This being a pseudo Friday in the USA due to Thanksgiving holidays....
Does anyone have any experience with the AS/400 support in the z/196 box?
Yep, I know it is a separate processor/memory and connected somehow, in some
sort of internal network....but..
Can we share devices, like we do between LPARs. Or do we have to have
dedicated ficon/fcp connections? Can we share tape drives? Can we share
printers?
We have a site, that has an AS/400. And, of course, we are mainframe (z/890,
z/VM, soon to upgrade to z/VSE, and zLinux). And we have been looking at
upgrading the mainframe, just as a cost savings. But, as we are under budget
cuts, cost savings are out <G>. Cost money to save money. We need to spend
less money this budget year, and multi-year agreements are out. Really makes
it hard to save.
I'm thinking about the idea of combining datacenters. The people will all
remain as we still need the AS/400 Operations and Programming staff.
Operations would move here. Programming can stay there, remotely. Couldn't
close down their machine room as all their servers are there.
So the question would really be...
Cost savings in hardware (processors).
Cost savings in reduction of duplicate devices (tape drives, printers).
Cost savings in software (z/VSE of course. Is there any for the AS/400
software?)
So is there a real, bang for the buck, for an existing AS/400 shop to be
combined into a small, z shop?
Of course, we still have no money to do anything...but it may be an interesting
discussion.
Tom Duerbusch
THD Consulting
