTTP. The benefit here is that HTTP is easy to understand and it's available from everywhere. And when I say "uses" HTTP, I mean that it uses the HTTP commands (GET, POST, etc.) to create, change, retrieve, and delete "resources" that are used by the app involved (generally, web pages but also other things).
Second, REST is stateless. SOAP is not. That is, in SOAP web services, the system must keep track of the "state" of the app (that is, what it was doing last). REST doesn't give a hoot about what it did last; it's only concerned with what it's doing now, and that makes the REST service simpler to use than SOAP.
Third, the URL structure in REST is better than the one in SOAP. The fact that REST's URL structure is different from SOAP's is a fact. The use of the word "better" is possibly my opinion, although I think many people would agree. SOAP URLs tend to be long and carry the parms associated with the query in them. If you see a URL with a question mark (?) in it, that's probably a SOAP web service call. Many people consider that this is giving away too much information to potential hackers (because it actually names the resource that you're accessing). REST uses a shorter, more structured URL that may have a number of slashes (/) in it, mimicking a directory structure.
But enough of that. See the references if you want to understand REST better. For now, it's enough to know that a) REST is becoming the standard way we represent and consume web services and b) now you can create and deploy that format on the i.
Hardware Enhancements
Of all the things I find uninteresting, hardware is probably at the top of the list (there are too many acronyms), so I will be brief.
You will now be able to attach additional system node and IO drawers to the Power8 servers.
SR-IOV support for Power8 Servers
A number of things that I just copied out of an IBM page:
4-port 10 Gb Ethernet NIC
Native and VIOS NPIV attachment of FlashSystem 900
IBM i 16 Gb FC Native Direct Attach
10 Gb NIC/RoCE adapter
10K RPM 571/600 GB SFF with 4K block size
10K RPM 1.1/1.2 TB SFF with 4K block size
10K RPM 1.7/1.8 TB SFF-3 with 4K block size
SAN multi-path support for tape drives
SAS Adapter Availability Improvement
PowerVC for IBM i
I think next time I contact Steve Pitcher to see if he minds if I cover hardware stuff, I will just be honest and tell him I would rather he do it.
Access Client Solutions
This, of course, is the replacement for Access for Windows, which is not being updated for future versions of Windows. And a lot of new stuff has been added to this, although it did work before, so it's not like the world is beginning. But it's nice to have additions to this new product.
Of course, the main thing that I like about this product is that it runs on the Mac. I have been on the Mac for four years now, and you know what they say: "Go Mac and never look back!" And now with Access Client Solutions, it's easier than ever.
Hand in hand with this is the release of Mobile Access for i, which lets you access the i from your favorite mobile device.
So, is that it? I think so, although you never really know for sure. For more information on what TR10/TR2 provides, check out the IBM link. But you know what the most important thing is? The most important thing is to order and install this stuff and start using all the great new functionality it contains.
David Shirey is president of Shirey Consulting Services, providing technical and business consulting services for the IBM i world. Among the services provided are IBM i technical support, including application design and programming services, ERP installation and support, and EDI setup and maintenance. With experience in a wide range of industries (food and beverage to electronics to hard manufacturing to drugs--the legal kind--to medical devices to fulfillment houses) and a wide range of business sizes served (from very large, like Fresh Express, to much smaller, like Labconco), SCS has the knowledge and experience to assist with your technical or business issues. You may contact Dave by email at
MC Press books written by David Shirey available now on the MC Press Bookstore.
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