RE: CISC to RISC conversion of data -- MIDRANGE-L

Maybe I'm the exception to the rule (I often am), but for me... following
the roadmap caused no end of problems.

A bit more than a year ago, I went through an F35 to 610 upgrade.  Because
we not replacing our disk, the REPLACE-A-RELEASE method was the way IBM
told us to go.

About a week before the upgrade, the IBM CE that was assisting us with the
upgrade came in and ran some kind of DISK REBLOCKING utility.  It only ran
partially... but that was OK, as the utility had the ability to stop and
restart at a later time (darn nice of it, IMHO... I wish more utilities had
that ability).  After the utility was about 30% finished, I terminated it
(normally) so we could run production again.

After that point, the performance on our F35 went to the dog house in a
hurry.  We were getting 20 minute response times (NO JOKE).

IBM recommend that we complete the disk reblocking ... that should clear up
the performance problems.  No Joy.  I spent the next evening babysitting
the system while it reblocked the disk... but the performance was still lousy.

Performance didn't return to *normal* until we completed the upgrade *TWO*
weeks later (after a week of 100% unscheduled down time).

Both my boss & I almost lost our jobs over this fiasco (which, in
retrospect, would have been a blessing :).

Caveat: We were running with OEM disks that were EXTREEEMLY unstable.  In
fact, two of the HDA assemblies was INCOMPATIBLE with the 620 (EMC should
have known about that... we did ask them).

I'm not blaming IBM for the problem... they sure went to bat for us (even
after it was determined the problem was with OEM hardware) ... we had 2
CE's onsite almost 24 hours/day for a week ... plus level 2 support on the
horn at all hours.  I place the blame for the problem SQUARELY on EMC's
shoulders... they had incompatible hardware and should have told us about it.

Well, that's my horor story... I usually reserve it for halloween or for
roasting salesmen over a nice warm campfire :)

At 12:57 PM 4/7/98 , Bob Crothers wrote:
>I Agree with Kenneth's advice!
>
>And I am somebody who "knows better than IBM".  But in the case 
>of the CISC->RISC, follow the road map and everything will work. 
> Deviate, and your life will get very "interesting" on Monday 
>morning!
>
>Bob
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Kenneth E. Graap [SMTP:kgraap@clackesd.k12.or.us]
>Sent:  Monday, April 06, 1998 3:14 PM
>To:    MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
>Subject:       Re: CISC to RISC conversion of data
>
>York, Albert wrote:
>>
>> We will be converting several systems from V2R2 to V4R2.
>>
>> We need the cutover to be as fast as possible.
>
>Albert... A word of advice from someone who has upgraded several 
>systems
>to RISC.
>
>Read the CISC to RISC roadmap...
>Follow it closely....
>Do not take shortcuts....
>
>If you do this, you will have a successful conversion. If you 
>deviate from
>the roadmap, you are asking for trouble...
>
>Good luck!
>
>Kenneth
>
>--
>* *************************************** *
>Kenneth E. Graap
>Coordinator - Network Operations Center
>Clackamas Education Service District
>PO 216 / Marylhurst,  OR  97036-0216
>503 635 0551        FAX 503 635 0578
>
>"Dedicated to Excellence Through
>    Leadership and Service"
>
>kgraap@clackesd.k12.or.us
>http://www.clackesd.k12.or.us/~kgraap
>* *************************************** *
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