Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

A colleague brought this discussion to my attention, and I completely agree with Lars.

For days now, I've been stuck on my client projects, and clients are complaining.
As a business partner, I can only express my frustration.

What's the purpose of these restrictions?

I primarily work in the IBM Cloud environment or in private clouds, processing hundreds of LPARs simultaneously, most of which are automated.
The fatal flaw, in my opinion, is the lack of a proper error message. Then you start searching and opening support calls. This wastes a lot of time and creates dissatisfied clients.

It's also interesting that not a single call has been successful.

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

A colleague brought this discussion to my attention, and I completely agree with Lars.

For days now, I've been stuck on my client projects, and clients are complaining.
As a business partner, I can only express my frustration.

What's the purpose of these restrictions?

I primarily work in the IBM Cloud environment or in private clouds, processing hundreds of LPARs simultaneously, most of which are automated.
The fatal flaw, in my opinion, is the lack of a proper error message. Then you start searching and opening support calls. This wastes a lot of time and creates dissatisfied clients.

It's also interesting that not a single call has been successful.

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

We both know that we've not submitted 50 orders per day.

IBM wants us to duplicate the failure.  And document it step-by-step.

The first step to overcoming a problem is to admit you have a problem.  IBM isn't there yet.

Lars,

I believe IBM would recommend you do one download for 7.4, one download for 7.5 and one download for 7.6.  And you use those three for all the LPARs you currently support.  You can order the PTFs and tell it not to care if you have a particular product installed or not, or have the PTF already or not.  Ordering like this should help this.  I do it this way.

But I agree this still doesn't solve the limitations.

If you red my initial statement, we have , V7.4, V7.5, V7.6 well over hundreds of lpar. What make you think 25 or 50 ptfs/day would make a difference? We still would have fill in a form and email it and then sit doen and wait 2-4 weeks before we get answer , if we get any at all.It impossible for us to maintain a high level of service to our customers and fullfill the agreements in SLA, Im sorry ibm but you have lost credability. We pay all licenses SWA and and so on, and this is your way of deliver? Security ptfs? Hiper ptfs, cum group pts, cross ref ptf.s at upgrades, daily mails from ibm regarding ptf containing issue to be prevented by ptfs, how can you think a multiple power environment with over hundred of lpar would benefit by a increase to 50 prs/day

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

If I go to this IBM site:  https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/ibm-i-support-recommended-fixes and roll through the products you will see: 

Fixes to fix defective PTFs:  43
Cryptogrophy/DCM 80+
ECS (not on a cume) 3
FAX 40+
Print (not on a cume) 4
LDAP 2
Infoprint (not on a cume) 7
Infoprint MRI's:  a few dozen
Performance (not on a cume) 5
smtp 9
Temp space 2
iDoctor 17

Now that is just for 7.5
Repeat for my 7.6 servers.

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

I just duplicated this error.

I went to fix central.

IBM Support: Fix Central

Select Product, IBM Operating Systems, IBM i,

Picked individual PTFs

Pasted this in to the individual PTFs:

MJ03422,MJ03523,MJ03525,MJ03532,MJ03688,MJ03734,MJ03795,MJ03942,MJ04438,MJ04911,MJ04937,MJ04972,MJ05890,MJ06137,MJ06290,MJ06451,MJ06818,MJ06832,MJ06916,MJ06991,MJ07177,MJ07180,MJ07271,MJ07272,MJ07455,MJ07546,MJ07924,MJ07997,MJ08280,MJ08370,SF99411,SF99686,SF99688,SF99689,SF99760,SF99761,SF99960,SF99961,SF99962,SF99963,SF99964,SF99965,SF99966,SF99967,SF99968,SF99969,SI33289,

SI48071,SI56133,SI56210,SI62930,SI65184,SI68702,SI68703,SI70413,SI74620,SI76061,SI77219,SI77220,SI77242,SI81193,SI83383,SI84798,SI84799,SI84800,SI84822,SI84843,SI85397,SI85614,SJ00164,SJ00167,SJ00250,SJ00275,SJ01498,SJ01499,SJ01500,SJ03124,SJ03405,SJ03444,SJ03611,SJ03666,SJ03673,SJ03689,SJ03712,SJ03836,SJ03906,SJ03994,SJ04035,SJ04207,SJ04256,SJ04342,SJ04402,SJ04487,SJ04647,

