SPARTA News September 2009

September 2009

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Fall is here (at least on the calendar) and we’ve entered that wonderful time of year called “Budgeting”.  I’ve been consumed by this for the past three weeks as we plan for the 2010 fiscal year.  My wife thinks I’ve become a hermit with the late hours recently.  But round 1 is finished now and the budget has entered that other plain of existence called “Senior Management Review”, so now I’m just waiting for round 3 to begin.

Due to a previous engagement, I was unable to attend our annual outing to watch the Durham Bulls play last month.  It was great to see them go on to win their league championship.

During the past month we performed our first full DR test of the production IBM LPAR to our Burlington z10 utilizing EMC SRDF/A replication.  From the z/OS side everything went very well.  Our biggest headache was all the changes that IBM made on the z10’s about activating the CBU features.  It was a much simpler process on the z9’s, but on the z10’s you just can’t click on “Activate CBU Temporarily” like you used to.  It takes a lot more pointing/clicking/typing to get all the CBU parameters set before turning it on.  At least the fall back is relatively easy.  We have a major update to our DR documentation due to these changes.

In our Burlington computer room, network services has a project under way to migrate all servers of our old class B IP network to an internal class A network.  This involves changing the IP addresses for IP stacks on the class B network.  This change hit all four of the z10 based systems we have (which included our DR system).  Well we did this during an outage on that system and then had to back it out the next day due to a major issue with our INFOMAN system.  It seems that INFOMAN wasn’t sending any e-mails out for problems or changes; the web server response time was horrible.  After we moved back to the old IP addresses and did some more checking, we found 3100+ entries in the INFOMAN database that had a hardcoded IP address for the class B network pointing back to the same LPAR.  I don’t know why they didn’t configure this to use the local loopback address instead.  I really wish they would push the migration to Remedy so my team doesn’t have to keep supporting this “albatross”.

On the z/VM front we are beginning to setup some Oracle DB and Web Logic servers for internal use.  So now we are planning to attach the system to the SAN to gain access to that storage.  Let’s see how this goes.  More later.

This month we will have our semiannual SHARE trip reports from Duane Reaugh, Ed Webb, and myself. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp on the 29th.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Sept. 29 SHARE Conference Reports by Duane Reaugh of DTS and Brad Carson of LabCorp and Ed Webb of SAS


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.

2009-2010 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.

“CBT Tape” Shareware 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 August 18, 2009 Meeting

•SPARTA met at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in Durham, North Carolina for an evening out at the ballpark. Many thanks to Tommy Thomas for free admittance to good seats.

Treasurer’s Report for September 2009

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1305.87 as of September 17, 2009.

Financial Report
3/01/2009 through 9/17/2009

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2009

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Sept. 29 - BarBQ
Oct. 27 - Pizza
Nov. 17 - Chicken (Nov. 24 = Thanksgiving week)
Dec. 29 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


z/OS R11 Books, Including Hot Topics, Are Now Online

contributed by Ed Webb

The z/OS V1R11 books are now online at the IBM z/OS Internet Library site:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/bkserv/


Of particular interest is the V1R10 to V1R11 Migration book:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/zoslib/pdf/e0z2m17b.pdf

And z/OS Hot Topics:

http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/e0z2n1a0.pdf

Have fun.


z/OS R11 Migration Books Out-of-Date

contributed by Ed Webb

At SHARE in Denver in August 2009, Marna Walle of IBM presented two session about Migration to z/OS R11. At both sessions, she pointed out that the Toleration and Compatibility PTFs listed in the Migration book(s) for R11 are incomplete but that the information in her SHARE presentations is accurate.

Check out her “handouts” and other presentations from SHARE in Denver at:

http://ew.share.org/proceedingmod/programs.cfm?program_id=206

Marna’s presentations are these:

http://ew.share.org/proceedingmod/abstract.cfm?abstract_id=20225

http://ew.share.org/proceedingmod/abstract.cfm?abstract_id=20225

A New, Faster IBM Tool for Uploading Stand-Alone and SVCDumps

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM has announced a new service aid, the z/OS Problem Documentation Upload Utility, designed to speed the upload of service data, including Stand-Alone and SVCDumps, to IBM FTP sites.

The IBM® z/OS® Problem Documentation Upload Utility is a parallel File Transfer Protocol (FTP) utility that is designed to send documentation in a more efficient manner to IBM FTP sites. This utility sections the input file into smaller files that are sent in parallel resulting in shorter transmission time for very large data sets (such as stand-alone dumps).

For details and download info, see this IBM website:

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/zaids/pduf.html



Humor


The Earliest Profession

contributed by Ron Pimblett

A doctor, a civil engineer, and a computer scientist were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world.

The doctor remarked "Well, in the Bible it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam. This clearly required surgery so I can rightly claim that mine is the oldest profession in the world."

The civil engineer interrupted and said "But even earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most spectacular application of civil engineering. Therefore, fair doctor, you are wrong; mine is the oldest profession in the world."

The computer scientist leaned back in his chair, smiled, and said confidently, "Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?


I Am Canadian!

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Forget Rednecks, here are some samples of what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about us Canadians:

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from September through May, you may live in Canada.

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Canada.

If you've worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you may live in Canada.

If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Canada.

If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Detroit for the weekend, you may live in Canada.

If you measure distance in hours, you may live in Canada.

If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Canada.

If you have switched from 'heat' to 'A/C' in the same day and back again, you may live in Canada.

If you can drive 90 km/hr through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you may live in Canada.

If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Canada.

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Canada.

If you design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you may live in Canada.

If the speed limit on the highway is 80 km - you're going 95 and everybody is passing you - you may live in Canada.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you may live in Canada.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction, you may live in Canada.

If you have more miles on your snow blower than your car, you may live in Canada.

If you find -2 degrees 'a little chilly', you may live in Canada.

If you actually understand these jokes, and forward them to all your friends, you definitely are Canadian!


Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh

contributed by Chris Blackshire

His dizzy aunt -------------------------- Verti Gogh
The brother who ate prunes--------------- Gotta Gogh
The brother who worked at a convenience store -- Stop N Gogh
The grandfather from Yugoslavia --------- U Gogh
His magician uncle ---------------------- Where-diddy Gogh
His Mexican cousin ---------------------- A Mee Gogh
The Mexican cousin's American half-brother --- Gring Gogh
The nephew who drove a stage coach ------ Wells-far Gogh
The constipated uncle ------------------- Can't Gogh
The ballroom dancing aunt --------------- Tang Gogh
The bird lover uncle -------------------- Flamin Gogh
The fruit loving cousin ----------------- Man Gogh
An aunt who taught positive thinking ---- Way-to-Gogh
The little bouncy nephew ---------------- Poe Gogh
A sister who loved disco ---------------- Go Gogh
And his niece who travels the country in an RV --- Winnie Bay Gogh

I saw you smiling ---- there ya Gogh!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, September 29, 2009
7 p.m.

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 Tommy Thomas. Tommy will escort you to the conference room.

Free Food: BarBQ, Drink, Dessert

Program:
SHARE August 2009 Conference Reports

Speakers:

Duane Reaugh of DTS Software
Brad Carson of LabCorp
Ed Webb of SAS Institute

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


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