SPARTA News August 2012

August 2012

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Well we've gone from a hot and dry July to a warm and wet August. It seems that we have made up for the lack of rain last month with all the storms and showers this month. My lawn is keeping me very busy since it is making up for lost time. I've had to cut it twice within the last week! At least we haven't had many power issues with all these thunder storms.

David Lytle from Brocade came to speak to us last month about FICON switching technologies. He talked to us about the benefits of using switched FICON for all DASD access and what I means to overall system throughput. A very good presentation for us mainframers. We are still using FICON point-to-point here for FICON but are connected via the SAN switches for the FCP disks we use under z/VM. Maybe in the future we can get to FICON via switches.

On the evening of the 19th we will try again to migrate our last DB2 V8 subsystem to V10. I hope the third time is a charm for this. We've been testing and testing using the QA system and have all the kinks worked out. One thing we won't be running on PROD is the BMC Apptune data collector. The performance hit from this was huge (20% for CICS and up to 40% in batch). For some reason it and DB2 V10 do not want to play nice with each other. We have not had any issues with BMC MainView or Rocket's MXI-G2 software with DB2 V10. On our QA system we now have three DB2 subsystems in New Function Mode there. The DBA's wanted to change the way they were working with some of the BLOB objects there and it required New Function Mode. If things go well we will migration the WEB app DB2 on PROD to New Function Mode during our September outage.

We now have z/OS 1.13 running on three of our five LPARs. I can say that the old INFOMAN product still works with 1.13, even the web interface. We've had one product so far that had issues. Our old copy of FDR/Upstream has bit the dust. Due to a control block move, it goes down with an 0C4 right at the start of a batch run. Since we were running this unsupported (except to backup our workstations), we just shut it down. Now that we have 1.13 running on TECH we will begin heavy duty testing with DB2, CICS and MQ. I'll have more on that for you next month.

This month we will have our annual outing to see the Durham Bulls play ball. Because of the Bulls' schedule, our "meeting" will be one week earlier on the 21st instead of the 28th. I look forward to see you at the DBAP then.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


(Special Date and Place) August 21 Durham Bulls at the DBAP
Sept. 25 SHARE Conference reports by SPARTA members

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.

2012-2013 SPARTA
Board of Directors

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

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
DTS Software 919-833-8426
4350 Lassiter at North Hills Ave, Suite 235
Raleigh, NC 27609

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.

July 2012 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V484 (dated July 8, 2012) 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 July 31, 2012 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.
•Fifteen (15) people were present of which twelve (12) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.
•The minutes of the June 2012 meeting were approved as published in the July 2012 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's Report. As of July 13, 2012, the balance is $1,068.50. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the 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 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.

•Brad Carson reminded everyone to leave the LabCorp conference room clean.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

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

•The August SPARTA meeting will be August 21 at the DBAP in Durham. Contact Tommy Thomas for free tickets.

•Food for the August 2012 meeting will be your purchase at the DBAP.

NEW BUSINESS

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

•Send any e-mail address changes to Brad Carson so he can update the SPARTA Listserv.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 8:30 p.m.

•David Lytle of Brocade gave a presentation on “FICON Fabric and Performance”.



•The presentation ended about 8 p.m. and the meeting ended at 8:30 p.m.

Treasurer’s Report for August 2012

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $992.29 as of August 10, 2012.

Financial Report
3/01/2012 through 07/13/2012

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2012

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Aug. 21 - DBAP Buy Your Own
Sep. 25 - Pizza
Oct. 30 - Chicken
Nov. 27 - Subs
Dec. 25 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays


Mainframe Still the Model for IT’s Future

contributed by Ed Webb

From EnterpriseSystemsMedia.com

“Those offering a vision of the future bound to internal technological change, such as server virtualization or the introduction of Flash SSD technology to speed up storage, have a pitch that comes a bit closer to reality. Between the lines of all the woo being peddled about server virtualization and even storage virtualization is the notion that we may ultimately get to where we already are in mainframes today: the creation of “atomic units” of tech that can be rolled out to meet changes in business process workload.

