Ed, I typically have a very good dialog with our CE, and there is no one else in the company he would discuss this sort of thing with. I am the one who schedules this sort of thing, not operations. IBM did not go to the "top guy", they didn't tell anyone. It looks like this notice came out in April, and we did a microcode upgrade in May, if IBM had even been aware of it they would have been able to do the Driver level upgrade in May, but they didn't. It was I that coordinated bringing microcode up to date on all our equipment (DASD, Tape, CEC) in May, but I relied on the CE to select what levels to load. I don't have time to do his job for him, and there is no one else to hand that off to, seeing that I AM the systems department (as far as z is concerned).
>>> Ed Gould <[email protected]> 8/10/2010 6:02 PM >>> (sorry if this is a dup as the first email disappeared before I wanted to send it). I always kept a dialog with IBM (and other vendors except one who will remain nameless) about items like drivers and other such "upgrades". They knew I could be counted on to see that it got done. IBM has changed (for the bad) over the years and they tend not to communicate with the customer as well as they use to. After hearing about items that needed operations involvement, I always made sure they knew what was coming down and the length of outage that would be needed to allow them to schedule "upgrades". I was good friend of the head of operations and we always met for t least a half an hour a day to discuss everything. I would ask him if he knew anything coming up that I (or the department ) needed to be aware of so we didn't try and schedule things at the same time. It was painless and it worked. IBM people I think handle it differently (and not for the good either) now days. I have got the impression that they go to the top guy and then let him decided scheduling. That does not work (at least from what I have seen) as you really need a person who communicates well and co-ordinates things (and people and departments). Upper management tends not to be detailed oriented so a lot of things seem to fall through the cracks and then all of a sudden you find you are 6 months behind in maintenance. I think I would (in your situation) go to IBM and let them know you are on their side and you can help get things done easier. I think they will be willing to try it out. But make sure you have the time needed to do this and if you do not then find someone that is in your systems department. It is way better to be proactive than reactive. Ed --- On Mon, 8/9/10, Scott Rowe <[email protected]> wrote: From: Scott Rowe <[email protected]> Subject: Driver 76 End of Support To: [email protected] Date: Monday, August 9, 2010, 3:38 PM I just got an email from my CE informing me that Driver 76 is going out of support, and that we should upgrade to Driver 79. He can't come up with any exact date. This seems like a rather vague notice to me, I thought we usually got better notice in the past. Does anyone have any further info on this? CONFIDENTIALITY/EMAIL NOTICE: The material in this transmission contains confidential and privileged information intended only for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, please be advised that you have received this material in error and that any forwarding, copying, printing, distribution, use or disclosure of the material is strictly prohibited. If you have received this material in error, please (i) do not read it, (ii) reply to the sender that you received the message in error, and (iii) erase or destroy the material. Emails are not secure and can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. You are deemed to have accepted these risks if you communicate with us by email. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html CONFIDENTIALITY/EMAIL NOTICE: The material in this transmission contains confidential and privileged information intended only for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, please be advised that you have received this material in error and that any forwarding, copying, printing, distribution, use or disclosure of the material is strictly prohibited. If you have received this material in error, please (i) do not read it, (ii) reply to the sender that you received the message in error, and (iii) erase or destroy the material. Emails are not secure and can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. You are deemed to have accepted these risks if you communicate with us by email. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
