SPARTA News June 2010

June 2010

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Summer is here and so are the very HOT days of late June. I hope that everyone is ready for a long hot summer here; I just hope we don’t get into another drought situation again like a few years ago.

Last month we had a visit from Dan Faile of Novell to talk to us about their new version of SuSE Linux on System z. SLES 11 is bringing a number of new enhancements to the System z world and the benefits of using zLinux. It was a very good presentation and provided useful information for us here at LabCorp.

Our z/OS 1.11 rollout is moving along very well. We have it up and running on three of our five LPARs with no major issues. On two of those LPARs we have also completed the $ACTIVATE for JES2 to the z11 level. Now we are getting ready for the QA and Application Development LPAR. This implementation will “shake down” the rest of our application software and get us ready for the move to Production in August.

On our Unisys system we’ve made good headway dealing with the performance issue I talked about last month. Working with the application staff we made a major improvement in their program with string handling. The use of PERFORM VARYING versus INSPECT accounted for about a 40% improvement with the code. We’ve also completed the installation of Q-Processor specialty engines for MQ offloading. This has also helped out with this new application as it uses MQ for delivery. Now on to other performance issues on this platform.

On the z/VM front, we have another application that we will be hosting. A de-identification guest for scrubbing PHI (Protected Healthcare Information) before being sent to specific clients. This guest will be interfacing with the z/OS side of the house for source data so placing it here was the logical choice. Surprisingly management understood this after the third round of talks. We still have to deal with some of the middleware folks that are wearing their mainframe blinders yet though.

This month Mike Arnold of Softbase systems will be speaking to us about tuning DB2. I look forward to seeing you all on the 29th at LabCorp.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


June 29 DB2 Tuning by Mike Arnold of Softbase
July 27 Security Compliance by Serena Software
August 31 Durham Bulls at the DBAP


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.

2010-2011 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
3060 S. Church St. 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 Brad Carson; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Brad at 336-436-8294.

Late 2009 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V478 (dated December 27, 2009) 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 May 25, 2010 Meeting

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

•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.

•Fifteen (15) people were present; twelve (12) were members.

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

•The minutes of the April 2010 meeting were accepted as published in the May 2010 newsletter.

•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, did not present the Treasurer's Report because of illness.


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

•Future Speakers and Topics:
(subject to change)

June 29, 2010: Mike Arnold, Softbase, DB2 Tuning
July 27, 2010: Serena Software, Security Compliance
Aug. 31, 2010: Durham Bulls at the DBAP
Sept. 28, 2010: SHARE Attendees, "Share Update" from Boston Aug.
Oct. 26, 2010: TBD
Nov. 30, 2010: Emmanuel Sauvion, Sysload Software, Performance Management Virtual Environment

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

•The June SPARTA meeting will be on the 29th at LabCorp in the RTP.

•Food for the June meeting will be Subs.

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to Tommy Thomas of LabCorp for hosting the meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:25 p.m.

•Daniel Faile from Novell presented "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z". Daniel is a Data Center Technical Specialist with Novell. The full presentation can be viewed at http://www.spartanc.org/Novell_SPARTA_System_z_presentation_5-25-101.pdf


Agenda
- Why are customers interested in Linux on the mainframe?
- The history of SLES and System z
- Differentiating SLES and RHEL for System z
- What’s new in SLES11 SP1
- What are customers saying about SLES for System z?
Why are customers interested in Linux on the mainframe?
Example #1: Server Consolidation Basic Scenario
- Distributed Hardware Costs for 3 years = $1,212,130.55
- Distributed Software Licensing Costs for 3 years = $5,077,789.74
- Total Cost of Distributed for 3 years = $6,547,610
- System z Hardware Costs for 3 years = $3,575,096
- System z Software Licensing Cost for 3 years = $309,080
- Mainframe versus Distributed Costs
- Cost Comparison Over 5 Years

Example #2: Mainframe Optimization (MFO)
Migration Path Example
- Keep the risk low - start by moving batch jobs or one CICS transaction at a time
Future State
- Migrate only the code with a good return on investment
Where do the savings come from?

The history of SLES and System z
Five Years Ahead of Competition
System z Historic Milestones
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server - Mainframe success
Client Adoption Drives Linux Success
Consolidation Ratios
Consolidate What?
Surveys indicate IBM System z customers use Linux for:
- Web Serving and Web Application Serving
- Data Serving
- Systems Development
“Best Fit” Workloads for Linux on System z:
- Business connectors: WebSphere MQSeries, DB2 Connect, CICS Transaction Gateway, IMS Connect for Java
- Business critical applications: e.g. SAP
- Development and test of WebSphere and Java applications
- WebSphere Application Server (WAS)
- Email & collaboration: Domino, Web 2.0
- Network Infrastructure: FTP, NFS, DNS, etc. and Comm Server and Communications Controller for Linux, Communicate Pro (VoIP)
- Data services: Cognos, Oracle, Informix, Information Server, Builders WebFOCUS
- Applications requiring top end disaster recovery model
- Virtualization and Security Services

Why SLES for System z
Why SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Why SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z
Service Pack 3 Features Summary
- SUSE Enterprise Server 10 for System z
SUSEÆ Linux Enterprise Server 11 for System z
- New Features in GA Version
- New Features in Service Pack 1

What are customers saying about SLES for System z?
Baldor Electric
-Industry View of a World Class Data Centers
US Postal Service US Postal Service
-CICS Migration

•Meeting ended at 8:35 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for June 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1175.29 as of June 16, 2010.

Financial Report
3/01/2010 through 6/16/2010

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2010

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Jun. 29 - Subs
July 27 - BarBQ
Aug. 31 - Pizza
Sept. 28 - Chicken
Oct. 26 - Subs
Nov. 30 - BarBQ
Dec. 28 - No meeting. Happy Holidays!


Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan Up-to-Date and Tested?

contributed by Ed Webb

Here’s a reminder about why you need to review your company’s Disaster Recovery plans and test them out:

Flood Wallops Dallas County Government Computers

http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/764734



z/Vendor Watch: zNext or z11? Either Way, It’s Coming Soon!

contributed by Ed Webb

According to a recent article at Mainframezone.com, we are going to see a new z machine soon. Here’s the brief article:

http://www.mainframezone.com/it-management/z-vendor-watch-znext-or-z11-either-way-its-coming-soon


Humor


Up!

contributed by Chris Blackshire

This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'  It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?
Why do we speak UP?
Why are the officers UP for election?
Why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
We call UP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.

At other times this little word has real special meaning.
People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look UP the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it soaks UP the earth.
When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.
One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now  ........my time is UP !

Oh....one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?

U  
  P !

Did that one crack you UP?

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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: Subs, Drink, Dessert

Program:

DB2 Tuning: SoftBase Batch Analyzer  & DeadLock Advisor

Speaker:

Mike Arnold of Softbase

SPARTA News
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Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

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