RE: need to move from monthly full save, fix apply, IPL to semi-annually

Gerald--

Our storage is on a V9000, and we can clone (flash copy) our production partition. We do that daily and run our backups from the clone.

We IPL to:

-- Apply PTFs every 2-3 months, often enough to stay current, but not risk being 'early adapters.' Our daily backups handle saving the OS.

-- Reorganize files that have too many deleted records. Yes, most files re-use deleted records, but there are some... the program logic, for whatever reason, involves mass deletes of records that never seem to get re-used.

-- Programmer requests that require a 'quiet time.'

So far (knock on wood) we've been able to schedule monthly IPLs, but, like you, we've skipped some when necessary.
We usually schedule a 7-hour window, but have been returning the system after 4-5.

Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Gerald Magnuson
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2019 11:55 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: need to move from monthly full save, fix apply, IPL to semi-annually

Our business is now at the point where Sunday morning uptime is critical.
we have been performing a full save (restricted state, savsys, savlib
*NONSYS, dlo, sav), followed by a IPL that will activate any fixes that
have been applied...

we have been "aggressive" with applying fixes, but are comfortable leaving
the system running for many months where it makes sense...

how do others perform patching and saving the OS on a twice a year basis?