SJ04679,SJ04878,SJ05346,SJ05388,SJ05486,SJ05513,SJ05526,SJ05581,SJ05817,SJ05883,SJ05884,SJ05945,SJ05980,SJ06193,SJ06235,SJ06279,SJ06280,SJ06281,SJ06351,SJ06364,SJ06482,SJ06518,SJ06565,SJ06595,SJ06744,SJ06947,SJ06969,SJ07018,SJ07238,SJ07431,SJ07514,SJ07517,SJ07552,SJ07574,SJ07607,SJ07650,SJ07651,SJ07652,SJ08162,SJ08215,SJ08264

It drags on forever.  And ever.  Eventually it gets

An error occurred

IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400

Problem with authorization system: Please try again later. Contact support if problem persists.

And if you open a new tab on your browser and try to duplicate it you will get:

The maximum number of entitlement attempts has been reached. Your ID will be restored within 6 minutes.

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

Well today it allowed me to place the order, 633445547.  I got an email that the order is placed.  I've yet to receive the emails about it's ready to download and the user id and password to download them.

I just duplicated this error.

I went to fix central.

IBM Support: Fix Central

Select Product, IBM Operating Systems, IBM i,

Picked individual PTFs

Pasted this in to the individual PTFs:

MJ03422,MJ03523,MJ03525,MJ03532,MJ03688,MJ03734,MJ03795,MJ03942,MJ04438,MJ04911,MJ04937,MJ04972,MJ05890,MJ06137,MJ06290,MJ06451,MJ06818,MJ06832,MJ06916,MJ06991,MJ07177,MJ07180,MJ07271,MJ07272,MJ07455,MJ07546,MJ07924,MJ07997,MJ08280,MJ08370,SF99411,SF99686,SF99688,SF99689,SF99760,SF99761,SF99960,SF99961,SF99962,SF99963,SF99964,SF99965,SF99966,SF99967,SF99968,SF99969,SI33289,

SI48071,SI56133,SI56210,SI62930,SI65184,SI68702,SI68703,SI70413,SI74620,SI76061,SI77219,SI77220,SI77242,SI81193,SI83383,SI84798,SI84799,SI84800,SI84822,SI84843,SI85397,SI85614,SJ00164,SJ00167,SJ00250,SJ00275,SJ01498,SJ01499,SJ01500,SJ03124,SJ03405,SJ03444,SJ03611,SJ03666,SJ03673,SJ03689,SJ03712,SJ03836,SJ03906,SJ03994,SJ04035,SJ04207,SJ04256,SJ04342,SJ04402,SJ04487,SJ04647,

SJ04679,SJ04878,SJ05346,SJ05388,SJ05486,SJ05513,SJ05526,SJ05581,SJ05817,SJ05883,SJ05884,SJ05945,SJ05980,SJ06193,SJ06235,SJ06279,SJ06280,SJ06281,SJ06351,SJ06364,SJ06482,SJ06518,SJ06565,SJ06595,SJ06744,SJ06947,SJ06969,SJ07018,SJ07238,SJ07431,SJ07514,SJ07517,SJ07552,SJ07574,SJ07607,SJ07650,SJ07651,SJ07652,SJ08162,SJ08215,SJ08264

It drags on forever.  And ever.  Eventually it gets

An error occurred

IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400

Problem with authorization system: Please try again later. Contact support if problem persists.

And if you open a new tab on your browser and try to duplicate it you will get:

The maximum number of entitlement attempts has been reached. Your ID will be restored within 6 minutes.

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

I tried again today.  No problem with that order.  It was successfully placed on the download site.

However, later that day I tried to order a single PTF for HMC:  MF71752.  I got:

An error occurred

Error

You have exceeded the download policy. Please refer to the Download Support Policy here.   

If after referring to the Download Support Policy you need help with additional access please use the Request help button below and fill out the provided form.

