SPARTA News June 2011

June 2011

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Here comes June and all the fun of the summer season, the start of hurricane (and I don't mean hockey) season, and the dreaded triple H's of Hazy, Hot and Humid. On top of that we are entering the driest time of the year and have to worry about brush and forest fires. I know that most of us in the triangle area have had a "whiff" of the big fire in the Alligator wildlife refuge still burning in eastern North Carolina. I don't know how many thousands of acres have been burned so far. When I was a volunteer fireman in PA these type of fires were the toughest to fight.

Last month our presentation was from Duane Reaugh, emeritus of DTS software. We were introduced to the work that DTS has done to integrate their software with the EMC (BusTech) MDL (or DLM). Their MCC product will provide a big benefit for customers of the MDL or DLM hardware. The savings of not having to convert to SMS managed tapes would be a big one in our case. As always the support from DTS has been better that most of the vendors that I deal with. With the advances in virtual tape processing we are all going to be addressing the issues that MCC was made for.

On the DB2 V10 migration here at LabCorp, we converted the first development DB2 (subsystem DBH) to compatibility mode. Initial testing has gone very well and we are planning to convert another subsystem to V10 before the end of the month. Since these particular DB2's are mainly used by web based applications, they didn't have to wait for the SCLM PLAN to PACKAGE work to be completed first. Of course we've had some (more) issues with the BMC DB2 utility suite and are working closely with them to iron out the issues. It's making me feel like we are a beta site for their DB2 utilities these days.

I've put my REXX hat back on to begin updating the SCLM execs involved with binding DB2 based applications (COBOL, CA:Gen, and Easytrieve). So far the big issue is getting the new package collection ID's straight and coming up with the correct code to match a DBRM to the proper collection. I've made some good headway here, but haven't had enough time to get much done. I guess someone needs to come up with the 28 hour day so I can do this along with all my other work. I should have more to tell you about next month.

This month Larry Green from IBM will talk to us about new version of Tivoli Netview that was announced last month. I look forward to seeing you all at LabCorp on the 28th.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


June 28 Tivoli Netview by Paul Smith of IBM
July 26 IBM Shared File System
Aug. 30 Durham Bulls baseball game 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.

2011-2012 SPARTA
Board of Directors

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

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
MDI DataSystems 919-426-6518

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.

February 2011 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V481 (dated February 20, 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 May 24, 2011 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.
•Eleven (11) people were present of which all eleven (11) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.
•The minutes of the April 2011 meeting were approved as published in the May 2011 newsletter.
•Brad Carson gave the Treasurer's Report in Tommy’s absence. As of May 13, 2011, the balance is $1,177.72. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report.

OLD BUSINESS

•Brad reminded everyone that SPARTA membership dues are $30 per year and should be paid soon.

•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):

- June 28 IBM Tivoli Netview
- July 26 IBM Shared File System (tentative)
- Aug. 30 Durham Bulls
- Sept. 27 SHARE Updates, Presenters TBD
- Oct. 25 TBA
- Nov. 22 SAS Cloud Facility (tentative)
- Dec. 27: No meeting

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

•Brad reminded everyone to keep the conference room clean.
•The June SPARTA meeting will be June 28 at LabCorp in RTP.
•Food for the May meeting will be Subs.

NEW BUSINESS

•Thanks to LabCorp for hosting the meeting.
•If you have any Listserver issues, contact Brad with any email address changes.
•The business portion of the meeting ended at 8:10 PM.
•Presentation: DLm (MDL) Command and Control for Virtual Tape (DCC)
Speaker: Duane Reaugh of DTS Software

•Agenda
Issues in a DLm Environment (DLm is the new name for MDL)
(MDL Control Center (MCC) renamed to DLm Control Center (DCC) )
Allocation Control with DCC
Command and Monitoring Interface
Tape Migration
Load Balancing
DCC Utilities

•Background: DTS Software
Pioneers of Storage Management Technology
Inventors of X37 abend elimination and DASD pooling technology
Redesign of the space recovery system as technology evolved
25 years of innovation and leadership in mainframe storage technology
Recognized as a worldwide leader in enterprise storage management
Partnered with Bus-Tech and now EMC for virtual tape control software

•Tape Device Selection
UNIT - support a spectrum of devices - used to direct allocations
Eligible Device List - built at allocation time
JCL parameters used to select the desired device

