Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
Minor typo. If year 1970 insert hundred before users, else insert thousand. In context, it's obvious that the author assumes that the only users our glass house mainframes supported were on 3270's. (Side bets that Mr. Wallis is old enough to have ever _seen_ a 3270, anyone?) -Chip- On 2/22/08 05:45 Alan Ackerman said: http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/januaryfebruary08/features/18963p3.aspx said: The typical organization might have one technician for every two or three users. Hunh? When was this ever true? Alan Ackerman Alan (dot) Ackerman (at) Bank of America (dot) com
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
Alan, Not in my life time anyway. Bill Munson VM System Programmer Office of Information Technology State of New Jersey (609) 984-4065 President MVMUA http://www.marist.edu/~mvmua Alan Ackerman wrote: http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/januaryfebruary08/features/18963p3 .aspx said: The typical organization might have one technician for every two or three users. Hunh? When was this ever true? Alan Ackerman Alan (dot) Ackerman (at) Bank of America (dot) com
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
You know, I've been thinking about this and I just don't think I buy this article, or this hoopla that we've heard for several years about the aging mainframer and how to replace them and how scarce they are. I just don't see that many job openings for MVS or VM. And I sure don't see skyrocketing salaries, in fact IBM just cut salaries of a lot of mainframers 15%. Now that is supposed to be offset by overtime but those that I've talked to indicated overtime isn't allowed. Personally, I think this is just a way to get more h1b visas approved. If MVS or VM sysprogs were such a hot commodity, salaries would be rising. Thoughts? MA
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
I too feel the same way that you do about this article. You may have a point there on the H1B visas, I hadn't thought much about it. Jim Dodds Systems Programmer Kentucky State University 400 East Main Street Frankfort, Ky 40601 502 597 6114 From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mary Anne Matyaz Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:20 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers You know, I've been thinking about this and I just don't think I buy this article, or this hoopla that we've heard for several years about the aging mainframer and how to replace them and how scarce they are. I just don't see that many job openings for MVS or VM. And I sure don't see skyrocketing salaries, in fact IBM just cut salaries of a lot of mainframers 15%. Now that is supposed to be offset by overtime but those that I've talked to indicated overtime isn't allowed. Personally, I think this is just a way to get more h1b visas approved. If MVS or VM sysprogs were such a hot commodity, salaries would be rising. Thoughts? MA
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:19:42AM -0500, Mary Anne Matyaz wrote: You know, I've been thinking about this and I just don't think I buy this article, or this hoopla that we've heard for several years about the aging mainframer and how to replace them and how scarce they are. I just don't see that many job openings for MVS or VM. And I sure don't see skyrocketing salaries, in fact IBM just cut salaries of a lot of mainframers 15%. Now that is supposed to be offset by overtime but those that I've talked to indicated overtime isn't allowed. Personally, I think this is just a way to get more h1b visas approved. If MVS or VM sysprogs were such a hot commodity, salaries would be rising. Thoughts? I agree there don't seem to be many openings for systems programmers. I don't hear a lot about new blood coming in, but SOMEBODY has to be filling in for every sysprog that retires. Maybe services companies like PSR are taking over. Perhaps the large shops are promoting from within. Now that I think about it, I don't see many ads seeking operators, either--a prime source of new systems talent. I'd hate to think this is all about expanding H1-Bs, but you could be right. -- May the LORD God bless you exceedingly abundantly! Dave Craig - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.' --from _Nightfall_ by Asimov/Silverberg
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
Have a very close friend out of work, several others struggling to make a living freelancing. All could write an assembler program while attending a soccer match and the code would be PERFECT. Years and years of mainframe experience. The guy completely out of work has no prospects in sight, the others are barely holding on with contract work that's few and far between. None seek ridiculous salaries or charge ridiculous rates. If there's all these jobs, where ARE they? Gotta agree with Mary Anne, it doesn't add up... Mary Anne Matyaz wrote: You know, I've been thinking about this and I just don't think I buy this article, or this hoopla that we've heard for several years about the aging mainframer and how to replace them and how scarce they are. snip
X Disk in SFS
Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all th e new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS . I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox
Re: X Disk in SFS
Hi, Fox. My suggestion would be to create a directory named, say, .TOOLS and have it owned by MAINT (MAINT.TOOLS). Put whatever common tools, Rexx execs, etc. into it, and make sure all user can access the .TOOLS directory by issuing the proper SFS GRANT commands. Add a VMLINK .dir MAINT.TOOLS statement to the PROFILE EXEC file of each user that needs access to the tools directory. That's it. Good luck. Fox Blue wrote: Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all the new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS. I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox -- DJ V/Soft z/VM and mainframe Linux expertise, training, consulting, and software development www.vsoft-software.com
A Network oddity
I have something that seems very odd to me. I have this z/LINUX machine that is on a vswitch and has an IP address of 1x2.xx.x.192. One time when I do a NETSTAT ARP I get this: Link ETH0: QDIOETHERNET: 020041000101 IP: 1x2.xx.x.192 The next time I do it I get this: Link ETH0: QDIOETHERNET: 00096B1A8CF8 IP: 1x2.xx.x.192 How can the MAC address change? The first one appears to be virtual (I don't know where it comes from) the second appears to be a real OSA.. Or is this normal? Any ideas?
