Re: Microsoft .NET frontending IBM i

Ah, not really true. As of V6R1 the database stuff is entirely integrated to Visual Studio. The drivers work all the way back to V5R1.

Maybe that would be good fodder for you to write an article about
because I haven't seen that yet :-)

Deploying an IIS server is a little more complex, but it's also not rocket science. You can teach anyone to deploy an app on IIS in 60 minutes or less :-)

That's a little bit what scares me - Microsoft has *had* to make it
simple/easy because it is a recommended practice to only run a single
significant application on a single server.

Is that a good approach ? Depends on who you talk to. I actually like keeping the iSeries one layer back whenever possible.

And why is that? When I ask people that question I rarely get an
answer other than "security by obscurity".

Why isn't the LPAR reasoning the same ? Seems that way to me. I want an isolated environment for whatever reason. In fact an LPAR is usually just a big disk image just like a Vmware image that shares system resources. And isn't it called virtualization ? :-)

Because we have "mini-lpars" (i.e. activation groups, jobs and
subsystems) within IBM i so we don't need to go the route of spinning
up a new LPAR just to run a single app. There are very different
reasons to have LPARs on IBM i vs. Windows and much of it has to do
with "application toe stepping fear" on the Microsoft side.

Have you ever used Vmware in a real production environment ?

Me? No, but others in Krengel Tech have.

We have 10 VMware Server instances on a single Intel piece of hardware and it does much more than 10 individual servers could accomplish standalone.

What do you mean it can do more?

VMware is awesome and anyone who tells you different just hasn't used or implemented it properly.

I am not saying it isn't cool. I am contesting the need to do it in
the first place and the subsequent maintenance that needs to go into
them.

Sure you can if that's where you only skillset lies and you desire an all iSeries approach and you're not comfortable with other platforms.

Crap. Another mold I don't fit into :-) I consider this something
every shop should live by: When modernizing, first pursue at fairly
great length the tools that are currently available in your
programming language for the OS you run on. If your need can't be met
then at that point move on. Most people fail on the first part and
jump right of the side of the ship.

As far as considering me one-sided, I guess I feel I take a more
reasonable approach based on where a company has invested their
dollars (talking about IBM i/RPG shops specifically). I use Java
where it fits, but otherwise I make great effort to keep things in RPG
because it is less intellect to maintain for the company.

Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/