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TechTip: So What's in the TR8 Anyway?

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IBM is at it again, providing more new functionality with a Technology Refresh.

 

Yes, yes, it's true! The long-awaited, highly anticipated Technology Refresh 8 (TR8) to V7.1 has finally been released. Could I possibly be more excited? (And they said I could never make it in advertising or politics.) TR8 is expected to be released June 6, 2014, strangely enough the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

 

My opinion is that it's not quite as expansive as TR7, but I frankly couldn't take too much more change right now. However, it does offer a number of very interesting and very useful capabilities.

Hardware Stuff

This will be a rather short paragraph for several reasons. First, because I honestly don't find hardware or its closely associated software very interesting. Second, because I just don't have much of a feel for hardware, although I really try not to let lack of knowledge influence my writing. And third, because Steve Pitcher has just published an article on TR8 that looks heavily at the hardware side and does so very, very well. It's hard not to like Steve. He's got a good sense of humor, knows an awful lot about a lot of stuff, and lives within half a day's sail of where the Titanic went down.

 

In addition to the hardware stuff, Steve also gets very excited about the changes to the Integrated Application Server in 7.1 now (via TR8) being based on the WebSphere Application Server 8.5 Liberty Profile. I'm not going to say anymore here because I don't want to ruin the surprise ending, but it's really cool.

 

Bottom line: if you're curious about TR8, then you have to read Steve's article too.

RDI Stuff

As someone who has written several articles on free-form RPG D/F/H/etc. specs (oops, "control statements"), I am painfully aware of the fact that while this was supported in PDM, it was not supported in RDI. And a lot of people were not very happy about that.

 

But now tranquility returns to the Dual Spires because TR8 brings that free-form support to RDI. Well, to RDI 9.0.2 at least (although in some documents I have seen this referred to as 9.1). With TR8 you can now do all of the free-form stuff in RDI. Prior to this, you could enter control statements in RDI on 7.1, but you could not do some of the things that RDI provides, like syntax checking. With the addition of TR8, you can finally use the Eclipse-based solution as a full development environment. The downside, of course, is that this is only if you're on 7.1 and only on 9.0.2 (and have installed TR8), but for the people who are there, go for it.

DB2 Stuff

Yes, just like every other release, TR8 includes stuff for DB2. Talk about being needy. Most of it is performance-driven, but there's also some new functionality.

 

For example, you can use the Generate SQL() procedure from QSYS2 to pick up SQL DDL statements that you want to use to track or archive information about the database objects. Or, you can create partitioned tables with mis-ordered partition ranges so that it's easier to build and deploy partitioned tables. Sounds like something that might be useful if you have a large number of environments to impact.

 

And the QSYS2/RESTART_IDENTITY() procedure makes it easier to restart the identity values after you copy a table.

 

If you're interested in converting from DDS to DDL, you could do that via Navigator, but now that logic has been squashed into a procedure that you can kick off yourself programmatically.

 

But the real fascination with DB2, as with muscle cars from the 60s, is performance. That and the chicks, of course. And performance wise there are a number of enhancements.

 

    • The Toolbox JDBC driver has improved variable-length compression support for blocked INSERTs.

    • The SQL Query Engine (SQE) is improved to detect and control complex query optimization, yielding better query performance while protecting system resources.

    • The QSYS2/DUMP_PLAN_CACHE_topN() procedure provides an easy way to find the most expensive queries in the SQL Plan Cache, making it simpler to focus performance analysis on the heaviest queries.

    • The QSYS2/EXTRACT_STATEMENTS() procedure provides an SQL interface to extract deep details from SQL Performance Monitors and SQL Plan Cache snapshots, making it possible to automate database analysis.

    • The QSYS2/SYSPACKAGESTMTSTAT catalog makes it easy to identify the most frequently executed static SQL statements by observing per-statement statistics in SQL packages, service programs, and programs.

    • New DB2 for i statistical catalogs (QSYS2/SysPackageStmtStat and QSYS2/SysProgramStmtStat) are added, making it easy to analyze the usage characteristics at the SQL statement level.

    • DRDA connections are branded with client special register default values, making it simpler to recognize and understand workload identity.

       

      I would like to take credit for this list myself but, dude, there are limits to how much you can do by rewording, so I have to admit I copied it from IBM. The ones that I like are DUMP_PLAN_CACHE_topN() and EXTRACT_STATEMENTS(). These procedures allow you to automate the process of picking up the most hoggish SQL statements and holding them for questioning. Actually, that was a bad choice of words. They don't really "hold" the SQL statements as in "stop them from running." It was a euphemism. But it is a nice touch to be able to programmatically identify the hogs.

More on the Horizon?

So there it is: TR8. But that's only an appetizer, isn't it? Despite super-secret measures and several public executions within IBM, word continues to spread that 7.2 promises mind-control helmets and a tiny dispenser on the new Power15 machines that give us a colorless and odorless elixir that erases memories (the helmet allows you to plant them). Finally, something we can really use with management.

 

David Shirey

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at (616) 304-2466.

MC Press books written by David Shirey available now on the MC Press Bookstore.

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