Re: X Disk in SFS
We use the P-SFS instead of X-DISK. The name is up to you. Ours is called: VMSYS:$CMSLIVE.SYSTEM. The access is done in an exit of SYSPROF calling SYSXPROF EXEC. We but it under DIRControl so we can put it in an address space. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fox Blue Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:04 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: X Disk in SFS Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all the new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS. I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox This message w/attachments (message) may be privileged, confidential or proprietary, and if you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, do not use or share it and delete it. Unless specifically indicated, this message is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any investment products or other financial product or service, an official confirmation of any transaction, or an official statement of Merrill Lynch. Subject to applicable law, Merrill Lynch may monitor, review and retain e-communications (EC) traveling through its networks/systems. The laws of the country of each sender/recipient may impact the handling of EC, and EC may be archived, supervised and produced in countries other than the country in which you are located. This message cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. This message is subject to terms available at the following link: http://www.ml.com/e-communications_terms/. By messaging with Merrill Lynch you consent to the foregoing.
UNIVAC: mainframe related.
If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
Re: X Disk in SFS
You've got some catchin' up to do. 8-) I would not use MAINT as a file space. Reason being, when new releases of VM come out, you'll have to worry about backing your stuff up and reloading it. Taken literally, no need to set up another Virtual Machine (I take this to mean install VM again and run it 2nd level or perhaps in an LPAR) either. You can define another VM user, and define SFS space to it. Then grant access to that space, those users who need it. I've glossed over the details and can provide them if you like. Steve G. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fox Blue Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:04 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: X Disk in SFS Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all th e new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS . I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox
Re: X Disk in SFS
The grant, itself, is not so onerous GRANT AUTH dirid TO PUBLIC (READ NEWREAD and GRANT AUTH * * dirid TO PUBLIC (READ will handle it for all users, current and future, to read the files. That said, the dataspace idea is the best for performance. However, it should be noted that dataspace-enabled directories should be reasonably stable as each update to the directory has the potential of causing a new dataspace to be created. One other thing to be aware of is that dataspaces are not meant for huge volumes of data. The maximum per dataspace is 2GB. Regards, Richard Schuh From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kris Buelens Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:23 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS For the best performance, you could make it a DIRECTORYCONTROL directory. This works a bit like a minidisks: only one R/W user at a time and only a GRANT for the whole directory. To see updated files a reACCESS of the dirid is required. The FILECONTROL directories requires the users to have a GRANT on the dirid and on each of the files.
