RE: PTF Management -- MIDRANGE-L

<On soap-box>

This might start a political discussion here, but my Dad was just the 
opposite. He said "If it ain't broke, keep it that way."

Back in the early 50's, my Dad was an mechanic for a construction company 
on a job site not far from you Rob. He noticed a couple of instances where 
during an oil change on a bulldozer, the used oil looked and smelled funny 
to him. At the time, the company was buying oil from the cheapest source. 
He had recently met with a sales rep from D-A oil company in Indianapolis. 
The rep told him that D-A's chemists had devised a method for testing used 
oil for all kinds of contaminants, including antifreeze and metal 
shavings. They discovered that the dozer in question had a minute crack in 
the block, and was allowing coolant to get into the crankcase.

My Dad immediately began a program whereby the entire company purchased 
all of their lubricants from D-A, and began sampling from each and every 
oil change. D-A was higher priced, but they included the sampling cans and 
return labels with each shipment. The company also religiously followed 
the manufacturer's recommendations on maintenance, even to the point where 
the manufacturers shortened the maintenance intervals based on my Dad's 
findings. The next thing you know, the company bought their first computer 
from IBM in 1960, for the express purpose of equipment maintenance 
scheduling (the accounting department got to use it during the off-hours). 
By knowing what their equipment was costing them, his company grew by a 
factor of 7 in just the next 10 years. My Dad ended up starting a software 
company that produced maintenance management software for the midrange 
marketplace. Many of you may still be using that software.

The point is that there are good business reasons for having a 
preventative maintenance program on everything within the enterprise, and 
the computer systems need to be included in the program. It's the little 
things, too. How many people bother to take out a vacuum cleaner and 
provide their systems with a little housecleaning? If you've still got an 
ECS modem, how tough is it to have the job scheduler send a weekly order 
for the cover letter for the weekly HIPER list? The fine folks in 
Rochester and Toronto need to know that they're appreciated enough to have 
somebody at least read what they publish....  8-))

<Off soap box>


Paul Nelson
Arbor Solutions, Inc.
708-670-6978  Cell
pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." 
Samuel L. Clemens  (Mark Twain)




rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
10/09/2003 09:54 AM
Please respond to Midrange Systems Technical Discussion

 
        To:     Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
        cc: 
        Subject:        RE: PTF Management


My dad used to use "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" as an excuse for not 
changing his oil.  He put over 120,000 on his truck and had maybe 3 oil 
changes.

Often you may not know if it is broke.  Take security patches for an 
example.  The iSeries comes out with so many security patches it probably 
makes Windows look rock solid.  Providing you're one of those that figures 

the more aggressive that someone is in trying to fix their product the 
more broke it must be.

Normally I only put on cumes and groups every 8 weeks.  But I am planning 
a Domino version upgrade on this one server and I am trying to follow the 
recommendation for latest ptf's.

Rob Berendt
-- 
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary 
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." 
Benjamin Franklin 




Jeff Bull <Jeff.Bull@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
10/09/2003 09:28 AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


To
"'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Subject
RE: PTF Management






There is a school of thought that says "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

While I have never had problems with IBMs PTFs, I do try to minimise the
number of changes I make to my system.

I accept that it is a good thing to be up to date with the Cum PTF 
packages,
it's like having your car serviced.  However, fiddling about with PTFs 
every
day/week whatever when you don't have a problem seems to be a bit over
zealous.

Kind regards,

Jeffrey E. Bull
OS400 Software Support Consultant

IBM Certifiied iSeries System Implementation Expert
IBM Certified AS/400 System Administrator 

tel.      +44 [0] 149 454 9533               swb.   +44 [0] 149 454 9400
mbl.     +44 [0] 786 750 4961               fax.    +44 [0] 149 454 9454
web.     http://www.itm-group.co.uk
 
ITM Group Ltd, Latimer Square, White Lion Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire,
HP7 9JQ, United Kingdom


-----Original Message-----
From: shannonjano@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:shannonjano@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 08 October 2003 17:32
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: PTF Management


This page has been out there for quite a while now.



Shannon O'Donnell


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <rob@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2003 11:18 AM
Subject: PTF Management


> This PTF management is one fluid situation, isn't it?
>
> Just when you think you got it down IBM comes out with a new site:
>
> http://www-912.ibm.com/s_dir/slkbase.nsf/recommendedfixes
>
> Now I order:
> - the cume (which includes a couple of groups)
> - the ptf's recommended for a few products of interest (being careful to
> read all footnotes)
> - then I order the other group ptf's listed in the PSP information that
> may be followed from that chain.
>
> Not a bad site.  Just wondering why some of those areas of interest 
aren't
> just on the group ptf's.
>
> Rob Berendt
> -- 
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> Benjamin Franklin
> _______________________________________________
> This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing
list
> To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
> visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l
> or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
> at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
>
>
>


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