SPARTA News July 2003
July 2003
SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner
- by Brad Carson
(Ed. note: Brad submitted both June and July articles this month because he missed last month’s newsletter).
June 2003
It's June so I can say Welcome to Summer, the heat and the humidity. Here we have finally placed OS/390 2.10 into production and have not have any major problems. I love to start looking at installing z/OS but with our HDS Skyline system still here, I don't think that will anytime soon. At least we can start on CICS/TS 2.2.
Right now I'm doing a lot of work with SA/390 interfacing with Tivoli Workload Scheduler (formally OPC) and with Unix System Services. A daunting task considering that I'll be attending my first SA class at the end of August. Just think we've been running SA since the end of 2001! After I get this done I have to connect the SA Netviews to our Networking Netviews (you can't run SA/390 and Netview/AON in the same Netview) so that I can forward alerts to the Tivoli Enterprise Consoles. What fun this is going to be.
Another big project we are still working is converting a BARR network printer from OMC-Print (TSPRINT) to VPS. This has been an interesting little project that never looks like it is going to end. We've a number of problems getting the output into the BARR print queue with VPS to match what OMC-Print is doing. VPS is strictly following the LPR/LPD specs and OMC wasn't. We will have to complete this soon as OMC-Print has not been renewed for us. ....
July 2003
The beginning of July brought us an unexpected task; another DR test in Philadelphia. At least this time I didn't fly up, I just provided remote support from here at home. The last minute decision for this test didn't give Sungard enough time to setup for us, so we had some issues with the configuration once we arrived. Once those were ironed out and the network configuration completed, access to the system worked fine and we completed most of the items that management wanted us to test. We still have some problems with ViewDirect from Mobius.
Finally got the news that I will be able to attend SHARE in DC this August (http://www.share.org). I'm looking forward to this since I haven't been to SHARE since the spring of 1999. It's been a while and I know there is a lot to catch up on at SHARE. Now if we could only run z/OS here at LabCorp.
Now that OS/390 2.10 has stabilized here, we are starting work on making two full parallel sysplexes. One in Burlington for our QAAD and DEVL system, and one here in RTP for our PROD and TECH systems. This project is going to take a while to do (properly) and I am looking forward to working on it.
I'm still working on all the Netview/SA connectivity and communications issues. The manuals (both Netview and SA) leave a lot to be desired. I haven't found much in the way of Redbooks either that can help. On the VPS front we've managed to uncover a bug in the code that access JES2 via the SAPI interface. Looks like there is a storage overlay when you have a printer with both primary and secondary selection criteria. I'll let you know how this works out in the future.
This month our speaker is Jim Horne from Lowe's; he will be speaking to us about "Limitations in OS/390 and z/OS". I look forward to seeing you all on the 29th. at LabCorp RTP. Fried chicken, drinks, and dessert will be provided.
Future Speakers
(subject to change)
July 29 - MVS Limitations by Jim Horne of Lowe’s
August 26 - SHARE Conference Report by Duane Reaugh of DTS Software
We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Duane Reaugh by phone as noted below.
2003-2004 SPARTA
Board of Directors
Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 919-361-7270
1912 Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Duane Reaugh - Vice President
DTS Software 919-833-8426
2913 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609-7841
Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St. 336-227-2021 (Home)
Greensboro, NC 27401
Tommy Thomas - Treasurer
LabCorp 336-436-4178
231 Maple Ave, Koury Ctr 3rd Fl. 919-361-7267
Burlington, NC 27215
Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive 919-362-0232 (Home)
Cary, NC 27513
Meetings
Meetings are scheduled for the last Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in December), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.
These monthly meetings are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Brad Carson. Brad will escort you to the conference room.
Call for Articles
If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.
Newsletter Mailings
The SPARTA chapter policy is to mail a copy of the monthly chapter newsletter to each SPARTA member, NaSPA national, each advertiser, persons who have requested a copy, and to other chapters who send us a copy of their newsletter. The newsletter is mailed about the 20th of each month so you can prepare for the meeting. The mailing list is maintained by Mike Lockey at (336) 412-6235; if you have corrections or problems receiving your newsletter, call Mike.
June 2003 CBT Tape Online
The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V460 (dated June 15, 2003) are available from www.cbttape.org.
If you need a complete tape, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).
Minutes of the June 24th, 2003 Meeting
•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer. Brad Carson, the Chapter President, was not able to attend the meeting.
•Eleven (11) people were present; ten (10) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job function.
•Minutes of the May 2003 meeting were accepted as published in the June 2003 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer’s report. As of June 18, 2003, the balance is $1376.33.
OLD BUSINESS
•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don’t really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.
•You can access the SPARTA Web site, just point your Web browser to this URL: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the SPARTA website to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check our website every once in a while to see any new or changed information.
•Annual dues of $20 are to be paid now.
•Tommy Thomas reminded everyone to continue to make sure the conference room is clean before we leave the meeting.
NEW BUSINESS
•Future Speakers and Topics:
July 2003 - Jim Horne - Limitations in MVS
August 2003 - TBA
Other ideas:
- New release of IOF - Triangle Systems
- CMG Conference - Jim Horne of Lowe's
If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Duane Reaugh.
•Food for the July 2003 meeting will be chicken, sodas, and dessert.
•The July SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.
•Thanks to Tommy Thomas of LabCorp for hosting the May meeting.
•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:20 p.m.
