I'm not sure this is a problem with only VM. Having "grown up" with
old-school IBM tech manuals and CMS HELP, I still find *IX "man pages"
to be cryptic on many occasions. But *IX is taught extensively in
schools so that "newbies" arrive with a working knowledge.
As for getting from one-version to another, a very wise man (Vito!)
taught me early in my sysprog days, that Rule Number 1 is "make sure you
can always get back to yesterday". This was almost trivial with a
working knowledge of VM due to its modularity. We were almost always
able to install maint/upgrades one component at a time. Made it great
for troubleshooting/backout. You are correct, Marcy, that most vendors
don't document the common VM maintenance tricks -- and for that matter,
is GENIPLER ever going to be "standard" ?? But that said, at least the
facilities exist.
With Windows servers, I find myself often having to update multiple
components at once. Backing off a patch is iffy at best. Talk about
mixing code and config !!The only "sure bet" is a good image restore.
And the Windows Registry design is a nightmare IMO.
Fortunately virtualization is on its way. It's still lacking I/O
performance to keep it from hosting many prime-time apps, but I'm told
the next generation Intel processors will address this by including
features that sound an awful lot like DAT. Geez we're almost back to the
1970s! This won't address the MS complexities per se, but will make
backoffs an awful lot less painful.
Marcy Cortes wrote:
performance data, .. etc) and the fact that the vendor doc isn't exactly
geared for newbies either (e.g. CA :). None of the software seems to be
good at telling you how to get from one version to another (very few
products tell you that you can use alternate minidisks and a quick edit
of the directory entry to flip --- or they are even worse and mix their
code and configuration stuff on the same minidisks, trusting that you'll
want to do the upgrade by running some exec and hoping for the best
instead of allowing you to have test copies).
