What's new for IBM i 7.2

Operations Console directly attached to the system is not supported

Attention: An Operations Console directly attached to the system is not supported in IBM i 7.2. If you are upgrading from IBM i 6.1, and you currently have an Operations Console directly attached to the system, you must change the console before you start to install or upgrade the IBM i software on your system. Failure to do so will cause the installation to fail with unpredictable results. For more information about changing consoles, see Changing consoles in the IBM systems Hardware Information Center.

DVD installation media is consolidated

The DVD installation media is consolidated. Previously there were 51 sets of unique language version media. Now there are three sets of multiple language version media. For information about the media, see Feature codes for language version.

Automatic installations or upgrades that are using IBM i 7.2 supplied consolidated optical media and that are changing the primary language during the upgrade or installation, need to set the installation language using the QINSTLNG API. For information about the QINSTLNG API, see the Set Install National Language Version (NLV) (QINSTLNG) API.

IBM i 7.2 supports POWER6 and later hardware

For more information, see Releases supported and system model information for IBM i upgrades.

What's new for V6R1-to-IBM i 7.2 upgrades

Requirements before you install IBM i 7.2 Licensed Internal Code

The IBM i 7.2 Licensed Internal Code requires more storage on the load-source disk unit than V6R1, V6R1M1, and IBM i 7.1 Licensed Internal Code. To upgrade to IBM i 7.2 Licensed Internal Code, you must have a load-source disk unit of 70 GB or larger. Steps for determining if you have enough storage space are included in Preparing to upgrade or replace IBM i software.

In addition, all systems will require up to approximately 6.3 gigabytes of system ASP free space before IBM i 7.2 can be installed. Your upgrade will stop during the installation of Licensed Internal Code if you do not have this space. Steps for determining storage space are included within the topic Determining storage space required for a software upgrade.

IBM i can now be installed from optical images on the network

An IBM i 6.1 environment on POWER6® processor-based server or an IBM i 7.1 environment on a POWER7 processor-based server can be upgraded to IBM i 7.2 with an image on the network file server. This function takes advantage of the 632B-003 virtual optical device that supports virtual image files on a remote system in a network. An image directory identifies a network path on the central system that contains the virtual image files that are prepared for use with a target system. For more information, see IBM i Network Install using Network File System.

Embedded media changer

The 632C-002 client virtual device now supports an embedded media changer. This embedded media changer function extends the automatic media switching capability of virtual optical device types 632B-001 and 632B-003 on IBM i virtual I/O server partitions to client partitions virtual optical device type 632C. One application of this function is the use of image catalogs for unattended installations of client partitions. See Types of software installation devices for more information on optical device 632C-002.

How to see what's new or changed

In PDF files, you might see revision bars (|) in the margin of new and changed information.

To find other information about what's new or changed this release, see the Memo to users.