SPARTA News January 2011

January 2011

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2011 and we've all been treated to some snow and ice for this winter. I hope that everyone had a good Christmas holiday. I spent a good bit of the 26th digging out from the in-laws in Tarboro to get back home. We had about 11 inches of snow out there and that made for a really fun drive back to Raleigh.  Then we got to follow it up with a bit of ice a week later. I thought I moved south to get away from weather like that, but after 25 years in North Carolina, mother nature still lets me know that she rules.

In November we paid a visit to IBM building 500 to see a z196 in operation with an operating zBX. It was great to get a chance to see an actual installed and running zBX. The one big thing that struck me was how much heat the P-701 blades were producing compared to the z196 processor books (this system had all four). The other thing that was good to see was the network integration with the OSM and OSX channels between the z and p systems.

We are still planning to order our DB2 V10 upgrade by the end of the month. We've applied all the reach-ahead maintenance to our current DB2 V8 subsystems and are just waiting approval from the Change Control Board to get started. Our biggest concerns with this upgrade is completing the conversion from plan binds to package binds since V10 doesn't support plans with DBRM's at all. The other concern is our ancient release of CA:Gen (aka Cool:Gen) that we have installed. The upgrade of Gen to a current release is even a bigger headache than DB2 due to its migration from SAS/C to IBM/C (and LE).

We are also beginning to go down the DR testing road for the year. We have to recover our z/OS system to allow testing of our Peoplesoft systems. Seems they need to have the full TWS environment running as well for a true test, so that means we recover z/OS, just not turn up the CBU feature on our Burlington z10 to achieve this. We'll probably be doing at least 4 DR tests because of such situations during the year.

This month we will have Brad Hinson from Red Hat come talk to us about zLinux. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp on the 25th.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Jan. 25 Red Hat zLinux
Feb. 22 CICS Performance
Mar. 29 SHARE Reports

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.

Early 2011 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V480 (dated January 16, 2011) 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 November 30, 2011 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•The meeting was held at IBM Executive Briefing Center in RTP, N.C.
•Twenty-nine (29) people were present of which eighteen (18) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions. Thanks to all the IBMers who attended and told us what they do.
•The minutes of the October 2010 meeting were approved.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer gave the Treasurer's Report. As of Nov. 16, 2010, the balance is $1,004.27. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report.

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 based on internal politics, budget, the weather):
- Jan. 25 Brad Hinson, Red Hat zLinux
- Feb. 22 Ivan Gelb, CICS Performance.
- Mar. 29 SHARE Updates, Presenters TBD
- Apr. 26 Paul Smith, Omegamon update or Netview
- May 31 Pratt Parish, BusTech
- June 28 David Jones IBM, JES3
- July 26 Ann Totten, z/OS 1.12 zFS
- Aug. 30 Durham Bulls
- Sept. 27 SHARE Updates, Presenters TBD
- Oct. 25 UBS Hainer, DB2 BVC5 Copying DB2
- Nov. 22 Cheryl Watson (Topic TBD)
- Dec. 27: No meeting

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.
•Food for the January meeting will be Chicken.
•Brad reminded everyone to keep the IBM conference room as clean as we do the LabCorp room.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to Bill Pieffer of IBM for hosting the meeting.
•Brad Carson requested List Server name updates be sent to him.
•Ron Pimblett wants us to think about t-shirt designs to review at the Jan. 2011 meeting.
•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:35 PM.
•The speaker was B Duane Reller, IBM System z Architect, about IBM zEnterprise 196 and zBX.

Some of the session topics presented:

* We need Smarter Systems that are optimized for the needs and the workloads of the world we live in today. Only 27% of electricity generated is really used.

* The idea of “one size fits all” is attractive, but in reality is unachievable. Why?
- Different needs and priorities
- A wide range of workloads
- In theory, all workloads could run on a single platform, but in actual practice, multiple platforms provide a better solution for many workloads

* Selecting a Platform – What are the key issues - There are multiple key issues:
- Time Horizon; ISV Support; Non-Functional Requirements; Geographic Considerations; Power, Cooling, Floor space constraints; Strategic Direction and Standards; Cost Models; Skills; Politics; Platform Architecture; Technology Adoption Level; Deployment Model, and Scale.

