Since the first introduction of SAP on AS/400, the predecessor of IBM i, IBM has maintained lists of PTFs that were found to be helpful when running SAP software on IBM i. These PTF lists are known as "Information APARs", and there is one Information APAR for each supported operating system release. The list of the Information APAR numbers for each release can be found in SAP Note 83292. Whether you want to perform preventive maintenance, a release upgrade or a new installation, the Information APARs are the place to find all the necessary PTFs in one spot.
Like everyone else in the industry, IBM are modernizing their tools, and with that, the Information APARs will fade out in the future. Instead of that, IBM will provide the information through a Web page that allows better formatting. What does this mean for you? Not much, except that you have to use different links than before to access the same type of information. These are the links that you should start using from now on:
For IBM i 7.2:
https://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10883472
For IBM i 7.3:
https://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10883474
For some time, both the Information APARs and the new documents will be maintained in parallel, so that they stay in sync. For IBM i 7.4, no Information APAR will be released, but the link to the PTF list document will be published when the release is certified by SAP. For IBM i 7.1 and earlier, no new documents will be created because these releases are no longer maintained. Information APARs may no longer be accessible at some point in the future.
The SAP tools that use the PTF list for checking (CHKR3PTF, transaction DB4PTFCHK and transaction DBACockpit) do not need to be changed. Attached to the new PTF list documents, you will find text files named INFOAPAR.720 or INFOAPAR.730. These text files will be shipped together with the SAP kernel by SAP and extracted to directory /usr/sap/trans/config.
If you want to renew the file in this location without updating your SAP kernel, you can download the attached text file INFOAPAR.720 or INFOAPAR.730 from the PTF list document and copy it onto your server as /usr/sap/trans/config/infoapar.720 or /usr/sap/trans/config/infoapar.730. Make sure that the coded character set ID (CCSID) in the file attribute matches the file contents in the target location to avoid errors when evaluating those files by SAP tools.
But in general, you can keep working with your PTF strategy as before. So simply bookmark the links as listed above and enjoy the new formatting.
