Oncall Group

This is a quick technical update for all those out there on an RPG based version of Movex.

We recently went through testing of RPG Movex on V7R1 at the IBM Innovation Centre in Sydney. IBM provided a Power system with V7R1. IBM provides a world-class testing and proof-of-concept environment through their Innovation Centres. Best of all the service is no charge!

The result was to prove the backward compatibility inherent to IBM’s i Operating System. We also proved that an older, RPG based, version of Movex (developed on V5R1) can run on V7R1 – as long as the correct interface modules are in place.

This test used real client data, taking a full system save off their production server, restoring it to the Innovation Centre system and upgrading it to V7R1. The client has since gone on to replace their ageing and badly performing AS/400 with a new, lower cost (!) and ‘future proofed’ Power System.

So what’s the issue? Well, many clients have been stuck on IBM i V5R4 for years now. However, V5R4 does not run on the latest Power System servers with the Power7+ processor. The latest technology offers many advantages, not the least of which is a massive increase in performance compared to the older systems running V5R4. Also, in many cases, the ongoing cost of hardware and software maintenance for the older system will be greater over a 3 year period than the price of a new system with 3 year hardware warranty and 3 year software maintenance.

Why are the clients stuck on V5R4? This is to do with RPG Movex and the use of interfaces to the system. If you have an external application that needs to interface with Movex, it will need to use an IBM supplied API called Get Profile Handle. The API assigns a user-id to the interface, and enables security controls. Two key modules that are commonly used are IES902 and MEUSER. These need to be at the correct level, or they will not work on V6R1 or V7R1.

When IBM came out with V5R4 they changed the number of parameters that get passed to the API. So as to reduce the impact, a temporary reprieve was put in place using a PTF (Program Temporary Fix), which masked the new requirement and allowed programs written to the old API to still work.

When IBM came out with V6R1, and subsequently V7R1, this PTF was removed and application vendors needed to re-jig their interface modules to now pass the correct parameters.

This was back in the days when Movex was owned by Intentia, then Lawson (now, of course, it is an Infor product). Lawson did indeed develop a new version of the interface modules, so they will work properly; however this was not widely publicised and many clients still on the RPG version are unsure of the way forward.

So the point of this article is to reassure all RPG Movex clients there is a way forward! With the correct interface modules in place you can take full advantage of the new systems and all they have to offer.

This is where Oncall Group can help, having gained the experience of helping several clients get on to the latest systems and significantly reduce ongoing costs. It is very often the case that a new system is cheaper than staying on the old one.

Then, of course, there is the ability to take advantage of the newer technologies the latest systems offer. One significant area is disk. It won’t be too long before NAND based appliances, and Solid-State Disks, replace disk drives as primary storage for transaction systems. The latest Power 7 systems support both NAND adapters (mounted on a PCIe bus) and Solid-State Disk drives. A single SSD can provide equivalent performance to 20 ‘traditional’ spinning disks, attached to a high speed controller. SSDs can be driven to 100% full without missing a beat. As you can imagine, despite the higher cost of an SSD, using this technology can save a lot of money when configuring new systems for high performance.

We hope this has been of some interest! Please feel free to contact us if you would like more details on the testing done and how your company can take advantage of the ongoing march of technology and the ever-improving price/performance of the latest systems.