* Islands of IT Infrastructure with various levels of integration

* The IBM zEnterprise System (zOS, Linux, zVM, zVSE):
- A system of systems that unifies IT for predictable service delivery
- The world’s fastest and most scalable system: IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196)
- Ideal for large scale data and transaction serving and mission critical applications
- Most efficient platform for Large-scale Linux consolidation
- Leveraging a large portfolio of z/OS and Linux on System z applications
- Capable of massive scale up, over 50 Billion Instructions per Second (BIPS)

- Scale out to a trillion instructions per second: IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX)
- Selected IBM POWER7 blades and IBM System x Blades1 for tens of thousands of AIX and
Linux applications
- High performance optimizers and appliances to accelerate time to insight and reduce cost
- Dedicated high performance private network

* A look inside the IBM zEnterprise System
- Enabling a new dimension in application architecture
- Display islands of computing - (moving many to a z196)
- The Evolution of the “Platform”
- Server
- Virtualized Server
- Virtualized Cluster
- Virtualized Heterogeneous Cluster

* System z “Specialty Engine” Evolution to the zEnterprise Ensemble
- CP, zAAP, zIIP, IFL, IBM Blades (zBX)
- Think Inside The Box for Performance and Scalability

* z196 performance and scalability

* zEnterprise z196 Functions and Features

* IBM System z: System Design Comparison

* IBM Compilers exploit System z for Maximum Performance

* A New Release of z/OS Improves Performance and Ease of Use
- Up to 30% to 50% improved Performance

* IBM System z and System z Software
- Delivering greater value across the portfolio

* WebSphere Performance Optimization with Co-location

* Java and WAS Performance with zEnterprise

* zEnterprise zBX Functions and Features Overview
- One hardware model
- zBX is controlled by one specific z196
- Up to 4 Racks (B, C, D and E)
- 2 BladeCenters Chassis per rack
- Redundant Power, Cooling and Management Modules
- 10 GbE and 1000BASE-T Network modules
- 8 Gb SR FC modules
- 1000BASE-T and 10 GbE TORs
- Up to 112 Blades
- IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer
- POWER7 Blades
- WebSphere DataPower Appliance
- HMCs required for Unified Resource Manager

* WebSphere DataPower 1 appliance in the zBX
- What is it?
- How is it Different?

* Offerings Listed to Exploit the Capabilities and Leverage the Strengths of zEnterprise

1. Tivoli Application Management for zEnterprise
- Ability to view, monitor and manage applications for physical and virtual machines
- Alerting capabilities for early detection of costly slow downs or outages
-- Reduce incident and capacity mgmt. costs by 39%

2. Tivoli Asset and Financial Management for zEnterprise
- Visibility into software usage and compliance across heterogeneous resources
- Greater efficiency of resource usage
- Central view and management of requirements and costs
-- Reduce asset management costs by 77%

3. Tivoli Application Resilience for zEnterprise
- Automated high availability and disaster recovery operations across multi-tier environments
- Central view and management of critical business processes
-- Increase productivity by about 70%

* Managing Risk, Security & Compliance
- Enforce security policy compliance and reduce security vulnerabilities
- Centrally manage and protect access to web

* zEnterprise value made possible by the Unified Resource Manager
1. Energy: Energy Management
2. Performance: Platform Performance Management
3. Virtual Servers: Virtual Server Lifecycle Management
4. Networks: Network Management
5. Operations: Operational Controls
6. Hypervisors: Hypervisor Management

* What is a zEnterprise Ensemble?
- A zEnterprise ensemble is a collection of 1 to 8 z196 CPCs with or without zBX managed collectively by the Unified Resource Manager as a single logical virtualized system using the HMC
- A zEnterprise node is a z196 CPC with 0 to 4 racks up to 2 BladeCenters per rack
- z196 CPCs are deployed within a single site
- Blade based fit-for-purpose Solutions
- Integrated Advanced Virtualization Management
- Implements well-defined external interface to Data Center Service Management functions
- Virtual Resource Management and Automation
- z10 can access the Optimizers, but can’t be part of the managed ensemble

* Management Stack
- Service Management
- Platform Management
- Hardware Management

* zManager compliments existing Technologies.

* Multi-platform Development and Deployment on zEnterprise
- Easily extending workloads across all platforms
- Separate Tools for Each Platform

* IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer

* The Solution: Run the workload on the right technology
- Each platform architecture is different and has a natural affinity to different workload characteristics
- Match the workload characteristics to the right platform(s) to deliver a best fit solution for the workload
- Repeat this across the infrastructure to optimize service delivery for the business
- That’s why heterogeneous infrastructures are the norm today and why heterogeneous infrastructures are the future.