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
In the early days of TSO, the early 70s, a lot of companies only had 2 or 3 terminals that were shared by many. That would limit them to only 2 or 3 concurrently logged on users. Other than that, the author either misstated what was intended or could have pulled the number from someplace where the sun doesn't shine. Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Ackerman Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 9:46 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe/januaryfebruary08/featu res/18963p3= .aspx said: The typical organization might have one technician for every two or three users. Hunh? When was this ever true? Alan Ackerman Alan (dot) Ackerman (at) Bank of America (dot) com
Re: X Disk in SFS
For the best performance, you could make it a DIRECTORYCONTROL directory. This works a bit like a minidisks: only one R/W user at a time and only a GRANT for the whole directory. To see updated files a reACCESS of the dirid is required. The FILECONTROL directories requires the users to have a GRANT on the dirid and on each of the files. A DIRECTORYCONTROL directory can be placed in a VM dataspace, this way the files can be resident in storage, one copy for all users. The CMS users must then have MACHINE XC to get the best profits. I'll send you a document (a bit old though) that explains more of this. 2008/2/22, Stracka, James (GTI) [EMAIL PROTECTED]: We use the P-SFS instead of X-DISK. The name is up to you. Ours is called: VMSYS:$CMSLIVE.SYSTEM. The access is done in an exit of SYSPROF calling SYSXPROF EXEC. We but it under DIRControl so we can put it in an address space. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fox Blue Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:04 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: X Disk in SFS Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all the new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS. I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox This message w/attachments (message) may be privileged, confidential or proprietary, and if you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, do not use or share it and delete it. Unless specifically indicated, this message is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any investment products or other financial product or service, an official confirmation of any transaction, or an official statement of Merrill Lynch. Subject to applicable law, Merrill Lynch may monitor, review and retain e-communications (EC) traveling through its networks/systems. The laws of the country of each sender/recipient may impact the handling of EC, and EC may be archived, supervised and produced in countries other than the country in which you are located. This message cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. This message is subject to terms available at the following link: http://www.ml.com/e-communications_terms/. By messaging with Merrill Lynch you consent to the foregoing. -- Kris Buelens, IBM Belgium, VM customer support
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
I agree, Thomas...it documents an era when men were men and women were data entry clerks;-) Huegel, Thomas wrote: This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G. -- DJ V/Soft z/VM and mainframe Linux expertise, training, consulting, and software development www.vsoft-software.com
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
No wonder it used vacuum tubes... -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dave Jones Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. I agree, Thomas...it documents an era when men were men and women were data entry clerks;-) Huegel, Thomas wrote: This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G. -- DJ V/Soft z/VM and mainframe Linux expertise, training, consulting, and software development www.vsoft-software.com
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers (or is this a restart of the XEDIT thread?)
Some die-hards just have to keep kicking the same dead horse :-) At the height of our OV days at USAir, we had over 8100 registered OV users who were managed by 2 part time administrators. At any given time, only one part time administrator was needed; we had two to cover vacations, illness, etc. Your memory is still good Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob van der Heij Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:47 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 6:45 AM, Alan Ackerman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The typical organization might have one technician for every two or three users. Hunh? When was this ever true? In their dreams... unless you consider the gang of advanced Windows users to be their own engineers because they spend a fair amount of their time keeping their workstation (and that of their colleagues) running. From what I remember of a PROFS-based office environment, this would be at least 2 orders of magnitude off... But so all threads on our mailing list lead to the same... Imagine such a packed system programmer terminal room; you would *have* to agree on standards for XEDIT so that they don't go Excuse me, is this your prefix area or mine? Rob (it's Friday again)
Re: Backup CMS files