•SMS-Managed Tape Requirements
OAM Active
Devices defined as MTL in HCD
ACS Routines - STORCLAS, STORGRP
Define SMS constructs and TCDB (Libraries and Volcats)
Dasd and the TAPE staff have to work together

•DLmALLOC Function
Provides Tape Device Selection (DLmPOOLS and DLmRULES)

•DLm Control Center - Allocation Control Component
Eliminate SMS-managed tape requirements / OAM
Direct DLm tape mounts to the appropriate unit
Provide JCL based allocation to DLms
Provide DLm handling of multivolume GDGs, UNIT=AFF
Manage allocations across multiple DLms

•DLmALLOCATE Function - Assigning Pools
DEFRULE rulename

•DLmALLOCATE Function - Defining Pools
DEFPOOL poolname

•DLm Management with DCC
Viewing DLm Configurations
Issuing DLm Commands
Obtaining Volume Information
Event and Log Monitoring

•DCC Interfaces (Diagram) - Interface Samples
z/OS Consoles, SPF sessions, GUI, batch, iPhone/iPad

•DLM Management with DCC
ISPF Interfaces
Communicates with DIF
Commands: Ready, Rewind, Unload, Quiesce, etc.
Volume Information

•DLM Management with DCC Other Interfaces
Batch, TSO, DIF STC

•DLM Management with DCC Graphical Interfaces
Apple iPhone / Pad / Touch App

•DLM Management with DCC Event Monitoring
DCC Policy rules and executed via SNMP client in real time

•TAPE Migration
Issues:
Tape Copy Utilities
Tape VOLSERs
Tape Device Type

•DCC Tape Migration
DLMCOPY Utility
Clones tapes (Same volser, same label, same unit type)
Updates the TCDB if necessary
No updates to TSM required
Restartable
Simply supply a list of volumes (to clone)

•Load Balancing With DCC

•Batch Utilities
DLmUTIL - Commands, Messages, Updates to tape volser inventory
DLmCMD - Commands
DLmVOL - Volume Locations

•DLmUTIL Control Statements
Node Commands - CMD and MSG
Volume Commands - Scratch/Unscratch, Erase, Delete, Obliterate

•Summary DLm Control Center
An indispensable tool for
Tape Device Selection Policies
Easy Access for DLm Management
Tape Library Conversion

•Q & A

• Meeting ended at 8:45 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for June 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1163.37 as of June 12, 2011.

Financial Report
3/01/2011 through 06/12/2011

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2011

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

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!


Our Roots Run Deep: Mainframe, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Future

contributed by Ed Webb

How Mainframes are like Rock’n Roll, and easy way to describe what you do to non-mainframers. Check out this article from mainframezone.com:

http://www.mainframezone.com/it-management/management-insights-our-roots-run-deep-mainframe-rock-n-roll-and-the-future


SHARE Orlando Coming Soon

contributed by Ed Webb

Yes, you’ve missed the early registration discount but attending SHARE is still the most cost effective z/OS training you can buy. And the hotel rate at the WDW Dolphin is very good at $149 plus 12.5% tax.

Check out the schedule for SHARE in Orlando August 8-12, 2011 here.


Bulletproofing the Mainframe by Ron Higgin

contributed by Ed Webb

My old SHARE friend, Ron Higgin, wrote this recent article for IBM Systems Magazine. Check out his words of wisdom:

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/administrator/highavailability/Mainframe_availability/

Humor


Stuff You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know

contributed by Chris Blackshire

•Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.

•Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

•Coca-Cola was originally green.

•It is impossible to lick your elbow.

•Q. The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work:
A. Alaska

•The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
(now get this...)
The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

•Q. The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven:
A. $ 16,400

•Q. The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour:
A. 61,000

•Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

•Q. The first novel ever written on a typewriter.
A. Tom Sawyer.

•The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

•Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

•111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987, 654,321

•If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle.

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes

•Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, John Hancock and Charles Thomson.

Most of the rest signed on August 2,

But the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

•Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace

•Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

•Q.. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?
A. One thousand

•Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers have in common?
A. All were invented by women.

•Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

•Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day


•In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'

•It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

•In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them 'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.'

It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'

•Many years ago, in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, June 28, 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: Subs, Drink, Dessert

Program:

Tivoli NetView Update

Speaker:

Larry Green of IBM

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

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