To continue, return to the main Fix Central page or use the Back button in your browser.

Well today it allowed me to place the order, 633445547.  I got an email that the order is placed.  I've yet to receive the emails about it's ready to download and the user id and password to download them.

I just duplicated this error.

I went to fix central.

IBM Support: Fix Central

Select Product, IBM Operating Systems, IBM i,

Picked individual PTFs

Pasted this in to the individual PTFs:

MJ03422,MJ03523,MJ03525,MJ03532,MJ03688,MJ03734,MJ03795,MJ03942,MJ04438,MJ04911,MJ04937,MJ04972,MJ05890,MJ06137,MJ06290,MJ06451,MJ06818,MJ06832,MJ06916,MJ06991,MJ07177,MJ07180,MJ07271,MJ07272,MJ07455,MJ07546,MJ07924,MJ07997,MJ08280,MJ08370,SF99411,SF99686,SF99688,SF99689,SF99760,SF99761,SF99960,SF99961,SF99962,SF99963,SF99964,SF99965,SF99966,SF99967,SF99968,SF99969,SI33289,

SI48071,SI56133,SI56210,SI62930,SI65184,SI68702,SI68703,SI70413,SI74620,SI76061,SI77219,SI77220,SI77242,SI81193,SI83383,SI84798,SI84799,SI84800,SI84822,SI84843,SI85397,SI85614,SJ00164,SJ00167,SJ00250,SJ00275,SJ01498,SJ01499,SJ01500,SJ03124,SJ03405,SJ03444,SJ03611,SJ03666,SJ03673,SJ03689,SJ03712,SJ03836,SJ03906,SJ03994,SJ04035,SJ04207,SJ04256,SJ04342,SJ04402,SJ04487,SJ04647,

SJ04679,SJ04878,SJ05346,SJ05388,SJ05486,SJ05513,SJ05526,SJ05581,SJ05817,SJ05883,SJ05884,SJ05945,SJ05980,SJ06193,SJ06235,SJ06279,SJ06280,SJ06281,SJ06351,SJ06364,SJ06482,SJ06518,SJ06565,SJ06595,SJ06744,SJ06947,SJ06969,SJ07018,SJ07238,SJ07431,SJ07514,SJ07517,SJ07552,SJ07574,SJ07607,SJ07650,SJ07651,SJ07652,SJ08162,SJ08215,SJ08264

It drags on forever.  And ever.  Eventually it gets

An error occurred

IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400

Problem with authorization system: Please try again later. Contact support if problem persists.

And if you open a new tab on your browser and try to duplicate it you will get:

The maximum number of entitlement attempts has been reached. Your ID will be restored within 6 minutes.

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh

I tried again today.  No problem with that order.  It was successfully placed on the download site.

However, later that day I tried to order a single PTF for HMC:  MF71752.  I got:

An error occurred

Error

You have exceeded the download policy. Please refer to the Download Support Policy here.   

If after referring to the Download Support Policy you need help with additional access please use the Request help button below and fill out the provided form.

To continue, return to the main Fix Central page or use the Back button in your browser.

Well today it allowed me to place the order, 633445547.  I got an email that the order is placed.  I've yet to receive the emails about it's ready to download and the user id and password to download them.

I just duplicated this error.

I went to fix central.

IBM Support: Fix Central

Select Product, IBM Operating Systems, IBM i,

Picked individual PTFs

Pasted this in to the individual PTFs:

MJ03422,MJ03523,MJ03525,MJ03532,MJ03688,MJ03734,MJ03795,MJ03942,MJ04438,MJ04911,MJ04937,MJ04972,MJ05890,MJ06137,MJ06290,MJ06451,MJ06818,MJ06832,MJ06916,MJ06991,MJ07177,MJ07180,MJ07271,MJ07272,MJ07455,MJ07546,MJ07924,MJ07997,MJ08280,MJ08370,SF99411,SF99686,SF99688,SF99689,SF99760,SF99761,SF99960,SF99961,SF99962,SF99963,SF99964,SF99965,SF99966,SF99967,SF99968,SF99969,SI33289,

