Re: Windows Integration and Longhorn -- MIDRANGE-L

- There is no tape drive listed for your  x346 so you'll need to add that into 
the price (TWICE) too

I will agree that this is a valid point - i don't agree with the "twice"
though. We use both LTO tapes for our System i and our Windows Servers.
If we had a tape library, we could even attach both systems to the same
library.

If you have chosen an industry standard such as Ultrium then you should be OK. If you have a library so much the better. The VAST majority of the shops I work in have some low end PC tape solution supporting their servers and that technology churns every couple years.

Can you reboot the x346 from home when it locks up? You can with IXS so long as 
your i is running. Vary it off, vary it on. Very Very nice


Of course. They have a management interface for that, similar to the
ASMI/HMC. It's called an RSA II slimline adapter (priced feature,
300CHF, included in the 8000CHF sum).

Yep. And you need access to that from home. And you need to remember theuserid and password. It's nice and it works well. But it's one morething to keep secured and remember how to use. i5 integration does thispart for you under the covers.

Of course the real and true strength of Windoze (and now Linux)integration is when you get to two, three and more servers.
We're a small shop. Just one server is enough.

It sounds like for your shop you may have done the right thing. Onesolution does not fit all.

As a rule your statement on system i disk is true but it keeps gettingbetter. In addition if your current system has unused disk slots youmay find adding drives to your i is actually cheaper than the SANsolution.

Which is also what IBM does with it's BladeCenter integration strategy for the 
System i.
The blades access the system using iSCSI (formerly IXA). But entry level
SAN storage is still much cheaper than System i storage.

Unless you have high density requirements I'm not so sold on Blade yet.They are packed in tight, generate a lot of heat for a small space, andare very proprietary. Back in the day, the cables needed to connect aserver added up quickly and racks were a serious mess. Today's system xconnected iSCSI to system i (or a SAN for that matter) has two power andthree or four Ethernet. Depending on preference you may still connect aKVM (a USB and VGA or perhaps just another Cat-6) or just use the portson the front when you really need them, else Terminal Services is waybetter.

I have customers with Blade but they aren't rushing headlong to replaceall their servers with blades. Maybe that's still coming. And as you saySystem i already supports them via iSCSI.

For example, 15kRPM U320 36GB Disk for an IBM DS3200 (entry level SAN)
retails at 576.- CHF. A 36GB 15kRPM U320 Disk for a System i 520 retails
at 1632.- CHF.

Yep. I'll not argue that and I'll point it out to IBM (*AGAIN) when Inext speak with them. They are THE SAME technology and probably come offthe same MFG line. The difference is the incredibly expensive labelplaced on the top of the drive. I think it's actually gold leaf paintedwhite. :-)

Insane. Just insane. I have no idea what kind of idiot came up with this
pricing scheme. If there's one reason to drop the System i, it's IBMs

pricing.

Two Words:  BEAN COUNTERS.

 - Larry