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Patrick, This sounds like a great success for everyone invloved: * The Customer is up and running quicker than they thought possible, * Nina enhances her relationship by teaming up with a real pro, * You get a successfull install under difficult conditions, * We all get to watch you eat toad :~) >From where I sit, 6 days represents the best possible outcome! jte P.S. I hear they serve good toad in San Antonio <g> Patrick Townsend wrote: > That sound is toad sizzling on the BBQ... > > It took a little longer than five days, but we are up and running now. > Here's the play-by-play for anyone who's interested: > > TUE 6-15: We got the go ahead from Nina to ship her customer > the software and hardware today. She is going to be on > site on Thursday and will get it installed. The > PC technician there wants to load the IP address on > the serial interface unit, so we give him > instructions on how to do it. We would normally do > this before we ship the unit, but he doesn't have > an IP address for it and wants to do it himself. > It's easy - I'm not expecting any delays because > of this. The bets around here are split evenly on > my having to eat toad. But I'm confident, what could > go wrong? > > THU 6-17: The customer gets the software, it gets installed on > the AS/400, the hardware gets an IP address, we can > ping it from the AS/400. The serial unit gets > connected to the DSU/CSU and the link is up to > GM. By the end of the day things are looking > goooood. I smell victory. I'm starting to gloat. > I am not going to have to eat toad. Tomorrow I'm > expecting to capture GM Sequencing transactions > and wrap it up. > > FRI 6-18: Argh... We are getting data from GM but it is > garbage. Just strings of binary data. I fiddle > with the configuration on the AS/400 thinking > the set up isn't right. Calls to the customer > to verify the serial connection parameters. > The PC technician hooks up a PC and sees garbarge, > too! Now I'm sure there is a set up issue on the > GM side. More calls to GM. They've got their side > set up for EBCDIC data. That's a new one! Weird, > but we should be able to handle it. I make changes > in our configuration and now we are starting > to get some meaningful data, but it is chopped > up. We aren't getting complete transactions. Will > try again on Monday. > > MON 6-21: Fresh, ready to go at this again. We continue > to receive partial records. We re-check the > serial parameters with GM again. They insist > 8N1, 19200, Xon/Xoff. More fiddling, calls > to our hardware supplier. No answers. Those > who bet I would eat toad are smiling again. > At the end of the day we decide to ask GM to > use ASCII data instead of EBCDIC. My thought > is that they might be sending control codes > in the data stream that cause problems. We'll > go at this again on Tuesday. > > TUE 6-22: GM switches to ASCII data. We change our > configuration on the AS/400 to match. Restart > the environment. We are getting data, but it > is still garbage. But it is interesting garbage > this time. Hex shows strings like B0B3B6. Hmmm, > this looks like ASCII numbers with even parity. > Or 7-bit data with a stop bit. Very curious. > If you turn the high bit off of the charcters you > get 303336. Real numbers! Hope is rekindled. Now I > am convinced that the connection is not what > we thought. More calls to GM. > > WED 6-23: Lost day for us. We get involved in a rescue > for another customer. But GM reports that the > serial parameters are not what they told us! > This is good news! GM changes the interface and > we start getting complete transactions in our > log. But Nina reports that the data is not going > to our inbound data queue. This should be easy > to figure out. The rescue is successful, but > we lose a day. > > THU 6-24: Yes, our C program is not writing the data to > the queue correctly. The problem is only in our > one-way receive module. Easy fix. Migrate the > code and Voila! Complete sequencing transactions > arrive in the file. Success! Great sigh of relief > at the customer site as they have to pass a > test with GM on Saturday. Nina's breathing again, > too. > > If you start counting on Thursday when the software arrived and got > installed, it took 6 days to get everything working. One more than the 5 > days I bet. But things are looking good and the customer is happy. We > all realize that we would have been up and running on Friday if the link > had been defined correctly. And it's been great working with Nina. Her > customer is lucky to have her on their team! > > What kind of sauce do you put on toad....? > > Patrick > -- > IBM AS/400 communications, FTP automation, and network security > software and consulting services. > > http://www.patownsend.com > > Jeffrey Silberberg wrote: > > > > Well, is it done or roast T........ > > > > JMS... > > > > +--- > > | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! > > | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. > > | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. > > | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. > > | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: >david@midrange.com > > +--- > +--- > | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! > | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. > | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. > | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. > | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com > +--- -- John Earl johnearl@toolnet.com PowerTech Toolworks 206-575-0711 PowerLock Network Security www.400security.com The 400 School www.400school.com -- +--- | This is the Midrange System Mailing List! | To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com. | To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com. | To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com. | Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com +---
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