RE: 'On order only' PTFs

To be fair you were talking about PTFs that the system actually ordered
for you.  I'd say that means you need them.

Eventually everyone develops their own strategy but there's no reason
for it to be complicated.  

I would say that every production box needs to have at a minimum a cume
less than one year old and the DB2 group as well.  Depending on what
LPPs are installed you may need more.  Newer boxes at newer releases may
need HIPERs and more current cumes.  In general I try to put cumes and
groups on our Production system at an IPL after running 30 days or more
in test.  I rarely put on single PTFs.  I would not apply a TCP PTF
without an IPL unless there was no alternative.

This is what we have on Prod at V5R3:
SF99530               CUMULATIVE PTF PACKAGE C5298530              
SF99529               GROUP HIPER                                  
SF99503               DB2 UDB FOR ISERIES                          
SF99314               TCP/IP Group PTF                             
SF99298               ELECTRONIC SERVICE AGENT                     
SF99295               WEBSPHERE MQ FOR ISERIES V5.3                
SF99285               WEBSPHERE APP SERVER V5.1 (BASE/DEV. EDITION)
SF99275               WEBSPHERE APP SERVER - EXPRESS V5.1          
SF99272               WEBSPHERE APP SERVER - EXPRESS V5.0          
SF99269               JAVA                                         
SF99173               IBM BUSINESS SOLUTIONS                       
SF99099               IBM HTTP SERVER FOR ISERIES                  

I'll go out on a limb and say that there is almost never a reason to
even read an individual PTF cover letter when installing them in groups.
(Note: Disregard this if you are installing immediate PTFs to fix an
active problem.)  A PTF may supersede 50 others, all of which are
incorporated into the most current one.  If your symptom is corrected by
any but the most current PTF in the string why wouldn't you put the most
current one on?  Other PTF cover letters may not include any information
other than the ubiquitous "Integrity Problem" notation.

On the other hand, you should definitely read the Cumulative PTF Package
Instructions, especially the Defective PTF section and any special
instructions.

Last Tip:  Use the iSeries Navigator's Compare and Update Fixes function
to keep your systems in sync.  It will save you lots of headaches.

Regards,

Scott Ingvaldson
iSeries System Administrator
GuideOne Insurance Group


-----Original Message-----
date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:47:48 -0500
from: ChadB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
subject: RE: 'On order only' PTFs


Best practices are a wonderful thing from a tech perspective, but from a
management perspective instead it might look like:

So what problem were we fixing by adding these?  None?  But they caused
us
a problem?  I don't understand... ;)   Luckily, I probably wouldn't hear
that at this job.



I'm still not sure sometimes which path is better.  One part of the
problem
is that at times there are too many other irons in the fire (i.e.
Windows,
Network, etc.)  to be more proactive
and responsive to loading recent PTFs.  By the time the project load
clears
up 3-6 months later and everything is still running A-OK on the iSeries
side, it's somewhat
hard to justify knocking a piece of the puzzle out of place while trying
to
stay completely current with PTFs.

With that being said, what i'm working on right now is doing just
that...
trying to get our 3 boxes more current and matched up PTF-wise... we're
looking at moving our 800 to a 520 in a few months.  I'm not sure yet if
we'll stick with V5R3 on the new box or look at V5R4.  If we stay at
V5R3
on the new 520+, is it necessary to go to V5R3M5?  If so, what's
involved
with doing so?



 

             rob@xxxxxxxxx

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Subject 
                                       RE: 'On order only' PTFs

             Please respond to

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I tend to agree with you Scott.  Their counter argument is "if they can
run for a month or so without any problems, why couldn't they run for
all
perpetuity without any problems.  Wouldn't the ptf's then potentially
introduce new problems?"
Granted, a new MCH#### error after a ptf install is not a happy day.
But
there is the potential that you are experiencing problems, and may not
be
aware of it.  Like some of the "Integrity Problem" ptf's.  Or, let's say
a
ptf that will help you actually recover if you have a disk failure, but
failure to have this ptf, prior to the recovery, may be catastrophic.
Or
the ptf's that will better handle temporary space.

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko Services, LLC
Dept 01.073
PO Box 2000
Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





"Ingvaldson, Scott" <SIngvaldson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
02/28/2006 12:33 PM
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Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


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Subject
RE: 'On order only' PTFs






Why wouldn't you just apply these PTFs for your installed products?

I understand that out of the 1000's of PTFs released in the last 10
years or so there have been at least two that have had undesirable
effects, but do you really want to wait until a problem occurs and then
spend valuable time trying to determine what the problem actually is
before installing PTFs or would you rather be ahead of the game and
solve these problems proactively?

In my mind there is nothing worse than having to do two IPLs to get up
to snuff on PTFs before support will even help diagnose a problem.

Regards,

Scott Ingvaldson
iSeries System Administrator
GuideOne Insurance Group


-----Original Message-----
date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:38:15 -0500
from: ChadB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
subject: 'On order only' PTFs



I've got a number of PTFs in 'On order only' status for various LICPGMs
on
my systems.  For the most part, these came from Service Director
automatic
PTF orders that resulted in shipments on CD media and I have no
intention
of loading these unless a specific need comes up.  I periodically review
and load the PTFs that Service Director pulls down automatically in
electronic format, but these CDs are packed with them and I have no
desire
to review/load them unless a specific need arises.  The volume is just
too
great...

Are there any benefits/drawbacks to leaving them in that state or
cleaning
them up?  I'd like to clean them up (with DLTPTF i'm guessing, haven't
tried yet), but i'm wondering if there's a good reason to keep them in
that
state?


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