Short takes on DB2 resources, IBM PureSystems, IDAA, Destination z and IBM Tape turning 60

It's been a while since I had some short takes. Sometimes I'm making a bookmark thinking 'I'm going to blog about this'. But then, it's often too short, too little, just a link, but still, interesting enough to mention. So here we go.

• Susan Visser (also on Twitter as @susvis) writes an excellent blog on DB2 resources. The focus : "Build your Skill on Information Management : books, certifications, tutorials, and more". And here's an very interesting post on Skills Resources for DB2 for z/OS Enthusiasts containing magazines, books, eBooks, Twitter, Redbooks, blogs, events, certification material, communities . . .  

• Just some pictures this one : Roger Luethy with his Storage CH Blog directs us towards a peek inside the new IBM PureApplication System. Go have a look over here and . . . watch your step !

• On a somewhat more serious note is a blog post on Dancing Dinosaur about the relation between the newly announced PureSystems and zEnterprise : 'PureSystems Joins zEnterprise Hybrid Family'. When to use zBX, when to use PureSystems, how are they related, do I not end up with 2 separated hybrid worlds, indeed all very interesting questions that Alan Radding is trying to answer. Just one small quote : "Looking ahead, IBM already is planning zBX support for the next generation z and promises to more tightly integrate the zEnterprise with PureSystems".

• What about IDAA ? Well, Willie Favero blogs about enhancements to the IDAA (IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator) in this post. The enhancements are due for this summer and they are quite interesting : IDAA will e.g. be updated to allow an incremental update. Now I find that great news since "this also means that the data in the Accelerator can be continuously updated, giving queries an almost real time copy of the data". Also the capacity of the IDAA is raised from 128TB up to 1.280TB. you can find more information over here in an article of Alan Meyer in the IBM Data Management Magazine.

• I mentioned the tips and techniques contest on the Destination z site earlier. Well, here are the finalists. Have a look at them and decide which one is your favourite. Then go over to the voting page where you can cast your vote until next Friday. You should do it, because for the moment it's a head to head race between two of the contestants. You might cast the decisive vote.

• Last but not least we have a special anniversary this month : IBM tape has turned 60 ! Here's a brief history of it. Or you can have a look at several storage blogs or at the IBM site itself. To me the titles up there summarize it very well : "Tape is an essential component of today’s storage infrastructure" and "60 years of innovation – and counting".
  I still know what was the first tape I ever came across in my career, about 25 years ago. You know why : I kept one of those when they disposed of them in favour of some shiny, brand new 3480s. So here it is ! (I'm not even sure it's IBM material. Anyone ?).
  So, happy anniversary to IBM tape !

 

And . . . as I always say, do check them out !

Take the Destination z Tips and Techniques CHALLENGE!

Want to win a z114 LEGO model ?
Got a great tip or technique to share ?
Then take a look over here.

I admit it, though my blog is mentioned on Destination z, I don't come on the site very often. I don't want to sound sceptical but it's really a tough job to start up a new mainframe community or community site. There's already the GSE and SHARE communities, there's the Listserv discussion lists, which may look old-fashioned but every one is using them and they're very effective.

But here's a nice initiative that may lure you to the Destination z site :

Got a great tip or technique to share? (...) A LEGO model of an IBM zEnterprise 114 could be yours if you post the winning submission! To enter the Destination z Challenge, community members can simply login and post their best mainframe tip or technique in the z & A forum thread below. Not a member of Destination z? Join now! Entries will be accepted through May 4. At that time, three finalists will be chosen by an expert panel and voted upon by Destination z members. The top vote-getter will be announced in June! See our complete contest rules.

Now, you're tempted, aren't you ? You with all your experience have lots of tips to share. Even without having a look at the tips that are already there, you just know you have a better one, don't you ?

So, just have a look. It's over here. And if you haven't registered yet, you can do so over here.
You never know you can even learn something from the others. And while you're there, take a look around !

FAQs

zFavorites is a really nice place to start looking for information on System z. You can find many starting pages for hardware and software, product documentation and manuals for any z/OS release, download pages, Redbooks, Linux information etc. Since I was looking for some FAQs I thought I'd take a look over there, but no, only one FAQ on zLinux. So, where can I find them, apart from googling for them ?

FAQs about mainframe servers and related products
Here you can find the FAQs about the System z and zSeries hardware (from z890 to z10), the specialty engines, Server Time Protocol, Operating Systems (z/VM 5.4, but also already including one on Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7 FAQ) etc.

Techdocs FAQs
Techdocs has a specific FAQs section with lots of specific technical issues on e.g. FICON Directors, the Communications Controller for Linux, TSM and many more.

Some other FAQs
Here are some other FAQs spread across the IBM site

• XML Toolkit for z/OS FAQs
• zAAP FAQ
• Specific z/VM FAQs : one for every z/VM release and some others on RSCS 3.2, TCP/IP for z/VM
• z/VSE specific FAQs
  
• Workload Manager FAQs : this page has links to various FAQs, listed by topic.
• IBM IRMM (Integrated Removable Media Manager) FAQ
• IBM Destination z
• Academic initiative FAQ

Five Year March to Simplification ?

Last october IBM announced its Five Year March to Simplification with an investment of $100 million "to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system (...)".
Yesterday there was a press release that you might very well call the first visible result of this initiative : 'IBM Simplifies the Mainframe With New Consolidation and Security Software'. The subtitle indicates that this is an initiative that's intended to go beyond the scope of current mainframe shops. IBM "Launches "IBM Destination z" to Speed Migration to the Mainframe".

The announcement is twofold. Firstly, there's the 'software simplification' part, mainly focusing on enterprise management and security. It's e.g. the Consul suite announced as the Tivoli zSecure V1.8.1 suite. There's 'IT Value Based Analytics (ITVBA)' which is some kind of charge-back management ("relating IT costs to business services") software. And there's once again the positioning of z/VM as THE virtualization platform. I must admit, at first sight I'm not immediately seeing the benefit of these in terms of simplification towards "managing and administering a mainframe system".

Secondly, there's IBM Destination z. IBM calls it "an online meeting place (available at www.ibm.com/systems/destinationz) for customers, systems integrators, IBM Business Partners, software vendors and academic institutions to connect with each other and with mainframe experts, access development tools and the latest mainframe solutions. IBM Destination z provides links to platform economics -- such as total cost of ownership tools -- and case histories that reveal financial and business benefits (...)".

Again the focus is much more on 'simplifying' your 'IT environment' in terms of consolidating distributed systems to the mainframe platform and offering information to the SMB companies about the assets of using the mainframe platform. It's a valuable initiative, that's for sure. But I personally expected the simplification initiative to cover other grounds. I expected to see some real simplification in terms of mainframe system administration like e.g. the promised new versions of 'msys for setup' and 'msys for operations' - as was announced at first. You can read some quotes of that first announcement over here. I have the impression IBM is starting off with the second step of the process, which would've been lots easier and more attractive if they had first implemented their initial promises. Correct me if I'm wrong !