That would be a fundamental improvement in the way we plan, deploy, allocate, and de-allocate IT resources today: a building block model. While it works on mainframes today, given their ability to support the allocation of storage and processors to various tasks in an ad hoc way, it’s driving the x86 distributed computing world in a different direction: toward monolithic computing stacks that are owned, much like the mainframe data center of a few decades ago, by a single vendor or cadre of vendors.”

Read the complete article here.

New IBM Redguide by Local Authors

contributed by Ed Webb

IBM has just published (July 23, 2012) a new Redguide titled Taking Advantage of SAS in an IBM zEnterprise Multiplatform Environment.

Written by Dan Squillace and Dan Taylor of SAS in Cary, it’s a 16-page how to deploy SAS in a zEnterprise environment (z196 and zBX). The Redguide is available in PDF, and now in EPUB formats for your mobile devices.


IBM ServerPac Changes Begin in October 2012

contributed by Ed Webb

On July 31, 2012, IBM released this Announcement about Changes to ServerPac starting October 15, 2012.

“IBM plans new capabilities for ServerPac, including new product ordering options and secure delivery via FTPS, including:

•New ordering options for individual products and sets of products in ServerPac, without requiring IBM z/OS® or a major subsystem to be included in an order, within the z/OS and DB2 product lists. (Editor’s note: These new Product ServerPacs install in separate Target Zones separate from your z/OS ServerPac Target Zones.)

•Enhanced connectivity test to verify your setup for secure delivery

•Secure delivery via FTP using Secure Sockets Layer (FTPS) for product and service downloads

IBM also issued a Statement of Direction that FTPS would be required for ServerPac and CBPDO orders starting in October 2013. Download Director for pulling ServerPac and CBPDO orders is not affected.

SLIP: The King of Mainframe Debugging Tools

contributed by Ed Webb

From Searchdatacenter.techtarget.com contributor Robert Crawford:

“One of the mainframe's distinguishing characteristics is its extensive debugging toolkit. One of the very best – and to my knowledge unique – mainframe debugging tools is SLIP.

 When distributed platform administrators hit a nasty problem, they are often left guessing until they contact the vendor. Systems programmers, on the other hand, have dumps, traces and online monitors that can peer into the very heart of the system. That's where serviceability level indication processing (SLIP) comes into play.

SLIP: King of the mainframe debugging tools

The SLIP tool is a combination of hardware and software components that can interrupt a processor and record diagnostic data when designated conditions occur. A condition may be an error, system state or storage value. The information collected by SLIP can, in turn, be fed into other mainframe tools for analysis.

SLIP traps, set with the SET SLIP system command, consist of three parts: the trap, the conditions and the action.”

Checkout the rest of Robert’s article here.

Humor


Heat Wave Humor

contributed by Chris Blackshire

IT'S SO HOT:
 
.....the birds have to use potholders to pull the worms out of the ground.
 
.....the trees are whistling for the dogs.
 
.....the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance
 
.....hot water comes from both taps.
 
.....you can make sun tea instantly.
 
.....you learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
 
.....the temperature drops below 90F & you feel a little chilly.
 
.....you discover that in July it only takes two fingers to steer your car.
 
.....you discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.
 
.....you actually burn your hand opening the car door.
 
.....you break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 A.M.
 
.....your biggest motorcycle wreck fear is: "What if I get knocked out & end up lying on the pavement? I'll cook to death"!
 
.....you realize that asphalt has a liquid stage.
 
.....the potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out & add butter.
 
.....the cows are giving evaporated milk.
 
.....farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.
 
IT'S SO DRY:
 
 ....that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling,
 
..... the Methodists are using wet-wipes,
 
..... the Presbyterians are giving rain checks,
 
.....and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water!

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

7 p.m.

Special Location: Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Check out this link for directions: http://www.dbulls.com/stadium/directions.html

Fee Food: Whatever You Buy

Program:

Triple-A Baseball


Speaker:

Durham Bulls vs. Charlotte Knights

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

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