Re: remote 520 questions (more) -- MIDRANGE-L

I didn't mean to imply system was indestructible. But,
conference-call-from-hell had system as less reliable then windoze. I just
sat and listened. Not politically correct (or in my best interest) to
inject anything. This remote 520 is plugging along. May be an accident
waiting to happen - no cache battery, nobody much looking at QSYSOPR, no
hardware maintenance. At least local still has maint. CE called me
because 520 called home about cache battery. Which was only at warning,
but still... nobody much looks at QSYSOPR here either. I do WRKSYSSTS and
WRKDSKSTS just in case something >might< show that CE does not immediately
hear about. When disk failed, system contacted IBM. But number supplied
was forwarded (used to be computer operator). The forwarded location is a
system-wide help desk. Knew nothing about the 520. almost a miracle I
connected with CE. On cache battery, he skipped calling the supplied
number and jus called me.

Lousy about the hospital. For many reasons. Communication is important.
A guy in New Zealand got a very unpleasant surprise. Vendor sent a letter
to CEO about product retirement. CEO tossed it. Months later, the guy who
should have received said letter got news he had to migrate to new system
in an insanely short time. Don't remember the details, and not relevant.
Just extremely nasty amount of work in too short a time period. Somethin
like that might have been a factor in your hospital issue as well.

John McKee

On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 11:58 AM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As much as we like to think our favorite system is indestructible the
truth is it isn't. Sure with Raid 5, adequate backups and whatnot you're
doing pretty good. Again, that system isn't saving those spool files, but
other than that...
However, catastrophes can happen. Even on this system. I know there are
members of this list who know of systems that lost more than one drive
when they were raid 5 protected and had to reload. Each of my Power 8's
have already experienced a drive loss.

Here's one from my experience. Local hospital (McCray Memorial,
Kendallville IN). Three of my children were born there. It was a short
walk from my house. Only building on the lake inside of town. Rest is
all park and campgrounds. They experienced a catastrophic data loss. They
were not running any forerunner of IBM i but that still doesn't mean
catastrophic data loss couldn't occur on IBM i and it's forerunners. No
adequate backup. My wife caught a temporary job there rekeying data. To
no avail. Hospital went bankrupt. They razed it to the ground and built
a library where it used to stand.
The big chain hospital built the new hospital out on the edge of town. Of
course they destroyed the woods and pond where I once duck hunted. They
may wonder why their grounds is always covered with a few hundred geese.

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

From: John McKee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 01/09/2015 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: remote 520 questions (more)
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Thanks. One two hour conference call (think theme from Gilligan's Island,
with small change) dealt with possibility/probability of systems failures
because no hardware support was paid for. Not just IBM stuff. They acted
like the system will immediately fail solely because maintenance contract
was dropped. The remote 520 has been sitting essentially unused for two
years. Hospital was forced to a new system back then, and then forced
onto
yet another system. I can't imagine how messed up things are at that
place.

Issue was whether the remote v5r3 would retain spool data. Talk somehow
got directed to system reload - but if only one drive failed - and it was
noticed and attended to, there would not be an issue. They appear to
think
system is going to self-destruct. From what I have seen, that would be
more likely for the new and improved system.

John McKee

On Fri, Jan 9, 2015 at 11:09 AM, <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I can't speak for others but we often can't remember everyone's setup.

Let

me see if I can figure this out. You have two machines. A local and a
remote. The remote is a 520 running V5R3. The local is also a 520 but
it's running V5R4.

And you asked if the remote loses a drive if there might be any data

loss.

If it only loses ONE drive then there shouldn't be any data loss. I'm
going to assume that you are not using the hot spare option. After that
drive fails you really need to replace the drive. Well, if the
decommisioning can be measured in under a week after the disk failure

then

it's a business decision as to whether or not it's an acceptable risk.

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

From: John McKee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 01/09/2015 11:37 AM
Subject: remote 520 questions (more)
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

I was asked mor questions.

As part of the (in)famous "decommissiong", we continue to find issues.

For

example, I am looking at an output that has 171423 files. There are

other

queues with a large number as well, but probably not as many. Cache
battery is gone.

Since we recently had cache battery and hard drive replaced on local
system, I feel confident (maybe foolishly?) that this isn't an issue,

but

I
was asked. If a remote drive craps out - it is in a RAID set, is there
any
potential data loss? They are keeping things in output queues because
there is no alternative.

They need to keep the content, which brings up the related question, and

I

am thinking no easy answer here. Remote is v5r3. Can the spool files

be

converted to PDF? I am cringing at the thought of doing this for 171423
or
even 11,736 files. But, I have to ask. Does SPOOLTOOL have this
capability?

Due to large outques and I don't know how much actual junk, if

SPOOLTOOLS

could do conversion to PDF (again, on v5r3 system), could it be

installed

without pushing Dasd over the edge? System is at 88.5142 of 317.1G.

I created a user profile on local 520 (v5r4) with same user name and
password as my profile ob the remote system. Still could not open a DDM
file. Same error and reason code - 17. Maybe there is an exit program
involved, but command to look at exit programs has slipped away from
active
memory. Maybe it is just file authority. My login is tied to a group
profile so when I sign on, I have needed authority to access files.

Maybe

whatever job provides DDM service needs that authority - if so, what
profile is that?

I deeply appreciate your patience and assistance. This whole process is
rapidly approaching the looney stage.

John McKee
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