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Just a couple of thoughts - as usual some of the answers depend on what
someone what's to accomplish, what is their architectural preference, and
what their bias is (bias is not always a bad word).
We are heavy users of Domino - both for applications, calendaring, and
email. Per our parent company we will be moved to Exchange 1Q 2006. Not
that this is an indication of Exchange being better by any stretch. It's a
corporate standard and the majority of the company uses it, we are one of
the few Domino email users. Just to lay the groundwork for what I say.
It's hard for me to quantify in technical terms but I am fully in the
belief that Domino was a workflow application first and an
email/calendar/PIM product second or even third. In my comparisons over
the years I think that it is not the best mail server out there. Nor is
the Notes client the best mail client. Right now I think they are both
close to Exchange/Outlook and other email products. At a 50,000 view that
is. Within the email world I think you can get into a lot of details and
issues that can change that opinion either which way. But it is not a best
of breed mail product, nor is it a bad one. If you are a Domino
application user there is some benefit by also having it as your mail
system. Not required but I think there is some synergy. So, would I use
it as a mail server? Possibly, but if I did (as well as any other mail
server) I would use a number of external resources so that some heavy
lifting is external to my server. But I would do that with any mail server
- that is my bias or architectural preference.
I also think that for certain people running everything under OS/400 makes
good sense. As well as those who want to fragment their processes to
different platforms. There is no right answer. Personally, I just have
issues with someone that slams every application onto their iSeries and
those who distribute everything to any available Wintel or Linux platform.
I think there are risks inherent to both of those approaches. The extremes
are the ones that would worry me. In my world we put a preponderance of
applications on the iSeries. We have examples of systems that might not
have been a good fit. Fortunately, those have gone away with the advent of
bigger/better/faster processors (WAS on a 720.......ran 80% of the
application without a hitch, the remaining 20%.....gross). We also have
examples of systems that we allowed to be distributed to WINTEL platforms
and they have issues - warehouse management with Oracle......I'd never do
that again. Portal on 6 Wintel servers - Never again - actually the good
news is that it is going on WPS on the iSeries but again certain
performance characteristics are risky.
I think you have to be careful in using absolute terms and always remember
that some people have certain other preferences. In a lot of cases they
can be considered valid.
Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642
"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just" Abraham Lincoln
David Gibbs
<david@xxxxxxxxxx
om> To
Sent by: Midrange Systems Technical
midrange-l-bounce Discussion
s+mike.crump=sain <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
t-gobain.com@midr cc
ange.com
Subject
Re: Email on the Iseries or not
11/11/2005 09:40
AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems
Technical
Discussion
<midrange-l@midra
nge.com>
Wilson wrote:
> David doesn't like it because he can't get it to work with his
> archaic messaging board.
Totally untrue ... I dislike Domino for email because it doesn't appear
to follow the RFC standards that modern email applications are supposed
to abide by.
Mailman is far from archaic ... it's quite modern and flexible. It can
cope with a wide range of mail servers and clients ... so long as those
clients play by the same rules. Most servers & clients do. Domino has
some deficiencies in that area.
> David, for the record, ENDDOMSVR < PWRDWNSYS(*IMMED). Don't even
> imply that in order to restart Domino you have to shut off your
> iSeries.
Yes ... and that shuts down everything else your domino server is doing.
What I am talking about is isolating the email function from the rest of
your infrastructure because it is far more vulnerable to external
influence / attack.
For the record ... I also would not advocate running your mail server on
a linux partition of the iSeries. The server is not isolated enough
from your mission critical systems.
> From the way this thread is going, the suggestions have been to find
> an old clunky pc, install Linux and some open-sores email software
> and call it a day. yeah right
Nothing is as simple as that ... and you know it.
> how is that going to get backed up? oh now you need to find backup
> hardware and software. What, I can't use my DLT? Sorry no good drives
> for that old clunky pc you got there. What happens when the disk
> crashes and he's offsite? What, you didn't install RAID?? Sorry, you
> lost everything, lets start over. And next time be sure to pick up a
> UPS. Oh, I forgot maybe we may want to mirror that someday. So what
> happens when the consultant is gone, who's the customer gonna call
> when something breaks? No OS support, no hardware support, oh sorry
> didn't buy the overpriced open-source
Ok ... you obviously are against open source software ... I can live
with that. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that topic.
The same arguments you make, however, apply to ANY SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.
If you don't provide the necessary infrastructure, you probably end up
dead in the water. As most people know, there are two types of systems
in the world ... those that have failed ... and those that will fail.
As a side note ... there's absolutely no reason you can't have the linux
system running with it's core file systems mounted via NFS *FROM THE
ISERIES*. That way you have solid backup and failure protection at all
times. Properly setup, the linux system could be as transportable as a
bootable CDROM that has enough kernel code on it to boot up, start
networking, and mount the necessary file systems.
> Have you ever used Domino on iSeries??
A little ... not much. I'm not a big fan of the interface.
I'm not saying Domino doesn't have good uses ... I know a number of very
large organizations that use it heavily and are quite satisfied with
it. I just think it's not the best choice as an email system.
david
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