SI48071,SI56133,SI56210,SI62930,SI65184,SI68702,SI68703,SI70413,SI74620,SI76061,SI77219,SI77220,SI77242,SI81193,SI83383,SI84798,SI84799,SI84800,SI84822,SI84843,SI85397,SI85614,SJ00164,SJ00167,SJ00250,SJ00275,SJ01498,SJ01499,SJ01500,SJ03124,SJ03405,SJ03444,SJ03611,SJ03666,SJ03673,SJ03689,SJ03712,SJ03836,SJ03906,SJ03994,SJ04035,SJ04207,SJ04256,SJ04342,SJ04402,SJ04487,SJ04647,

SJ04679,SJ04878,SJ05346,SJ05388,SJ05486,SJ05513,SJ05526,SJ05581,SJ05817,SJ05883,SJ05884,SJ05945,SJ05980,SJ06193,SJ06235,SJ06279,SJ06280,SJ06281,SJ06351,SJ06364,SJ06482,SJ06518,SJ06565,SJ06595,SJ06744,SJ06947,SJ06969,SJ07018,SJ07238,SJ07431,SJ07514,SJ07517,SJ07552,SJ07574,SJ07607,SJ07650,SJ07651,SJ07652,SJ08162,SJ08215,SJ08264

It drags on forever.  And ever.  Eventually it gets

An error occurred

IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400

Problem with authorization system: Please try again later. Contact support if problem persists.

And if you open a new tab on your browser and try to duplicate it you will get:

The maximum number of entitlement attempts has been reached. Your ID will be restored within 6 minutes.

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team

I tried again today.  No problem with that order.  It was successfully placed on the download site.

However, later that day I tried to order a single PTF for HMC:  MF71752.  I got:

An error occurred

Error

You have exceeded the download policy. Please refer to the Download Support Policy here.   

If after referring to the Download Support Policy you need help with additional access please use the Request help button below and fill out the provided form.

To continue, return to the main Fix Central page or use the Back button in your browser.

Well today it allowed me to place the order, 633445547.  I got an email that the order is placed.  I've yet to receive the emails about it's ready to download and the user id and password to download them.

I just duplicated this error.

I went to fix central.

IBM Support: Fix Central

Select Product, IBM Operating Systems, IBM i,

Picked individual PTFs

Pasted this in to the individual PTFs:

MJ03422,MJ03523,MJ03525,MJ03532,MJ03688,MJ03734,MJ03795,MJ03942,MJ04438,MJ04911,MJ04937,MJ04972,MJ05890,MJ06137,MJ06290,MJ06451,MJ06818,MJ06832,MJ06916,MJ06991,MJ07177,MJ07180,MJ07271,MJ07272,MJ07455,MJ07546,MJ07924,MJ07997,MJ08280,MJ08370,SF99411,SF99686,SF99688,SF99689,SF99760,SF99761,SF99960,SF99961,SF99962,SF99963,SF99964,SF99965,SF99966,SF99967,SF99968,SF99969,SI33289,

SI48071,SI56133,SI56210,SI62930,SI65184,SI68702,SI68703,SI70413,SI74620,SI76061,SI77219,SI77220,SI77242,SI81193,SI83383,SI84798,SI84799,SI84800,SI84822,SI84843,SI85397,SI85614,SJ00164,SJ00167,SJ00250,SJ00275,SJ01498,SJ01499,SJ01500,SJ03124,SJ03405,SJ03444,SJ03611,SJ03666,SJ03673,SJ03689,SJ03712,SJ03836,SJ03906,SJ03994,SJ04035,SJ04207,SJ04256,SJ04342,SJ04402,SJ04487,SJ04647,

SJ04679,SJ04878,SJ05346,SJ05388,SJ05486,SJ05513,SJ05526,SJ05581,SJ05817,SJ05883,SJ05884,SJ05945,SJ05980,SJ06193,SJ06235,SJ06279,SJ06280,SJ06281,SJ06351,SJ06364,SJ06482,SJ06518,SJ06565,SJ06595,SJ06744,SJ06947,SJ06969,SJ07018,SJ07238,SJ07431,SJ07514,SJ07517,SJ07552,SJ07574,SJ07607,SJ07650,SJ07651,SJ07652,SJ08162,SJ08215,SJ08264

It drags on forever.  And ever.  Eventually it gets

An error occurred

IBM i, i5/OS, and OS/400

Problem with authorization system: Please try again later. Contact support if problem persists.

