Our month end process has now been automated to run over night , we too run a 24/7 plant and found this the best was - it only takes about 30 mins downtime and affects only a few users .
Regards,
x
-----Original Message-----
From: BPCS-L <bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Rob Berendt
Sent: 24 September 2018 19:38
To: BPCS ERP System <bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L] Month End
We simply make the time to run month end. We have one person from IT who runs all of our month ends. While we are a 7x24 shop there are busier times than others.
As a 7x24 hour shop we use High Availability software to replicate all of our data from our production box to our backup box. We used to use Mimix but now we are using Quick-EDD. We perform all of our nightly backups on our backup box. We used to use "save while active" to do that on our production box before this solution. SWA is a joke. Either you still kick everyone off to get a "check point" or you do a "ragged save while active" which, in theory means that databases may not be completely in sync. For example one transaction may have been posted to order detail but not to the order header during the backup. We opted for the "ragged save while active" before the backup box because we did not want to kick users off.
Every quarter we switch over to the backup box. It takes more time to quiesce operations than it does to do the actual switch. Then we do upgrades, ptf's, etc. Then we switch back. Been doing this for years.
This next is important.
Management was very concerned about the amount of time of the outage during month end. We upgraded from spinning disks to SSD's, and purchased
Resource
ID Option Feature Description
5770SS1 42 5117 HA Journal Performance
for the sole purpose of reducing the time it took to run downtime.
Actually the option 42 had the bigger impact. But I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say, that unless you're using replication software (like Mimix or Quick-EDD) most people won't need this as ERPLX does not journal by default. But if you journal I do not consider option 42 optional. Amazingly huge performance impact. To test it we put it on the day before month end so that we could run 3 month ends on the 70 day trial period.
STRSQL
values days(date('2018-11-30')) - days(date('2018-09-30')) returns 61 days. It was such a big impact we didn't wait the full 70 days, besides, if we had it might have expired while finishing the paperwork.
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: "Billy Waters" <bwaters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 09/24/2018 01:48 PM
Subject: [BPCS-L] Month End
Sent by: "BPCS-L" <bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
We are moving in the direction of 7/24 production and shipping operation.
The month end close process is currently performed by the IT department on
Sunday / month end with no BPCS users on site. If you are a 7/24 operation
could you share your process for month end close? Any ideas or
suggestions on moving to a 7/24 operation in relation to Month End closing
would be appreciated.
Billy Waters
Mount Olive Pickle Company
midrange.com
