Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
At 17:52 -0400 on 10/29/2011, John Gilmore wrote about Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?: There is a piece of police lore which has it that 0300 local time, when almost everyone is asleep, is the best time to arrest someone in his home. I remember a movie set in France where one of the scenes involved the Police wanting to arrest someone in their home late at night but being thwarted by a law (or regulation) that set hours during which they could not enter someone's home to perform an arrest. While they had the house surrounded and were waiting for the ban to expire, the suspect escaped in a balloon. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Anne, I do not remember specifics. As it's been 40 years but we had a nasty sort issue one quarter the software group had installed a new sort that we found out that wouldn't allow us to sort on a half byte (4 bits). We had a system that didn't have the sign on numerical fields (packed unsigned) to save dasd space. We had to jury rig the sort to sort the fields correctly. That was the closest we ever came to not opening at 8 AM. Ed On Oct 30, 2011, at 6:45 PM, Anne & Lynn Wheeler wrote: > ps2...@yahoo.com (Ed Gould) writes: >> John, >> Way back in the '70's I used to work on a online savings system. At >> that time all banks were closed on weekends. It was great as we had >> test time a plenty. We ran into a time crunch was every quarter we had >> to calculate interest before 8 AM. We had zero allowance for >> problems. From close of business till 8 AM it was intense. > > re: > http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011n.html#64 Maintenance at two in the > afternoon? On a Friday? > > most card processing backends are "frozen" this time of year until > possibly mid-january (transaction rates ramps-up until x-mas and then > some returns) > > -- > virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
ps2...@yahoo.com (Ed Gould) writes: > John, > Way back in the '70's I used to work on a online savings system. At > that time all banks were closed on weekends. It was great as we had > test time a plenty. We ran into a time crunch was every quarter we had > to calculate interest before 8 AM. We had zero allowance for > problems. From close of business till 8 AM it was intense. re: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2011n.html#64 Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday? most card processing backends are "frozen" this time of year until possibly mid-january (transaction rates ramps-up until x-mas and then some returns) -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
John, Way back in the '70's I used to work on a online savings system. At that time all banks were closed on weekends. It was great as we had test time a plenty. We ran into a time crunch was every quarter we had to calculate interest before 8 AM. We had zero allowance for problems. From close of business till 8 AM it was intense. Ed On Oct 29, 2011, at 4:52 PM, John Gilmore wrote: > There is a piece of police lore which has it that 0300 local time, > when almost everyone is asleep, is the best time to arrest someone in > his home. > > An obvious corollary is that system maintenance should be done when > the local time is 0300 everywhere. > > John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO > Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Lol, I used to have system time(test) at 4:00am ...in NYC ... Scott J Ford Software Engineer http://www.identityforge.com From: Uriel Carrasquilla To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2011 2:36 PM Subject: Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday? > An obvious corollary is that system maintenance should be done when > the local time is 0300 everywhere. Not a bad idea unless you happen to be the one doing the maintenance half awake. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
> An obvious corollary is that system maintenance should be done when > the local time is 0300 everywhere. Not a bad idea unless you happen to be the one doing the maintenance half awake. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
There is a piece of police lore which has it that 0300 local time, when almost everyone is asleep, is the best time to arrest someone in his home. An obvious corollary is that system maintenance should be done when the local time is 0300 everywhere. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
That may well be. In that case, and being of more-or-less common sense, I'd try to schedule my maintenance when the fewest customers would be affected, without regard to such old-fashioned notions as "It's mignight here. Good time to do it." Rick -- Mike Schwab wrote: Maybe the system is in China or India, where it would be and early Saturday Morning? On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Steve Comstock wrote: Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Linda Mooney wrote: Hi Steve, A very quick perusal of their careers page shows that they are looking foe someone with Bachelors Degree in Business Administration or Information Technology •ITIL certifications •1 year of experience in ITIL processes •2 years of experience in Application development •Knowledge of ITIL process and procedures •Experience managing outsourced providers in the delivery of technical services (i.e. contractors) •MVS/CICS/DB2 skills, no scripting necessary. •Proficient knowledge of mainframe environment including z/OS including basic mainframe tools and navigation So maybe the "down for maintenance" was more of an OOPS! notice of boat anchor dragging? Looks like they might need some serious training on that mainframe - they don't seem to know how to use it properly. Linda - A big "AMEN" to that, Linda. Rick -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
st...@trainersfriend.com (Steve Comstock) writes: > Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance > with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I > called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the > system. Regular weekend maintenance. > > At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using > mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should > teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system > keeps running! we were doing (IBM's) HA/CMP ... this is old post about early jan92 ha/cmp cluster scaleup meeting in Ellison's conference room http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/95.html#13 within a few weeks, the cluster scaleup is transferred, announced as ibm supercomputer and we were told we couldn't work on anything with more than four computers ... prompting us to leave a few months later. some old ha/cmp cluster scaleup email http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/lhwemail.html#medusa two of the other people at the Ellison meeting also leave and join small client/server startup responsible for something called "commerce server". we get brought in as consultants because they wanted to do payment transactions on the server; the startup had also invented this technology called "SSL" they want to use; the result is now frequently called "electronic commerce". Part of the effort was figuring out how to use "SSL" for the browser/webserver payments (we also had to audit all this companies selling "SSL" domain name digital certificates) as well as transactions between webservers and the payment gateway (sits between the internet and payment networks). For no-single-point-of-failure, the payment gateway had multipe connections into the internet and the webservers (talking to payment gateway) had to support multiple DNS A-records (translated domain name to multiple different ip-addresses). However, I didn't have final sign-off for the browser support ... and could only recommend that they implement multiple A-record support. They said it was too complex. I gave tutorials, they said it was too complex. I provided them example client code from 4.3Tahoe, they said it