And if you open a new tab on your browser and try to duplicate it you will get:

The maximum number of entitlement attempts has been reached. Your ID will be restored within 6 minutes.

Really appreciate you taking the time to test things out, Steve!  

I also updated my previous post.  The limit is 50 orders a day for IBM i, where each order can include as many PTFs needed for an IBM i version.  Hope this helps.

Hi Robert & Lars

I am still trying to understand this issue, and the best way I know to do that is test things myself, and so far I have been unable to reproduce the PTF download limitation, be it 25 or 50. 

Test 1 - Downloading PTFs directly from an IBM i LPAR

Yesterday, I sent 102 SNDPTFORD from a single IBM i LPAR one after another in a little over an hour.
All 102 Fix Orders completed successfully.  No maximum number was detected.

Test 2 - Ordering PTFs for Download from Fix Central
Today, using a single IBM ID, Model and Serial Number, I ordered approximately 100 PTF Groups for IBM i 7.3, 7.4, 7.6 & 7.6 using the SFTP option over a 2-hour period.
80 of my requests were successful, resulting in the 3 emails necessary to download the image catalogue images for these orders.
I did note that about 20 of my requests failed with the "Gen.OperationFail" error.  This typically happened when Fix Central was processing three or four other fix requests.  When this happened, I just waited until I received the confirmation emails for the others, retried, and these orders worked for me. 

I agree that IBM should improve the error handling on the Fix Central Website but at the moment, I have not been able to reproduce the problems described or hypothesised in this thread.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is no limit, but so far I can not find any evidence of restrictions on Fix Downloads through either methodology that would stop my team from downloading the patches we need, in the timely manner that we need them for the 100+ LPARs we manage. 

This restriction (whatever it is) seems to be more of a "rate limiter" to prevent the servers from being overwhelmed by any single user.    

@Lars, you should not need to enter 15 serial numbers to download 25 PTFs, if you don't mind sharing more details with me, either in this forum or privately via steve.bradshaw@rowtonit.com, then I would be happy to try to reproduce your specific error.

Happy New Year to you all.

------------------------------
Cheers, Brad.
Steve Bradshaw
IBM Champion, Member of CEAC, TD of i-UG.co.uk and Friendly Techie at RowtonIT.com


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:51 PM
From: Robert Berendt
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

IBM is having a tough time accepting that the number of PTFs matters.  They are pretty sure it's the number of orders and not the number of PTFs ordered.  I'm wondering if there's a communications breakdown between their development and design teams.

------------------------------
Robert Berendt IBMChampion
Business Systems Analyst, Lead
Dekko
Fort Wayne


Original Message:
Sent: Wed December 31, 2025 01:43 PM
From: Lars Stridh
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

When you have signed on to fixcentral with your ibm id, you have to specify product. In our case IBM i, then you have to enter the serialnumber and machine type, you can max enter 9-10 serials. (I, ve entered max allowed). Still when order more then 25(50) ptf,s im rejected due to your new policy. Is your policy per lpar or per power system or ibm id?

------------------------------
Lars Stridh


Original Message:
Sent: Mon December 29, 2025 05:03 PM
From: Yan Tina Zhuo
Subject: IBM i machine code 25 ptf download limit

Hi Lars, 

For IBM i, the Fix Central download logic was changed in November:

• Original download max was 25 PTFs per day
• New download max for IBM i customers is max 50 downloads per day, where a download could be a cumulative PTF package.
• This change will override the general download policy published here, https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/7181930

If it is necessary to download beyond the stated limit, please contact the Exception Handling Team - fixexp@us.ibm.com.

We also encourage customers to use the blue Contact and Feedback button, which is floating on the right edge of the Fix Central pages, to capture the error and send the email to the exception handling team. IBM will continue to assess whether there are still issues, etc.

Thanks!

IBM i Product Management Team