Re: V6R1

Lukas,

I think you're just going to have to accept that hardware in the iSeries
is going to be more expensive than hardware in the xSeries. So, are you
going to find a test iSeries for the same price as an xSeries? No. Does
that stop everyone? No. Does that stop a lot of people? Probably. Is
the sample representative enough? Probably. I think the Early Ship
people do a pretty good job of finding people running a variety of
applications. And with the partnerworld program that opens up even more
doors.

Stop assuming. What makes you think you couldn't send your tapes in? Did
you ask?

If you think you make enough money performing upgrades for people to
justify buying current hardware, or a test machine, then buy one.
Otherwise, be honest with the people on the first client that this is the
first one you've done and go from there.

We have such a test machine. Granted, it's a little dated and won't see
V6R1 (270). It's in the budget to be replaced for that reason alone. But
we got enough lpars that we'll start out V6R1 on some of the less
necessary ones.
Our test machine normally get's the first versions of new operating
systems. It gets the new versions of Domino. We restored it a few times
doing Y2K remediation. However, if I want to IPL it during the middle of
the day - no one notices, it's not used that much.
Expensive for most shops? Probably. Then again, so is a HA solution,
tape drives that save in a reasonable amount of time and various other
items.

Rob Berendt