Cheryl's List #44 -
June 20, 2000
 |
- Welcome to Cheryl's List! If you obtained this from someone else and
would like your own FREE copy in the future, see the information at the
end of this document. Past issues of Cheryl's List can always be obtained
at http://www.watsonwalker.com/archives.html.
- 1. We're Off to China!
- A keynote address from Linda Sanford, general manager of IBM's Storage Subsystems division
- Expansive program offerings across nine topic areas relevant to large enterprise systems professionals
- A special program track dedicated to privacy and security, specially geared toward e-business considerations
- A one-day "Health Check" Workshop (additional fee required) on e-business security
- Unique opportunities to interact directly with top IBM developers
- Deeply-discounted professional certification testing
- A comprehensive products and services exhibition with nearly 100 participating vendors
- Nightly professional networking events and much more
2. Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter 2000, No. 3 Summary
3. SHARE Conference
4. CMG Conference
1. We're Off to China!
Tom and I are leaving tomorrow for three weeks in China: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, the Yellow Mountain, Xian, and Beijing. We're VERY excited! We won't be taking our computer along, so don't expect any technical replies until I return in mid-July. (BoxScore users, please be sure that technical questions are routed to support@watsonwalker.com, where they will be forwarded to me.)
2. Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter 2000 No. 3 Summary
The 2000, No. 3 TUNING Letter issue is just being completed. Electronic subscribers should receive their TUNING Letter within the next few days. Printed issues should be mailed by the end of the month.
Linux on S/390
One of the most important management items in this issue concerns the
availability of Linux on the S/390 platform. Why is this important to you?
Because Linux is a free operating system and is the fastest growing operating
system being distributed on servers today. This means a significant increase
in the number of people who understand Linux and applications that will
be moving to Linux. But why on the mainframe? Because the mainframe is
a much more stable environment. Many sites believe that the 99.999% availability
of S/390 is what is really needed for this operating system upon which
thousands of Web servers will be based. For our full article, see page
12.
Old Machines Obsolete?
One of the more controversial announcements by IBM was made on May
16, 2000 when they indicated that the Spring 2001 release of OS/390 will
no longer run on some of the older (but still fairly recent) machines.
See our article on Architectural Level Set on page 14 and a review of OS/390
R9 and R10 starting on page 16.
CF Levels
Another important article in this issue covers the confusion surrounding
Coupling Facility Control Code. The article is especially interesting if
you have multiple vendors participating in a parallel sysplex. (Page 19.)
Free DASD Tuning Aid
The hottest article for performance analysts is on page 8. It describes
how to use SMF records to fine-tune your DASD subsystem. The data is remarkable
(and it's free!). For example, you can get actual I/O response times by
data set and job!
Elsewhere in This Issue
LPAR capping does not cause significant overhead, despite what you
may have heard (page 4). The same page lists a performance APAR that cost
one site double the MIPS in uncaptured time and another APAR that helps
correct a wait state problem at IPL. Looking for an inexpensive way to
train performance analysts? See page 4. Our sections on The Net and Pubs
& APARs provide several useful Web pointers and redbooks. Our Q&As
on page 25 include the following: how to run ADABAS in goal mode, why and
how to run a two period TSO, what to do after goal mode is running successfully,
and how to move HFS files.
3. Upcoming SHARE Conference
It's that time again - the summer SHARE conference! I'll be giving one session on Friday morning at 9:30am: Session 2543 - Cheryl's Hot Flashes IV. I hope to see you there. Here is a note from Tom Manning of SHARE:
SHARE, a leading user-run organization of IBM customers, will host its
summer 2000 conference from July 23-28 in Boston. The event features nearly
1,000 hours of in-depth technical education, highlighted by:
4. Upcoming CMG Conference
It's also not too late to start thinking about CMG 2000. It's being held in Orlando, Florida December 10-15, 2000. I'll be giving a session on Interpreting RMF Reports. I'll let you know when it's scheduled. For more information on the conference, please check out http://www.cmg.org.
Stay tuned!
Cheryl Watson
======================================================
Thanks for subscribing to Cheryl's List! Feel free to forward this to others who may be interested.
If you obtained this from someone else and would like your own copy in the future, just go to our Web page and fill out the form under "Cheryl's List." That signs you up, and it's free! It's a one-way list, from us to you. If you make a "reply", it will come just to me, not to the other members of the list. We never share your address or information with anyone else. To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send an email message with only the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" as the body of the message to cheryls-list-request@xmission.com. Past issues can always be obtained at http://www.watsonwalker.com/archives.html.
In this list, we'll alert you to selected APARs, flashes, or manuals, answer questions of general interest, and provide updates to our newsletter, Cheryl Watson's TUNING Letter. We’ll also let you know if anything of importance has been added to our Web pages, and tell you about our other products and services.
Please note that this email service does not begin to match the large scope and volume of information we provide in Cheryl Watson’s TUNING Letter. The TUNING Letter is published six times a year and costs $695 for the electronic version: a yearly CD-ROM of back issues and six PDF issues emailed during the year. The print-only version costs $495 in North America and $545 abroad. See our web page at http://www.watsonwalker.com/TUNING.html for details.
For subscribers to the TUNING Letter, Cheryl's List will provide quicker corrections, time-sensitive updates, breaking news, or further comments on newsletter articles already received. For non-subscribers, these transmissions will give you a hint, we hope, of the quality and scope of the material normally found in the 40-60 pages of a typical TUNING Letter. Please see our Web page for the tables of contents of all past issues, and http://www.watsonwalker.com/pdf for a sample issue, 1998, No. 6.
So - we hope you'll find this service valuable. Be sure to send email to technical@watsonwalker.com if you have any questions or comments.