This sounds like a good way to go...what platform are you running TSM on? We are running it under AIX. Thanks, Alyce -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Romanowski, John (OFT) Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 5:21 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Alyce, We use TSM for file-level backups of SLES 9 SLES 10 guests. Works well for us. Having file-level backups we can leave the Linux servers up 24 x 7 and never have to shut them down to get a static image backup. And since the guests use SAN disk and not dasd we can't backup their disks from z/VM anyway. John This e-mail, including any attachments, may be confidential, privileged or otherwise legally protected. It is intended only for the addressee. If you received this e-mail in error or from someone who was not authorized to send it to you, do not disseminate, copy or otherwise use this e-mail or its attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Austin, Alyce (CIV) Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:55 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Are you using TSM for file level backups? If so, are you happy with it? Thanks, Alyce -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Ackerman Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 7:34 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Not really. If you are willing to take a Linux guest down, you can back up the full minidisks with VM:Backup or the corresponding IBM product, but you can only restore a full minidisk. If you want to do file level restores on Linux, or backups while Linux is up, you will have to use Linux based tools, such as Netbackup or Bacula or TSM. We have been struggling with this question ourselves. We licensed a CA product called Brightstore Archive Bakup (BAB) two years ago. After two years of fighting with it, we just decided to delete it. It never worked reliably. The reason to choose BAB was that it will backup to mainframe tapes (such as our STK Silos). The other Linux products want to use midrange tapes instead. You might want to ask about Linux backups on the LINUX-390 list instead of this list. See http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?linux-390. On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:52:49 -0700, Brent Litster [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: One thing I forget to mention is that we will be running Linux instances under z/VM as well. Do the CA and IBM products address Linux files as well? Brent Litster Zions Management Services Company 2185 South 3270 West West Valley City 84119 (801) 844-5545 [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 12:16 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files I have to agree with Ed. Some human had to write the code does it really matter who paid his salary? It also depends on what you are backing up. If your z/VM is used almost entirely to host other operating systems and very little ever happens in CMS one solution may be proper, but on the other hand if you have millions of lines of source code (or production files) in CMS you may want to consider a more sophisticated approach. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ed Zell Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 1:06 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Relying on home-grown, unsupported tools is probably not something anyone wants to do when considering a long-term career. :-) Oh I wouldn't go quite that far. We have been running our home grown CMS backup system for about 19 years now. It isn't too complicated, just a series of LINK, ACCESS, VMFPLC2 DUMP commands. And it is very reliable too. We keep our yearly generations for 10 years and I can still easily recover a single file from any minidisk on those tapes. And only 143 lines in the EXEC, with 20 or so of them being comments!! I do agree that given the proper dollars in the budget, a purchased, supported package would be a much better choice. But back in the VM/SP 6 days, a CMS backup solution was very expensive for a little bitty 8 MIP, 4381 shop. So I did what I had to do, write some code and save some money. It isn't perfect, but as I said before, the price was right. Ed Zell Illinois Mutual Life (309) 674-8255 x-107 . CONFIDENTIALITY: This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information, and unauthorized disclosure or use is prohibited. If you receive this e-mail in error, notify the sender and delete
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
On the other hand, many companies have their heads buried in the sand when it comes to this issue. They acknowledge that there is a problem (add TPF to the list of OSes) and say that they are going to do something about it. Guess what, they never do. They see an increase in personnel costs that makes them put it on the back burner. Eventually, they get hit by the retirement or other loss of a key player and either muddle through with existing personnel, hire outside contractors, or outsource. As far as the demand for VM sysprogs is concerned, the increase in the number of VM licenses has not been met by a corresponding increase in demand for VM sysprogs. I attribute that to the fact that VM has become nearly shrink-wrapped over the years. It takes far less sysprog time to support a system now than it did 30, or 20, or even 10 years ago. The smaller companies look on it almost the same as they do the OSes for x86 based systems - it is part of an appliance. They count the number of x86 systems they have and justify staff based on the numbers. The have only 1 zSystem, so hiring staff to support its OS is not justifiable. What, VM crashed!! Call the Maytag repairman. Regards, Richard Schuh From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mary Anne Matyaz Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 7:20 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers You know, I've been thinking about this and I just don't think I buy this article, or this hoopla that we've heard for several years about the aging mainframer and how to replace them and how scarce they are. I just don't see that many job openings for MVS or VM. And I sure don't see skyrocketing salaries, in fact IBM just cut salaries of a lot of mainframers 15%. Now that is supposed to be offset by overtime but those that I've talked to indicated overtime isn't allowed. Personally, I think this is just a way to get more h1b visas approved. If MVS or VM sysprogs were such a hot commodity, salaries would be rising. Thoughts? MA
