On 9/2/09 5:07 PM, "Alan Altmark" <alan_altm...@us.ibm.com> wrote: > I don't think the packaging format is an issue. If people are *permitted* > to run shareware on their z/VM systems, they do.
I respectfully disagree. If there is a configuration management system in place on the system, it should be possible for ANYTHING added to the system to participate in it. Part of the reason why most of the IBM enterprise configuration management products don't work very well on VM is that most of the non-IBM software DOESN'T use the packaging system because we don't understand how to do it. It's also really annoying to change management people when we have to use an exception to get something really useful onto the system and have no way for it to show up in the system "master software catalog". > For those that can, far simpler is to put a bunch of Good Things on a > single minidisk. Then use VMFPLCD to create an envelope containing the > content. Post the envelope somewhere and the instructions for restoring > it. That's about as easy as it's going to get, I think. Easy isn't the point. Consistency is. COPYFILE is easy. COPYFILE doesn't show up in VMFINF like every other thing. Doesn't use the same maintenance tools. Doesn't use the same installation process. Can't be easily migrated using automation. Can't be interrogated remotely and fed into a CMDB, etc, etc, etc.
