Ed
You didn't respond when this topic was raised first so you may not recall how
we got here.
Radoslaw Skorupka asked the questions, "What is FFST for?" and "What would
I loose without it?" in the RACF-L list as comments while answering a question
about FFST and SAF.
I hoped simply to "move" the questions to a more suitable venue.
To get the discussion started I noted that the first question was quite
adequately answered by reading the beginning of the only relevant manual.
Not having ever been in charge of a production system but having heard
laments from those who were that, in order to present a problem to IBM, they
were sure they were going to be asked for a dump while being quite certain it
was going to be a total waste of time, I just assumed - how utterly stupid of
me! - that what FFST was designed to do was avoid this utter waste of time.
However it seems deliberate avoidance of a tool designed to eliminate this
waste of time is being used to boost the need for support staff in IBM and
thereby boost the cost of products to customers. I'm, of course, overstating
the position - but then I remember those laments!
> I guess I am one of those that never understood the need for it.
> I dove for the manuals and read them and I thought to myself this does
nothing more than what we have now.
Aren't these statements incompatible?
If FFST does what you were already doing, doesn't the fact that you spent
time and effort to do whatever it is imply that you saw a *need* for whatever
it is?
>From Shane Ginnane:
>...>I thought it was a good idea when I first saw it, ...
>From Mark Zelden:
>...> Ditto.
So it would appear to have been understood by some!
> I put it aside and decided to ask at Share What the heck was it and why do
we need it. I asked and got a non answer from IBM.
You're implying this happened about the time FFST first appeared, so it
appears that IBM did a miserable job getting, it would seem, all/any of
development, support/service and SHARE-participating gurus aware of how to
use this new tool.
> In the time since I have never been asked by IBM for anything from FFST.
As a result of being challenged on this topic which I picked up only because I
saw what might be the right questions being asked in the wrong place, I've
done some research - searching with "FFST" on the IBM web page - which
shows:
1. You need to worry about FFST - and provide the output to IBM
("MustGather") - if you are working with WebSphere MQ on platforms *other*
than z/OS (and VSE).
2. FFST in z/OS products appears to apply only to the two (or three if CSM is
included) components of Communications Server (CS) but IBM support folk,
the very folk with whom FFST was designed to interface, seem not to know
about it!
Strictly 2 is what has emerged from the questions having been asked and
provides some context for why the original questions were asked.
> I am still waiting for some IBM type to tell me wtf FFST is used/needed for.
I think I may pose the question again on IBMTCP-L in terms of why IBM
support folk for Communications Server components do not rely on FFST
information generated by the products - and possibly why more products don't
bother with it - and just maybe what NetView APAR OW54489 is all about! I
probably will not include the unexpurgated expletive!
CS development folk have been known to put their head above the parapet in
IBMTCP-L as long as the question is asked in sufficiently unequivocal terms.
Having written that, I decided to do just that!
Chris Mason
On Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:03:14 -0700, Ed Gould <ps2...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Chris,
> I guess I am one of those that never understood the need for it.
>I installed a system (iirc) in 1995 and it showd up in the install steps. I
>dove
for the manuals and read them and I thought to myself this does nothing more
than what we have now. I put it aside and decided to ask at Share What the
heck was it and why do we need it. I asked and got a non answer from IBM .
>I got back to the shop and decided to dump (not complete the install) it.
>In the time since I have never been asked by IBM for anything from FFST. To
this day I do not do anything to enable the product.
>I am still waiting for some IBM type to tell me wtf FFST is used/needed for.
>
>Ed
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