•Dan Myers of IBM talked about the new IBM z990 (T-REX) processor that was recently announced. Some of the topics discussed:
New modular design
New building block
uses Books for scalability
Consolidate footprints
supports more than 15 LPARs
can have more than 256 channels (no parallel channels)
WLC (Work Load Charging)
entry point is 3 MSU (down from 45 MSU)
variable monthly charges for software based on usage
Dan's presentation (in PDF format) is available on the SPARTA website. http://www.spartanc.org/z990ANNCOV.pdf
•The meeting ended at 8:30 p.m.
Treasurer’s Report for July 2003
contributed by Tommy Thomas
The balance in the account is $ 1376.33 as of July 19, 2003.
Financial Report
2/01/2003 through 07/19/2003
INCOME
Opening Balance 672.90
Dues 840.00
Misc. 0.00
TOTAL INCOME $1512.90
EXPENSES
Food 296.57
Petty Cash 0.00
Bank Service Fees 0.00
P.O. Box 0.00
TOTAL EXPENSE $296.57
BANK BALANCE 1216.33
PETTY CASH($160) 93.40
TOTAL CASH $1309.73
Items of Interest
Unicode Conversion Services in z/OS and OS/390
contributed by Ed Webb
Unicode Conversion Services are part of z/OS, and OS/390 R10 via PTF, and have been implemented at SAS since early June 2003. Unicode Conversion Services are required for the upcoming DB2 V8 for z/OS which uses Unicode for its BSDS (catalog) as well as for all of its character set translations to support native languages.
Four PDS members are key to Unicode Conversion Services (UCS):
SYS1.PARMLIB member LOADxx - adds SYS2.UNICODE.PARMLIB (our name) to the z/OS "logical PARMLIB" concatenation.
SYS1.PARMLIB member CUNUNI00 - specifies REALSTORAGE limits for UCS and points to a Unicode image (set of translate tables) in the logical PARMLIB. This member should be the same across all systems.
SYS1.PARMLIB member IEASYS00 - sets the xx value for the CUNUNIxx member of PARMLIB so UCS is activated at IPL.
SYS2.UNICODE.PARMLIB member CUNIMG00 - contains the Unicode image built by job SZ001XXA (or a better named job) used by UCS.
To update the Unicode Conversion Services image:
1. Change the input statements in SZ001XXA and run the job to update the common CUNIMG00 member in SYS2.UNICODE.PARMLIB.
2. Once the updated member is ready, use the SET UNI=xx console command to have UCS re-read CUNUNIxx to add the new image. A second or subsequent update between IPLs may require an Operator reply as UCS will remove older images.
If REALSTORAGE is not large enough for the existing image and a new one, you should increase the REALSTORAGE value in CUNUNIxx and re-issue the SET UNI=xx command.
3. Once the new image is active on one system, update CUNUNIxx on other systems, if needed, and issue the SET UNI=xx on each to activate the new UCS image.
IBM’s z/OS 1.4 Unix Service Planning book and its DB2 V8 Implementation Redbook provide more details about Unicode Conversion Services.
SPARTA Food Menu for 2003
contributed by Chris Blackshire
July - Chicken
August - subs or deli tray
September - BarBQ
October - Pizza
November - Chicken
Humor
Know Your State Motto
contributed by Chris Blackshire
Alabama: Hell Yes, We Have Electricity
Alaska: 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!
Arizona: But It's A Dry Heat
Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything
California: By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda
Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother
Connecticut: Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It Yet
Delaware: We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water
Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids
Georgia: We Put The "Fun" In Fundamentalist Extremism
Hawaii: Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money)
Idaho: More Than Just Potatoes ... Well Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Are Real Good
Illinois: Please Don't Pronounce the "S"
Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free
Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn
Kansas: First Of The Rectangle States
Kentucky: Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names
Louisiana: We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign
Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster
Maryland: If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It
Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's (For Most Tax Brackets)
Michigan: First Line Of Defense From The Canadians
Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes... And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes
Mississippi: Come And Feel Better About Your Own State
Missouri: Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work
Montana: Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Little Else
Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest
Nevada: Hookers and Poker!
New Hampshire: Go Away And Leave Us Alone
New Jersey: You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right Here!
New Mexico: Lizards Make Excellent Pets
New York: You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To an Attorney
North Carolina: Tobacco Is A Vegetable
North Dakota: We Really Are One Of The 50 States!
Ohio: At Least We're Not Michigan
Oklahoma: Like The Play, Only No Singing
Oregon: Spotted Owl... It's What's For Dinner
Pennsylvania: Cook With Coal
Rhode Island: We're Not REALLY An Island
South Carolina: Remember The Civil War? We Didn't Actually Surrender
South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota
Tennessee: The Educashun State
Texas: Si' Hablo Ing'les (Yes, I Speak English)
Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus
Vermont: Yep
Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?
Washington: Help! We're Overrun By Nerds And Slackers!
Washington, D.C.: Wanna Be Mayor?
West Virginia: One Big Happy Family... Really!
Wisconsin: Come Cut The Cheese
Wyoming: Where Men Are Men ... And The Sheep Are Scared!
Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Location: LabCorp in the RTP
Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Brad Carson. Brad will escort you to the conference room.
Free Food: Fried Chicken, Drinks, Dessert
Program:
z/OS and MVS Limitations
Speakers:
Jim Horne of Lowe’s
SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194
First Class Postage
Phillips Software