Re: Backup CMS files
Alyce, running TSM on AIX -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Austin, Alyce (CIV) Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:23 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files This sounds like a good way to go...what platform are you running TSM on? We are running it under AIX. Thanks, Alyce -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Romanowski, John (OFT) Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 5:21 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Alyce, We use TSM for file-level backups of SLES 9 SLES 10 guests. Works well for us. Having file-level backups we can leave the Linux servers up 24 x 7 and never have to shut them down to get a static image backup. And since the guests use SAN disk and not dasd we can't backup their disks from z/VM anyway. John This e-mail, including any attachments, may be confidential, privileged or otherwise legally protected. It is intended only for the addressee. If you received this e-mail in error or from someone who was not authorized to send it to you, do not disseminate, copy or otherwise use this e-mail or its attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Austin, Alyce (CIV) Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:55 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Are you using TSM for file level backups? If so, are you happy with it? Thanks, Alyce -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Ackerman Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 7:34 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Not really. If you are willing to take a Linux guest down, you can back up the full minidisks with VM:Backup or the corresponding IBM product, but you can only restore a full minidisk. If you want to do file level restores on Linux, or backups while Linux is up, you will have to use Linux based tools, such as Netbackup or Bacula or TSM. We have been struggling with this question ourselves. We licensed a CA product called Brightstore Archive Bakup (BAB) two years ago. After two years of fighting with it, we just decided to delete it. It never worked reliably. The reason to choose BAB was that it will backup to mainframe tapes (such as our STK Silos). The other Linux products want to use midrange tapes instead. You might want to ask about Linux backups on the LINUX-390 list instead of this list. See http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?linux-390. On Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:52:49 -0700, Brent Litster [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: One thing I forget to mention is that we will be running Linux instances under z/VM as well. Do the CA and IBM products address Linux files as well? Brent Litster Zions Management Services Company 2185 South 3270 West West Valley City 84119 (801) 844-5545 [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 12:16 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files I have to agree with Ed. Some human had to write the code does it really matter who paid his salary? It also depends on what you are backing up. If your z/VM is used almost entirely to host other operating systems and very little ever happens in CMS one solution may be proper, but on the other hand if you have millions of lines of source code (or production files) in CMS you may want to consider a more sophisticated approach. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Ed Zell Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 1:06 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Backup CMS files Relying on home-grown, unsupported tools is probably not something anyone wants to do when considering a long-term career. :-) Oh I wouldn't go quite that far. We have been running our home grown CMS backup system for about 19 years now. It isn't too complicated, just a series of LINK, ACCESS, VMFPLC2 DUMP commands. And it is very reliable too. We keep our yearly generations for 10 years and I can still easily recover a single file from any minidisk on those tapes. And only 143 lines in the EXEC, with 20 or so of them being comments!! I do agree that given the proper dollars in the budget, a purchased, supported package would be a much better choice. But back in the VM/SP 6 days, a CMS backup solution was very expensive for a little bitty 8 MIP, 4381 shop. So I did what I had to do, write some code and save some money. It isn't perfect, but as I said before, the price was right. Ed Zell Illinois Mutual Life (309) 674-8255 x-107
Re: X Disk in SFS
I agree with not using a maintenance id, MAINT, or even the canned SFS servers. But this depends a little upon how varied the site is from vanilla VM. But you sound like you want to get your feet wet also, so a little playing around is called for. Your original question does not tell what the tools are for or where they come from, but I'm supposing that they are local, not IBM or other vendor. Even if they are, I wouldn't put files available to production users into a directory owned by MAINT (I wouldn't put the production S-disk on a minidisk owned by MAINT either ;-). You can then separate what gets upgraded when system changes occur. Makes for a better test environment too. So, I would create a global filepool called 'MYCOMPNY' in a server id called VMSFS001, and create a filespace within that called 'PUB', and create a directory under that '.TOOLS'. Then I would 'GRANT AUTH MYCOMPANY:PUB.TOOLS TO PUBLIC (READ NEWREAD', and finally modify SYSPROF to 'ACCESS MYCOMPNY:PUB.TOOLS X'. I might be inclined to change the access filemode to something right before the S-disk, maybe