Absolutely in DB2. Being newer in age there are more PTFs coming out for V7R3 than V7R2 but that's to be expected.
As to external SQL, that's a bit more challenging however I've not seen the upgrade break anything substantially. We have seen some decisions the optimizer makes that cause us to wonder how that optimization was arrived at but those are few and far between. Proper index strategies avoid any of those problems and of course indexes can be built without downtime so I highly doubt there will be a problem.
--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of midrange
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 9:04 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: upgrade to v7r2 or v7r3
Have done some preliminary verification - it all works at 7.3
We are a shop that does not tolerate any app downtime, and there will not be anyone to re-write any code (again, not worried about RPG, it will be external sql code).
If I had to boil it down, the concerns will be DB2 stability and performance.
Since we do not put ptfs in without a good period of testing, we can't be in a cycle of continuous ptf testing.
Would you call 7.3 as stable as 7.2 ?
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Evan Harris
Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2017 8:52 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: upgrade to v7r2 or v7r3
Hi
I just did two V7R1 to V7R3 upgrades in the last week without any of the issues reported in the recent thread you referred to. I have done quite a number of upgrades over the years - maybe not as many as some on this list but a fair number nevertheless - so maybe that accounted for it being what I would consider relatively painless. Getting the preparation PTFs and production compatibility right is usually the key to an easy upgrade.
I would make a list of the 3rd party applications and utilities on the systems and IBM LPPs and then work through the Memo to users for *both* releases and see if anything can't be upgraded to V7R3. If it all ticks off as "V7R3 compatible/certified" then I would look to make that the target version.
Do the same thing with any 3rd party tools and LPP products - i.e. check with the vendor to see if the current version is supported or requires additional work to go to a new release. That may colour your thinking on what the easiest upgrade is. You will want to get the upgrade steps for all these products as some products e.g. WebSphere can require additional steps like changing JVMs etc to prepare for the upgrade.
V7R2 Memo to Users
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_72/rzaq9/rzaq9.pdf?view=kc
V7R3 memo to Users
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzaq9/rzaq9.pdf?view=kc
I also found the following document handy
“Supported IBM Java Development Kit (JDK) Versions by IBM i Operating System Version and Release”:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1011999
As a number of JDKs have been retired this is worth spending a little time on, particularly if you have WebSphere or any other java based stuff.
One thing I did notice - quite a bit of the documentation has moved to Developerworks which was a tiny bit different from the past APAR approach:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20i%20and%20Related%20Software
Make sure you have enough space for the image catalogs (the images in ESS are now a mess in my opinion but oh well) and the PTF images and don't forget to assign additional space to the load source.
The pre-upgrade verification tool is nice but I don't rely on it; I do run it as if/when it passes the tests it makes customers happy plus it helps get things like an IPL for "apply PTFs permanently" done.
On Thu, Nov 30, 2017 at 2:28 PM, midrange <franz9000@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I need to answer this question next week to management:
Should we upgrade (in 1st qtr 2018) from V7R1 to V7R2 or V7R3 - and
what are the risks?
This list had a recent few days of discussion about issues with V7R3.
This is a heavily used "medium sized" system
Apps are 50% RPG4/ILE RPG with a lot of embedded sql,
And 50% Win clients and servers using OLE DB to read/write on our
system, supporting web and internal user groups.
A little java creeping in (the Power i is only one major app in a mix
of Unix/Win systems)
About 4Tb virtual optical - every day writing more with old IBM
Content Manager
About 4Tb dds defined files including lots of IFS and 4 ASPs of QDLS
(migration planned but not yet)
This is no longer considered a long term (5 years or more) system to
us (but who knows).
In previous upgrades it has been the DB2 stuff that gets us - giant
complex sql from the Win group.
Would be nice to avoid the 2 steps, 7.2 and later 7.3
We get a once a quarter window for ptfs and backup.
We do have a development partition so can load release there for
extended testing.
Jim
--
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