* Different Workloads Have Different Characteristics
- Workload 1 (Large Systems)
- Huge transaction volume
- High I/O Bandwidth
- Encryption
- Huge Cache
- High QoS Requirements
- Workload 2 (Midrange)
- HPC and parallel processing
- Moderate I/O Bandwidth
- Integer processing
- Moderate QoS Requirements
- Workload 3 (Small Systems)
- Moderate processing intensity
- Modest I/O Bandwidth
- Moderate Cache
- Modest QoS Requirements

* Many Examples of Many different Workloads
* The zEnterprise Environment Benefits:
- Increased flexibility through simplification and standardization
- Lower cost through a single management and policy framework
- Reduced risk by extending System z Quality of Service to multiple platforms
- Better service to users from improved resource management
- Greater focus on delivering new business functions through reduced manual coordination
of tasks

* IBM System z Software
- Seamlessly integrated with zEnterprise for optimal cost savings and performance
- Delivering a new generation of integrated hardware and software
- Scales without complexity and delivers business process
- Aligned infrastructure in a heterogeneous environment
- Provides real-time advanced analytics
- Unifies multiplatform development and team collaboration to work as a single delivery platform
- Exploits the advantages of integrated service management
- Extends the value of Linux on System z with collaborative tools

* The z196 Delivers the Smarter Systems that are optimized for the needs and the workloads of the world we live in today

* Please attend the Dec 14 presentation for 6 hours of details

* Duane can be reached at IBM at reller@us.ibm.com or 919-720-7304.

* Meeting ended at 8:45 PM.

A tour of Building 500 to see a z196 and zBX ensemble followed the meeting.

Treasurer’s Report for January 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1004.27 as of January 16, 2011.

Financial Report
3/01/2010 through 01/16/2011

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Jan 25 - Chicken
Feb 22 - Subs
Mar 29 - BarBQ
Apr 26 - Pizza
May 31 - Chicken
Jun 28 - Subs
July 26 - BarBQ
Aug 30 - Durham Bulls - buy your own
Sept 27 - Pizza
Oct 25 - Chicken
Nov 29 - Subs
Dec 27 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays!


Safely concealed

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM Identity Mixer is poised to change how Web users reveal personal data

Every time we go online, we leave electronic debris scattered here, there and seemingly everywhere. Much of this could be—if it hasn’t been already—collated to create detailed profiles of people, including names, birth dates, addresses and more. These personal portraits can then be used for purposes beyond simple banner ads tailored to your ZIP code.

Wanting to counter that and minimize the personal data people leave behind on the Web, IBM Research–Zurich and several European partners are working on tools that will help Web users keep their private information private. One of the most notable of these ID-governance tools in development is IBM Identity Mixer.

Check out the rest of this interesting article by Jim Utsler from IBM Systems Magazine at http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/ibm_research_identitymixer/35550p1.aspx


Humor


Mainframe Problem Analysis: What’s the Worse That Could Happen?

contributed by Ed Webb

Bob slurped some coffee and drummed his fingers on the desk. Logging onto TSO was particularly slow this morning. A few seconds later, he took another swig and hit the Enter key sharply eight or nine times. TSO rewarded his patience with a third “logon proceeding” message.

He rolled his eyes and stood up. “Anyone else having problems?” he started, when he noticed several people huddled inside of Hugh Britz’s cubicle. Bob’s inerrant instinct told him that’s where the action was. He ambled down to Hugh’s cube and asked what was going on.

“Got a looping task on system five. Unfortunately, it’s glommed onto some locks that are holding up everyone else,” Hugh said cheerily to Bob. He then turned around and pointed to the monitor. “We were trying to decide if it’s okay to cancel the task when, for grits and shins, we used the monitor to figure out where the loop is. We tracked it down to these instructions.”

Check out this link for the rest of the story by Robert Crawford of TechTarget.

Definitions (A Bit of Humor)

contributed by Chris Blackshire

ADULT:
A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

BEAUTY PARLOR:
A place where women curl up and dye.

CANNIBAL:
Someone who is fed up with people.

CHICKENS:
An animal you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE:
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST:
Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF:
Cold Storage.

INFLATION:
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO:
An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN:
Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET:
Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON:
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE:
The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW:
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN:
An honest opinion openly expressed.

WRINKLES:
Something other people have,
Similar to my character lines.

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, January 25, 2011
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: Chicken, Drink, Dessert

Program:

Red Hat zLinux

Speaker:

Brad Hinson of Red Hat

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

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