SPARTA News November 2007

November 2007

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

It's November and Holidays are here. Martha and I had 99 trick or treaters for Halloween! This kept us moving a little during the night. I hope that everyone enjoyed the visit we had from Jerry Sefelt last month to talk about New Era's Image Focus product. I used Image Focus back at ECU and it came in handy on a couple of occasions.

At LabCorp we have completed all of our MQ migrations to version 6. I happy to have that one under our belts. Because we haven't been able to locate a DB2 systems programmer yet, I was allowed to use a contractor to continue our DB2 version 8.1 migrations. We have some developers now asking us when we can have DB2 version 9 installed! So now we are planning to only run DB2 V8 for a short time and go right onto DB2 V9 sometime during 2008.

By the time you read this, we will have migrated the Burlington z9 over to our new EMC DMX-4 DASD. We planned this to occur during our monthly scheduled outage on the 18th. Finally some FICON attached DASD for us to "play" with in Burlington. Now we start planning for the cutover in RTP, it looks like we will have a fun January. I'll give you all updates in the new year.

I am still interviewing DB2 candidates for my open position at LabCorp and hope to be making an offer to someone soon. I'll be glad when we get someone hired for this. That DB2 version 7 end of service date is getting closer and closer.

This month our presentation will be by Rob Scott from Rocket Software, on their MXI G2 (MVS Extended Information Generation 2) product. I look forward to seeing you all on the 27th at LabCorp in RTP.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Nov. 27 MXI G2 by Rob Scott of Rocket 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 Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2007-2008 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
Dignus, LLC 919-676-0847
8354 Six Forks Road
Raleigh, NC 27615

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St.
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
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 usually 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 Tommy Thomas. Tommy 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 e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-L Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-L Group is maintained by Mike Lockey at (336) 641-6235; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Mike.

February 2006 CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V471 (dated February 28, 2006) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the October 30, 2007 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.

•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, NC.

•Eighteen (18) people were present; thirteen (13) were members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job function and recent happenings at work.

•The minutes of September 2007 meeting were accepted as published in the October 2007 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's report. As of October 20, 2007, the balance is $1304.75. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the October 2007 newsletter.

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.

•The SPARTA Web site is available. To access the SPARTA Web site, point your Web browser to this URL: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web site to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the site every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Brad Carson reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.


NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

November 2007 Rocket Software’s Mainstar product
December 2007 No meeting

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

•The November 27th SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the November meeting will be subs, drinks, and dessert.

•Thanks to Tommy Thomas for hosting the meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:45 p.m.

•Jerry Sefeldt from NewEra Software, Inc. talked about the Image FOCUS product. Jerry presented "Become a z/OS Integrity Agent with NewEra Applications". Jerry will make his presentation available in electronic form.

Agenda

A Common Goal for a z/OS Integrity Agent (ZIA)
z/OS Integrity = Zero Defects
Image FOCUS Control Environment
Examples from Image FOCUS

Reaching that goal - ZERO Defects

Integrity
Trustworthiness
Soundness
Reliability

Three Dimensions

Security - Access Control
Change Management
Image FOCUS - Certification through Inspection

All three together completes the definition of z/OS integrity

Examples

Image FOCUS core

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for November 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $ 1110.34 as of November 18, 2007.

Financial Report
3/01/2007 through 11/18/2007

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2007

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Nov. 27- Subs


Goodbye Segmented and Partitioned DB2 Tables

contributed by Ed Webb

The IBM Systems magazine has an interesting article about DB2 moving from statically defined tablespaces to a Universal Table Space model with tablespaces defined by DB2 rather than a DBA.

Read the article at:

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/enewsletterexclusive/18340printp1.aspx


Redbooks: Drafts and Revisions

contributed by Ed Webb

Drafts

IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700: Tape Virtualization for System z Servers
Revised: October, 24, 2007
More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247312.html?Open

DB2 9 for z/OS: New Tools for Query Optimization
Revised: October, 28, 2007
More details are available at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247421.html?Open

z/OS Version 1 Release 9 Implementation
Published: October, 25, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247427.html?Open

IMS Version 10 Implementation Guide A Technical Overview
Published: October, 25, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247526.html?Open

Sharing and maintaining Linux under z/VM
Revised: November, 2, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/redp4322.html?Open

Communications Server for z/OS V1R9 TCP/IP Implementation Volume 1: Base Functions, Connectivity, and Routing
Published: November, 9, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247532.html?Open

Communications Server for z/OS V1R9 TCP/IP Implementation Volume 2: Standard Applications
Published: November, 8, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247533.html?Open

Server Time Protocol NTP Client support
Revised: November, 17, 2007
More details are available at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/redp4329.html?Open

Redbooks

DB2 9 for z/OS Technical Overview
Revised: November 6, 2007 ISBN: 0738489131 616 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247330.html?Open

Migrating to IBM System Storage DS8000
Published: October 26, 2007 ISBN: 0738488763 526 pages
Explore the book online at
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247432.html?Open


Humor


A Little Courthouse Wit

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them, you "PITCH" them.

Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess."

Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."

Only a Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in: "Going to town, be back directly."

Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.

All Southerners know exactly when "by and by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.

Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin!

Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near" and "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20.

Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and Po white trash.

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines, ...and when we're "in line," we talk to everybody!

Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're related, even if only by marriage.

In the South, y'all is singular, all y'all is plural.

Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.

Every Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that red eye gravy is also a breakfast food; and that fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.

When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin'," you know you are in the presence of a genuine Southerner!

Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" and "sweet milk. "Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it -- we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway. You just say,"Bless her heart", and go your own way.

To those of you who are still a little embarrassed by your Southerness: Take two tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the morning. Bless your heart!

And to those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff, .bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a second language!

And for those that are not from the South but have lived here for a long time, all y'all need a sign to hang on y'alls front porch that reads "I ain't from the South, but I got here as fast as I could."

Southern girls know men may come and go, but friends are fahevah !

Now...... Shugah, send this to someone who was raised in the South or wish they had been!

If you're a Northern transplant, Bless your little heart, fake it. We know you got here as fast as you could

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
7 p.m.

Location: LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: Subs, Drink, Dessert

Program:

MXI-G2 With Live Demo

Speaker:

Rob Scott of Rocket Software

SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194



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