V5R1 CONTINUES TO THROW SOME USERS FOR A LOOP -- MIDRANGE-L

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Although Rochester is expected to announce V5R2 in just a few short
months, it still hasn't ironed out all the wrinkles in V5R1,
according to some users, who continue to complain of gotchas in the
new release.

Rochester and some others in the industry consider V5R1 to be a
highly stable release, especially when you take into account the
magnitude of enhancements that went into it. In the trenches,
however, you can still find skepticism. "I've worked with IBM for 35
years," says Don Kennedy, IT operations manager at Brenntag. "V5R1
is the worst I've ever experienced." For him, the August upgrade
spurred 70-hour workweeks and the need for midday IPLs two or three
times a week. "Our whole network is TCP/IP, and that's where the
problems really seem to lie," Kennedy says. IBM dealt with an
IP/AnyNet problem, but a second problem remains unresolved, putting
major kinks in productivity. "The printers on the TCP/IP network
just quit working for no reason," Kennedy says. "IBM suggests PTFs,
we load them, some problems go away, but others don't. It continues
to be a nightmare."

Lack of adequate documentation is throwing other users for a loop.
"Some of what was done for the enhancements made them a liability
rather than an asset," mainly because IBM failed to provide users
with the know-how needed to take advantage of them properly, says Al
Barsa, president of Barsa Consulting.

For example, passwords are now required not only for Dedicated
Service Tools (DST) but also for System Service Tools (SST) -- a
security measure added with V5R1. Users can breathe a bit easier
knowing they're better protected against unauthorized system
meddling, but befuddled administrators can find themselves locked
out. "What IBM didn't tell [users] in any release documentation is
that old passwords would be case-sensitive [with V5R1]," Barsa says,
though they hadn't been in past releases. "After three tries with no
luck, a user's password is revoked," leaving him or her without
access and on the horn to system support, he says.

IBM insists information about enhancements is available for the
taking, if users would just grab for it. "It's imperative that
[users] closely read the 'Memo to Users' and other related
publications prior to updating," says iSeries manager Rob Berendt.
"Several people have done the upgrade without reading and gotten
into serious trouble."

And for information not included in memos, IBM says users should
take the initiative and resort to other iSeries channels. The change
made to password protection may not have actually been documented in
release materials, but because it was such a sought-after
enhancement, it was highly publicized prior to release.
-- Jill R. Aitoro, Industry Reporter, iSeries Network

This story has been adapted from its original form on the Web.
Go to http://www.iseriesnetwork.com/nwn/story.cfm?ID=14019
for the complete story.
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