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IBM has announced Technology Refresh 2 for IBM i 7.6 and Technology Refresh 8 for IBM i 7.5, both available for download on July 24, 2026. This release puts a strong emphasis on security and administrative visibility, with meaningful updates across Navigator, ACS, BRMS, and IBM i Services. Note that several enhancements are exclusive to 7.6, so administrators still on 7.5 should review the enhancement lists carefully. Here is what matters most for IBM i System Administrators

For many IBM i shops, operating system upgrades tend to fall into the category of "important, but not urgent." Systems are stable, applications continue to run reliably, and there are always other projects competing for attention. However, there is one date that IBM i administrators and IT leaders should have firmly marked on their calendars: September 30, 2026. That's when standard IBM support for IBM i 7.4 comes to an end. While many organizations are aware of the deadline,

Most IBM i environments do not fail because high availability is absent. They fail because the HA solution in place does not scale as the business places greater demands on the platform. Scaling challenges rarely appear during initial deployment. They surface gradually as transaction volumes grow, batch windows tighten, integrations expand, or reporting workloads increase. By the time replication lag becomes visible or recovery confidence starts to erode, the system is alread

In IBM i environments, high availability and disaster recovery are rarely optional. For many organizations, the IBM i platform underpins order processing, financial transactions, manufacturing execution, logistics, billing, and regulatory reporting. When those systems are unavailable, the business does not simply slow down. It stops. Yet despite decades of experience with IBM i High Availability and Disaster Recovery, there is still confusion about what actually matters when

Replication latency is one of the most frequently discussed topics in IBM i disaster recovery, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood. It is often reduced to a single number on a dashboard, quoted as evidence that a system is protected, without sufficient consideration of what that number actually represents or whether it reflects real business exposure. Latency is not just a technical performance metric. It is the practical expression of Recovery Point Objective. At an

IBM i disaster recovery is often discussed in terms of features and technologies. In practice, effective DR comes down to a small number of non-negotiable requirements. If any one of these is missing, risk remains, regardless of how advanced the solution appears. 1. Proven recoverability Disaster recovery must be demonstrable. The organization must be able to show that systems can be recovered, applications can run, and data integrity can be verified. Assumptions are not enou

IBM i organizations often ask whether their HA and DR strategy is “good enough.” A more useful question is how mature it is. This readiness framework describes five levels of HA and DR maturity, helping organizations assess their current posture and identify what is required to improve resilience. Level 1: Replication exists (HA and DR Readiness Framework) Data is replicated, but recovery confidence is low. RTO and RPO are assumed rather than measured, and testing is infreque

Selecting a high availability and disaster recovery solution for IBM i is rarely a purely technical exercise. It is a decision that affects business risk, operational confidence, regulatory posture, and long-term cost. Yet many evaluations still focus on surface-level criteria, whether replication exists, how fast it is, or how the initial pricing compares. Those questions matter, but they are not enough. IBM i environments are long lived, business critical, and deeply integr

This checklist is designed to help IBM i organizations evaluate high availability and disaster recovery solutions in a consistent, evidence-based way. Each criterion is measurable and can be validated through testing, observation, or documentation. Data Integrity and Consistency Can the solution guarantee transactional consistency at recovery time? Is replication aware of IBM i journals, commitment control, and object dependencies? Can recovered systems be proven to represent

IBM has announced Technology Refresh 1 for IBM i 7.6 and Technology Refresh 7 for IBM i 7.5, both available November 21, 2025. These releases bring meaningful improvements in system stability, backup management, security, and administrative efficiency, all of which are directly relevant to IBM i System Administrators managing production workloads. System Stability Improvements Fibre Channel Multipath Automatic Path Disable One of the most important enhancements addresses an i

When it comes to high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) on IBM i, one question instantly separates the prepared from the at-risk: When was the last time you tested a full role swap?

Discover what's new in IBM i 7.6 for system administrators. Learn about Multi-Factor Authentication, hardware requirements, and key updates in IBM i 7.6.