Patty, With whomever is selling you the z9 BC, "try it." See if you can reach an agreement to test two or three different configurations (maybe 1, 2, and 3 CP configurations centered around the capacity level you're aiming for). For example, see if you can get a "Capacity On Demand" contract in place to let you bump up.
I think (if I'm remembering correctly) you have a 2066-001 (z800 with one full speed CP). That's 32 MSUs, by the way. The equivalent 1-way z9 BC is around a 2096-R01 (27 MSUs). (Yes, the MSUs are lower for the same machine capacity.) But I'm assuming you're going to increase the capacity a bit since you're pegging the system for several hours, so the next 1-way is an S01 (30 MSUs). The S01 would have about 12 or 13 percent more capacity than your current z800, typically. But you can also try the N02 (2-way), which is also 30 MSUs. On my chart it looks like the S01 is an "upgrade" from the N02 (I think), so you can buy the N02 plus a priced option to upgrade to an S01 (and beyond, probably). And see how that goes, assuming my guess about where you want the capacity to be is correct. The N02 v. S01 looks like it'd be as perfect a test for you as possible. I suspect most sellers would be happy to arrange something like this under reasonable terms. Well, that's an educated guess anyway. I would also guess that "grow" is good and "shrink" is bad, so you'd want to buy the "smaller" machine first, test it, use On-Off Capacity On Demand to switch to the other "bigger" configuration, test that, then turn the capacity back off if you prefer the first one. So in my example I think that's N02 first and S01 second, but that could vary depending on what point you choose. (That's also assuming you can morph an N02 to an S01 via COD -- I'm not thoroughly familiar with all those permutations. But I think that works.) If I'm right, though, this is going to be very easy for you to validate in your exact real world conditions. It sounds like the IBM-MAINers think an N-way could be very useful to you, so I'd strongly consider going through this sort of validation exercise. I think the standard OOCOD contract language is all you'd need. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