was too complex (it was more than year later before they supported multiple A-record support). An early commerce server was major sporting goods operation that was doing national football tv advertisement on sundays ... and were expecting big upswing in traffic during half-time. This was when major ISPs still scheduled maintenance on Sundays. Even though, their server had multiple connections to different parts of the internet ... if the ISP router for the first IP-address in the DNS record was down for maintenance ... it would effectively have the webserver off the air. in any case, there can be dozen's of components between a browser and backend processor that holds the account record. backend systems holding account records still are typically mainframes ... but they can have all sorts of non-mainframe intermediate components between the backend mainframe and any internet webafied interface. the configurations I would put together were no-single-point-of-failure ... even for pure web ... but others may have not been so careful. While still at IBM doing HA/CMP ... I had also coined marketing terms "disaster survivability" (to differentiate from disaster/recovery) and "geographic survivability". They then asked me to do section for the corporation's continuous availability strategy document ... but it got pulled when both Rochester (as/400) and POK (mainframe) complained they couldn't meet the requirements. misc. past posts mentioning availability http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/submain.html#available go out and try a point-of-sale transaction on the card ... it will typically go through components that are frequently pure legacy (although increasing percentage are transitioning to internet for point-of-sale ... even with backend still mainframe). "off-peak" for many web components also tend to different than backend ... with web-use spiking during non-normal working hrs (weekends and off-shift when people are mostly not at work). -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Maybe the system is in China or India, where it would be and early Saturday Morning? On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Steve Comstock wrote: > Well, I just tried to do some online credit card > account maintenance with my Capital One card, and > got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called > tech support and they said they were doing maintenance > on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. > > At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if > they are using mainframes for their online / web based > work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use > mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps > running! > > Makes you wonder about staying with them. > -- > Kind regards, > > -Steve Comstock > The Trainer's Friend, Inc. -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
On 28 October 2011 16:29, Steve Comstock wrote: > Well, I just tried to do some online credit card > account maintenance with my Capital One card, and > got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called > tech support and they said they were doing maintenance > on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. > > At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if > they are using mainframes for their online / web based > work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use > mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps > running! > > Makes you wonder about staying with them. Of course it may not be 2pm on Friday wherever their maintainers are located. It may be a perfectly reasonable time in the middle of the night... Tony H. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Hi Steve, A very quick perusal of their careers page shows that they are looking foe someone with Bachelors Degree in Business Administration or Information Technology •ITIL certifications •1 year of experience in ITIL processes •2 years of experience in Application development •Knowledge of ITIL process and procedures •Experience managing outsourced providers in the delivery of technical services (i.e. contractors) •MVS/CICS/DB2 skills, no scripting necessary. •Proficient knowledge of mainframe environment including z/OS including basic mainframe tools and navigation So maybe the "down for maintenance" was more of an OOPS! notice of boat anchor dragging? Looks like they might need some serious training on that mainframe - they don't seem to know how to use it properly. Linda - Original Message - From: "Steve Comstock" To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 1:29:58 PM Subject: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday? Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-393-8716 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our new tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
-- Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. - ALMOST anything is possible without disruptions to production work. It just takes careful planning and a little forethought. We did it on a regular basis at Clearing. Even replacing a CPU power supply! Rick -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
If you've seen the Red Alerts, maybe they added a CF with > 64 channels. Chip Grantham | Ameritas | Sr. IT Consultant | cgrant...@ameritas.com 5900 O Street, Lincoln NE 68510 | p: 402-467-7382 | c: 402-429-3579 | f: 402-325-4030 Steve Comstock Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List 10/28/2011 03:31 PM Please respond to IBM Mainframe Discussion List To IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu cc Subject Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday? Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-393-8716 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our new tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html *** This message may contain confidential information intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is legally privileged. If you are not the addressee, or the person responsible for delivering it to the addressee, you are hereby notified that reading, disseminating, distributing or copying this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message by mistake, please immediately notify us by replying to the message and delete the original message immediately thereafter. Thank you. *** -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Re: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Probably not a mainframe system. When I was working at EDS we had some unix folks who pulled the same trick on a production system. Boy, the air sure turned blue! :-) Leslie Turriff State of Missouri Information Technology Services Division -Original Message- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Steve Comstock Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 15:30 To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday? Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-393-8716 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our new tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
Maintenance at two in the afternoon? On a Friday?
Well, I just tried to do some online credit card account maintenance with my Capital One card, and got the message 'System Unavailable'. I called tech support and they said they were doing maintenance on the system. Regular weekend maintenance. At 2:00 on a Friday afternoon? Does anyone know if they are using mainframes for their online / web based work? Sheesh! Someone should teach them they can use mainframes and do maintenance while the system keeps running! Makes you wonder about staying with them. -- Kind regards, -Steve Comstock The Trainer's Friend, Inc. 303-393-8716 http://www.trainersfriend.com * To get a good Return on your Investment, first make an investment! + Training your people is an excellent investment * Try our new tool for calculating your Return On Investment for training dollars at http://www.trainersfriend.com/ROI/roi.html -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
