RE: IBM Experience so far with new i5

I would have to echo the same sentiment. I can harken back to the V3R1
days when software quality and support quality definitely saw their
darker days.

The support we get today is awesome. Very competent people that take
ownership of the problem and are easy to work with. In fact - they
probably complain about me not being responsive enough. :-) My only
complaint with IBM support these days tends to be in the area of
entitlement. Hopefully, there aren't too many people that have problems
with that. We have run into entitlement issues with IBM hardware
support as well as IBM software support. A caveat to that is we have
never run into an entitlement gotcha with Rochester software support.

Michael Crump

Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN 47302
765.741.7696
765.741.7012 f

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-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Burns, Bryan
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 9:24 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: IBM Experience so far with new i5

IBM support is the best in the business. On many occasions the support
team member has given me his direct line phone number in case I had
follow-up questions. And what other support organization CALLS YOU back
to see how you're progressing with your problem? IBM is the only one I
know of!

I just finished a PMR with IBM which, although it was the longest
lasting PMR, was also indicative of the quality of Rochester support.
This was a Service Agent issue on a partition and required changes to
firewalls, default routes, PTF's and service agent configuration. Alan
Crane from IBM spent a couple hours on this and went as far as
connecting to our system (using "Assist on-site", IBM's form of WEBEX)
a couple times. The support on this PMR couldn't have been better.

Bryan Burns
ECHO, Inc.


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Michael Ryan
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 7:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: IBM Experience so far with new i5


Isn't that the truth? I've worked with a lot of hardware and software
providers over the years, and IBM Rochester always is a cut above. And
I get a kick when the survey people call me and ask "Based on this
service experience, will you call IBM in the future?" And the answer
is always yes...as if I can find someone else to help with a 'bowels
of the operating system' problem. IBM Rochester support is top notch.

On Dec 19, 2007 8:38 AM, <ChadB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It's kind of neat to read something like that from an existing i5

diehard..

i'm guessing you've always liked the box from the

development/programming

angle. Alot of us that administer them for running businesses love

them

also for the very reason you're describing below... the best actual

SUPPORT

in the business.




"Bradley V.
Stone"
<bvstone@bvstools

To

.com> <MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by:

cc

midrange-l-bounce
s@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject

IBM Experience so far with new

i5

12/18/2007 10:34
PM


Please respond to
Midrange Systems
Technical
Discussion
<midrange-l@midra
nge.com>






So, I've had my new 515 now for a few days. It's been interesting to

say

the least, but tonight the support I received is worth mentioning. :)
should also mention in my 20 years on the machine, I have zero admin
knowledge (well, I may have helped order a few PTFs back in the day...
that's it)

Today I was messing around with my UPS. It is only connected via USB

to my

PC.. for some reason the UPS software would run a .bat file with FTP
scripting commands in it. So, I found a bat to exe converter and

finally

think I got that to work (I tested sending a message, and that worked,

so

my
PWRDWNSYS command should work now.. plan on testing it this weekend

since

it
is live now running my website).

Anyhow, while messing around I killed power to the i5... dead in the

water.

woops. Started it back up, attention light was on... do an IPL

(rebooting

always fixes things, right?)

Nope.. attention light is still on. I remember WRKPRB... and doing

some

readingn it seems I'll need to use SST to do something... what, I have

no

idea. I can't get in.. so I search and find an article on how to use

the

panel to reset SST passwords using the LAN console. That worked, I

now can

get into SST.

So I go into WRKPRB. I find the problem (actually the same one twice,

one

from each IPL I suppose) and choose the report option.. even specified

that

machine was still working fine (option 4?). Hmmm... status changed

to

ANSWERED but that's it... 2 minutes later, my phone rings. I see

it's a

507 area code... Rochester perhaps? I answer and the tech says he

just

received my problem notification. I explain I'm a newbie, he chuckles

and

says "no problem". He then talks me through using SST to acknowledge

the

problem (which was nothing more than a loss of AC power) and then

remove

the
problem.

Kinda freaked me out with my phone ringing just minutes after the

report!

But all is well now, attention light is off, and my problem log is

clear.

I
knew it wasn't a big deal, but I can't stand something not being
"perfect"..
:) The attention light had to go off or I wouldn't sleep.

I do have to admit I was impressed. I remember back in the day

calling

support for problems and gettingn right into a developer that solved

your

problem in minutes.... nowadays I hear there is too much "front end"
problem solving tech support people and it takes a lot longer. That

is why

this really impressed me. A friendly chap from just down interstate

90

calling me and giving me assistance for a problem at 9:30pm that

wasn't

even
a big deal.

I must say, from the issues I have had, I've learned more about sys

admins

and am appreciating them more every day... :)

BTW, I did solve my reverse proxy issue I posted on the web list...

:) It

was way easier than it was originally thought and uses rewrite module
instead of reverseproxy. :)

Bradley V. Stone
BVSTools - www.bvstools.com
eRPG SDK - www.erpgsdk.com

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