Tweet
Newer names for the same box. Just bigger and much faster. And some more expensive. You know IBM can't leave a good name alone. When the competition calls it old/antique out dated, they change the name hoping to attract new buyers.
-
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Ha! I should have known. OK, so besides bigger and faster, there is nothing special that the new box can do? Like make coffe and clean up your office? Thanks, I'll do some reading on it. -
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Depending on the environment you will be in and how long since you have been in an iSeries environment. From an Adminstration point of view a few changes pop into my mind around:- [*]Linux and AIX[*]Security & Audit[*]Spoolfile Management[*]Workload Management[*]Performance[*]Availability[*]Recoverability[*]Database[/list]
Comment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Papi55 wrote: > Ha! I should have known. OK, so besides bigger and faster, there is > nothing special that the new box can do? Like make coffe and clean up > your office? Some might consider the use of the Power/4 and Power/5 CPU's as special. The use of PCI cards instead of the SPD cards for I/O could be considered special. The move from memory cards to DIMMs is significant. Rack mount capability is kinda special. I don't believe there was anything inherently special about the change of the name to the iSeries other than an attempt to align the naming of IBM's computing lines: xSeries, pSeries, iSeries, etc. BillComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
It's still the usual list of new features you get with a new release. So far they have done an excelent job of keeping the old, while coming up with new things. We have one across the river that backs up our realtime trasactions as they happen. The theory is that if our main system goes, we have the data over there. As I understand it, if we have a problem that takes our our main machine, the network conections would be difficult enough. We still have twinax that can't connect from one machine to the other. It is true though, that the new machines do a lot more than they used to. To a lot of shops, a lot of these features are meaningless. We have no unix/linux machines, and as far as I know, no one has given us a reason to get any. For a lot of us, these features are a lot of flufComment
-
Comment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
The real question is what OS/400 Version was the last one you used to work with. That will point to the new options on the new one. MQ Series, Lotus Notes, WebSphere Development ToolSet that includes all compilers and PDM. Along with the options for Mail Server, Http Server and other Unix capabilities. LPAR - First level with CPU partitions, then LPAR on single partition with primary machine, and the latest one, up to 254 partitions including AIX and Linux partitions. IASP - New option for ASP's, that can be connected to other iSeries for fail over situation along with other options. Operations Navigator - A lot new options with SQL - support on this Clients (not all of them will and are supported on Green 5250 Screen). JAVA .Comment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
The last version I worked with to a meaningful degree was V3R2 (the first was V1.R2) Since then I have worked on 4.1 and 5.2, but just enough to know that the commands and general structure had not changed much. My ignorance lies mostly along the lines of new hardware, LPAR (I know the concept and AFIK it seems to be the same principle used in the PC world, with which I am familiar), and anything else that is simply too new for me to know that I DON'T know :-) FWIW, I am (was?) certified as a System Specialist up to OS V3R7 and V4R1. But I didn't just have "book knowledge" so I feel confident that I can manage the OS. If you had to interview a new hire, what questions would you ask? I think those types of questions would definately help me on my way. Thank you all for your great replies.Comment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. You say you've worked on V5R2 enough to know that the general structure of the box had not changed since V3R2. That's not exactly true. Right off the bat, I'd have to say that the IFS was the single largest change. Lots of stuff happened there, most having to do with the ability to interact cleanly with other file systems and servers. From command and APIs to access stream files to support for a whole slew of Unix-like commands, the IFS is now a great environment for porting just about anything. ILE is another huge change. The ability to easily compile modules in multiple languages and have them call one another is a huge difference. Activation groups and service programs make application development a much more sophisticated venture. Java support is overwhelming. I don't know how many people realize the work that goes into getting Java to work on the iSeries, but it's pretty incredible. In any case, the JVM for the iSeries is pretty spectacular, as is the ability to instantiate Java objects and invoke their methods directly from HLLs such as RPG. You can also call RPG from Java. Those are just a few of the areas where things have changed. JoeComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Joe, he said his take was that commands and general structure had not changed. I think shared folders to IFS and CRTPGM to CRTBNDPGM are not conceptual leaps. A JVM is a JVM. Give me a break. rdComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
..."general structure of the box had not changed since V3R2". That's not exactly true...I'd have to say that the IFS was the single largest change Joe, the IFS file system was delivered in V3R1 (predates V3R2.) All other file systems reside under the IFS, since V3R1. Also, Ralph, because of this, shared folders to the IFS was a big leap, because it was much more than just shared folders. ChrisComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
Ralph, first, I wasn't asttacking the guy. I just meant that he had probably not worked on the areas where all the changes had occurred. Next, the IFS and the old QDLS are light years different, whether it's the IMPF support, the API support, or the Unix-like command support (not to mention long names, case sensitivity, authority, save/restore and performance). CRTPGM to CRTBNDPGM is indeed a GIGANTIC intellectual leap if you understand everything that's going on underneath. CRTBNDRPG simply allows you to shortcut alot of the complexity, but in its default format it also misss all the features. By your logic, because you can code RPG II style in RPG IV that means there are no conceptual leaps between the two. Finally, the iSeries JVM is incredible. Just the EBCDIC support is enough to make the iSeries JVM different from all others. But I'm not going to go into the many areas where the OS/400 JVM is, in my mind, far superior to a generic JVM, especially since some of those features are going away soon anyway as the i5 adopts the standard IBM JVM. One thing we'll lose for sure: adopted authority. JoeComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
You're right, the IFS was there, Chris. But I didn't use it for anything until we starting mucking about with Java and WebSphere, somewhere in the V4 area. I think that's true for a lot of people. And since Papi had not worked extensively with the machine since V3R2, it was reasonable to assume he hadn't done a lot with it. JoeComment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
If you had to interview a new hire, what questions would you ask? I think those types of questions would definately help me on my way. I mostly tend to ask open questions like...so a dump of some of the things I would be asking. (From the context of the post I assume its more administration then programming ) "How would you go about improving our system availability ? How would you work with our auditors to audit the environment. How do you keep up to date on the technology. What are the criteria you use to make a decision of when and how to put applications or sub-applications into different LPARS. How would you support one of our development teams who need SQL access from their application to an OS/400 application ? What strategy would you take to get up to speed with any new enhancements that may benefit our organisation ? How do you see service programs and bind modules affecting the SDLC ? Describe how you would manage a change to a module that resides in a service program, including testing. What alternatives could you present to web enable an existing application.Comment
-
Help, I'm a dinosaur!
That's a shame, Joe. An example of where OS/400 superior technology is ignored in the race to the bottom of a common denominator. The OS/400 JVM would have had a significant technological advantage in its background garbage collector had IBM not donated this achievement to the Java community for all JVM's. Kudos to IBM for that. rdComment
Comment