RE: Long running backups to a 3590-B11

make sure when you apy the ptf's you do not have any tapes sitting in the
tape drive.  the ptf's download MC into the drive (if they are anything like
a 3570) - I put some ptf's on over a weekend and had some tapes sitting in
there from a completed backup but that didn't matter - Monday morning my
tape drive was drunk --- didn't know what it was.  I guess IBM has also had
other problems w/ the 3570's.  But I had your type of problems.  Took way to
long to back up and we only run JDE and just backup usrlibs on a nightly
basis.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Al Barsa, Jr.
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 6:12 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: Long running backups to a 3590-B11


At 10:58 AM 04/06/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>Has anyone else had a similar problem -
>
>I have a system with 102GB of DASD, running at about 80% used.  It has
>regularly taken between 11 to 13 hours to do a full system backup each
>weekend (SAVSYS + NONSYS + SAVDLO + SAV (ifs)).  All of a sudden, the
>backups started taking 15/16 hours.  I have recently upgraded to v4r3 (from
>v4r1), initiallly the backups jumped to 28 hours!!  IBM recommended we
apply
>additional PTFs, a series of group-ptf packages, this cut the 28 to 18 but
>this is still very painful to system availablility, as you can imagine.
>
>I am liaising with IBM and with the CE; I've stopped saving access paths,
>I'm getting staff to delete old/redundant data, what more can I do?  Has
>anyone had similar experiences or have some advice ?

First of all, go back to saving access paths.  On a system with 102 GB of
DASD, if you had to rebuild them you would a very unhappy puppy.

Secondly, you need to understand that IBM did a very stupid thing in the
middle of V4R4, which was to upgrade the database via PTF (i.e.: without a
version/release/modification change).  I told them not to do this, but they
didn't listen.

Because this upgrade failed to go through the normal release testing
process, and because IBM is attempting to act in a mode that is *CHEAP,
this caused lots of bugs to fall through the cracks.  Every legitimate bug
leads to a PTF (*VERYEXPENSIVE [You wouldn't think so, but nevertheless
this is what IBM claims.]).

Ultimately PTF's get into a "Cumulative PTF Package", which gets a good
amount of testing.

However because of database changes, tape changes and Y2K changes, IBM has
instituted a new set of PTF's called "group PTF's".  "Group PTF's" are not
as extensively tested, to say the least.  (They resemble doing business
like Micro$oft, but nevertheless this is what IBM is providing.)  I would
recommend that all customers at V4R4 have the "group PTF's" for both
database and Y2K.  In addition if you are running a 3570 or 3590, you need
the "group PTF's" for save/restore.  There are other sets of "group PTF's"
for the net, and things like that.

Al





+--------------------------------------------------+
| Please do not send private mail to this address. |
| Private mail should go to barsa@ibm.net.         |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Al Barsa, Jr. - Account for Midrange-L
Barsa Consulting, LLC.
400 > 390

Phone:          914-251-1234
Fax:            914-251-9406
http://www.barsaconsulting.com
http://www.taatool.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
+---

+---
| 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
+---