RE: operating system upgrade

Hi Wes

Another point to consider - your new machine almost certainly won't support
V5R3, therefore your upgrade will not be of the simple unload/reload
variety. So if you upgrade to a new machine you will need to factor in doing
an OS upgrade around the same time either as a separate upgrade or as part
of a previous to current release migration. You'd need to consider the
support issues this raises as well.

I've done a number of V5R3 to V5R4 upgrades with a few different ERP's
involved and without exception they have been pretty straightforward, at
worst I had to load a couple of PTF's. Getting to V5R3 was a different story
in some cases due mainly to the SQL changes...

If you can get to V5R4 now then your hardware migration will be much simpler
and you will have support on your "from" OS as well. If possible get the
V5R4M5 microcode on there as well to make you upgrade even simpler.

You can't predict what your economic circumstances will be in 12-18 months
so it's no certainty that you will do the upgrade then - better to do what
you can now.

Regards
Evan Harris

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Wes Reinhold
Sent: Friday, 6 February 2009 5:45 a.m.
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: operating system upgrade

We have software support. Due to the ERP and other packages we have, I
am reluctant to upgrade when every thing is running fine now. IBM
informs me that they will support in a limited fashion. We have not had
any software issues in the last 4 years. My goal (like everyone else, I
suppose) is to make it through the next 12 months or whenever, till we
get a new machine.