O, or P. BTW, there is no need for the PUB filespace to exist as a user. In fact, I would avoid it. So, while I would create another VM, it would be to host a new SFS filepool for production. It would be global, though your site might not care. This should safely get your feet wet. That is, you can play with the SFS server to your hearts content, until you put it in SYSPROF. By then, you should have all your backup and recovery capabilities in place. You should probably create an SFS server called VMSFS002 for a filepool TSCOMPNY for testing. You get to pick better names. Others have posted about DIRCONTROL and XC and an exit in SYSPROF, all good points, so you can see there are issues to read up on before you put that ACCESS in SYSPROF. Another issue is where to put the startup of VMSFS001; early in the IPL process! Last, and maybe most important, be sure you know how you are doing your backups and recovery. There are different (vendor) solutions, and a thorough understanding is important because SFS is different than minidisks. Maybe practic recovering from VMSFS002 to VMSFS003 (named RECOMPNY). - Original Message - From: Gentry, Stephen [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:15 AM Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS You've got some catchin' up to do. 8-) I would not use MAINT as a file space. Reason being, when new releases of VM come out, you'll have to worry about backing your stuff up and reloading it. Taken literally, no need to set up another Virtual Machine (I take this to mean install VM again and run it 2nd level or perhaps in an LPAR) either. You can define another VM user, and define SFS space to it. Then grant access to that space, those users who need it. I've glossed over the details and can provide them if you like. Steve G. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fox Blue Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:04 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: X Disk in SFS Dear all, I am currently busy to understand the capabilities of SFS. Started in the late 80ies as system programmer we had VM/SP but there was no SFS. Since one year I am working on a z/VM installation and have to catch up with all th e new facilities in VM. I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS . I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? Should it be a directory in the file space of MAINT or should I define an extra Virtual Machine for that? What would be the most common way of achieving this? Thanks very much in advance. Fox
Re: X Disk in SFS
Not necessarily. You can enroll MAINT in the user file pool as well as in VMSYS. The user file pool would not be touched by the new releases. If that were done, MAINT would be perfectly acceptable. Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS You've got some catchin' up to do. 8-) I would not use MAINT as a file space. Reason being, when new releases of VM come out, you'll have to worry about backing your stuff up and reloading it.
Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers
Don't forget that the elimination of sysprogs has long been an IBM goal, because that's what our managers told them was a priority issue for our companies. Remember the OCO wars? At least the VM community didn't cave. Mike Harding EDS VM National Capability 134 El Portal Place Clayton, Ca. USA 94517-1742 * phone: +01-925-672-4403 * Fax: +01-925-672-4403 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal) Note: For 2008, I am off on Fridays with odd Julian dates and Mondays with even ones. From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 7:28 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: Article: In Search of Mainframe Engineers Yes, Salaries would be rising, so would job opennings. I blame the VM developers at IBM, if they didn't produce such a great product we might need twice as many sysprogs. Years ago it used to take me anyplace from 6mo. to a year to install a new release of the operating system. Now it takes less than 1 month.
Re: X Disk in SFS
We do a loop of QUERY RESOURCE for the all the filepool names. Similar idea. i.e.CP QUERY RESOURCE MLLOGS -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Schuh, Richard Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:17 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS Definitely early in the sequence. SFS is mission critical here. I have the AUTOLOG2 machine wait after it AUTOLOGs the SFS servers until it can access a directory in each critical file pool before it continues with the rest of the AUTOLOGs. If it cannot access a directory after a given amount of time, it aborts with messages to the operator to call for help. So far, there have been no calls. Regards, Richard Schuh Another issue is where to put the startup of VMSFS001; early in the IPL process!
Re: X Disk in SFS
I am wondering what would be best approach to define an X Disk in the SFS . I mean, normally one puts the files accessible to all users on a mini disk that everybody can access. How can you do that with SFS? The way we do it is to define a new filepool called TOOLS:, define a user called TOOLS and enroll it in the TOOLS: filepool. GRANT AUTH TOOLS:TOOLS. TO PUBLIC ( NEWREAD, GRANT AUTH * * TOOLS:TOOLS. TO PUBLIC ( READ, and then write the shared files into TOOLS:TOOLS. from a admin userid. The advantage to a new filepool is that it can be shared between multiple systems via IPGATE, and an upgrade to the IBM-supplied bits of SFS can't accidentally remove it. The VMSYSxx: filepools cannot be shared (it's hardcoded) and usually get regenerated with each new release of VM. We maintain TOOLS:TOOLS. on one system, and by sharing it across our other VM systems, get some maintenance simplicity. The SFS administration manual will help you with the steps for defining a new filepool.
