I have to tell you all that my hopes have been renewed, my spirit
uplifted, and my faith in mankind restored.
A customer asked for assistance with a networking problem. With that
request was a 17-page document that contained:
- A table of contents with 3 heading levels of detail
- A drawing of the network, logical and physical, with IP addresses and
subnets, and MAC addresses (virtual and real). Color-coded.
- OSA card configuration and port/adapter status, with screen shots of the
OSA Advanced Facilities output.
- Queries showing software levels of z/VM and Linux
- AUTOLOG1's PROFILE EXEC and SYSTEM CONFIG
- Directory definitions
- Linux PROFILE EXECs configurations, including ifconfig and lscss
- Ping results (inbound and outbound)
- QUERY VSWITCH and QUERY NIC results
All output from CP and Linux was shown nicely pasted into frames with
easy-to-read colored backgrounds and no wrapping. Commentary was provided
with appropriate use of arrows and contrasting colors (e.g. red =
unexpected results). Boldface type was used to emphasize those pieces of
output the customer thought was relevant.
In short, a work of art that brought tears of joy to my eyes The respect
this document showed for the reader cannot be understated! (I am
thinking about placing it in the VM Hall of Fame.)
Bottom line, it enabled me to discover the problem in about 5 minutes -
the NATIVE and default VLAN on DEFINE VSWITCH had the same value.
My friend, Chuckie, whispered to me that all World-Class Systems
Programmers would undoubtedly like to know about and adhere to this new
Standard of Excellence, so I immediately thought of you all. :-) I admit
to being anxious to see how others will improve upon this standard (such
as by including chocolate)!
Regards,
Alan
Alan Altmark
Security Architect
IBM z/VM Development