Re: A Network oddity
Huegel, Thomas wrote: How can the MAC address change? MAC addresses are programmable. -- Jack J. Woehr# Hipsters believe that irony has http://www.well.com/~jax # more resonance than reason. http://www.softwoehr.com # - Robert Lanham
Re: X Disk in SFS
Hello Kris, Could you send me that doc too? Ed Martin 330-588-4723 ext 40441 From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kris Buelens Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:23 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS For the best performance, you could make it a DIRECTORYCONTROL directory. This works a bit like a minidisks: only one R/W user at a time and only a GRANT for the whole directory. To see updated files a reACCESS of the dirid is required. The FILECONTROL directories requires the users to have a GRANT on the dirid and on each of the files. A DIRECTORYCONTROL directory can be placed in a VM dataspace, this way the files can be resident in storage, one copy for all users. The CMS users must then have MACHINE XC to get the best profits. I'll send you a document (a bit old though) that explains more of this.
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
Glad you all enjoyed it. The film makes comment about using mercury for memory. Can anyone explain to me how that worked? Thanks, Steve G. From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:03 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
Re: X Disk in SFS
What you say is true. Respectfully, for newbies it could be confusing seeing something with MAINT in the name. Most newbies learn quickly that MAINT is the su and to treat things associated with MAINT with respect. Regards, Steve G. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Schuh, Richard Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:47 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS Not necessarily. You can enroll MAINT in the user file pool as well as in VMSYS. The user file pool would not be touched by the new releases. If that were done, MAINT would be perfectly acceptable. Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS You've got some catchin' up to do. 8-) I would not use MAINT as a file space. Reason being, when new releases of VM come out, you'll have to worry about backing your stuff up and reloading it.
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
I don't know, but the environmentlist would go nuts if they tried that today.. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:28 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. Glad you all enjoyed it. The film makes comment about using mercury for memory. Can anyone explain to me how that worked? Thanks, Steve G. _ From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:03 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [ mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU ]On Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
Re: X Disk in SFS
Should they not treat all with respect? I wasn't advocating the use of MAINT, just pointing out a fallacy in a statement. Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:21 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS What you say is true. Respectfully, for newbies it could be confusing seeing something with MAINT in the name. Most newbies learn quickly that MAINT is the su and to treat things associated with MAINT with respect. Regards, Steve G. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Schuh, Richard Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:47 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS Not necessarily. You can enroll MAINT in the user file pool as well as in VMSYS. The user file pool would not be touched by the new releases. If that were done, MAINT would be perfectly acceptable. Regards, Richard Schuh -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: X Disk in SFS You've got some catchin' up to do. 8-) I would not use MAINT as a file space. Reason being, when new releases of VM come out, you'll have to worry about backing your stuff up and reloading it.
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
Could have been as simple as the use of mercury switches to represent bits. Regards, Richard Schuh From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:27 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. I don't know, but the environmentlist would go nuts if they tried that today.. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:28 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. Glad you all enjoyed it. The film makes comment about using mercury for memory. Can anyone explain to me how that worked? Thanks, Steve G. From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Huegel, Thomas Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 12:03 PM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
See here for explanation of the Univac I, including a description of the mercury delay line memory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_I (Google is your friend.) Gentry, Stephen wrote: Glad you all enjoyed it. The film makes comment about using mercury for memory. Can anyone explain to me how that worked? Thanks, Steve G. *From:* The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Huegel, Thomas *Sent:* Friday, February 22, 2008 12:03 PM *To:* IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU *Subject:* Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related. This is a MUST SEE for everyone (especially the windoze weenies that think computing started somewhere around 1985) Four stars. -Original Message- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Gentry, Stephen Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 10:03 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: UNIVAC: mainframe related. If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2fURxbdIZs Steve G.
X Disk in SFS
Dear all, Thank you very much indeed for your great contributions and hints on this issue. I appreciate them very much. And I must say that I am very impress ed about this mailing list. It will help me really to improve my knowledge o n z/VM. Thanks a lot. Fox
Re: UNIVAC: mainframe related.
I was going to say that my grandkids could show me how to watch this, but then I noticed a msg on that You Tube screen saying The URL contained a malformed video ID. Anyone with a solution? Jim Gentry, Stephen wrote: If you haven't seen this yet, you'll get a kick out of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dj2fURxbdIZs Steve G. -- Jim Bohnsack Cornell University (607) 255-1760 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
