I've not seen R3. I wish I could sing the praises like the well respected folks who have so far, but IMO, CA-MSM was not really ready for prime time. Like many other products, it seems to have been rushed to release by marketing forces.
In reality, the portion of a CA install that MSM (R2) did (for a limited set of products) was the trivial part. Even with the ESD method, download, fake a tape, unload, allocate CSI, target, and dlib, SMPE RECEIVE/APPLY/ACCEPT shouldn't take more than a few hours. Then the real work begins. CA-MSM (R2) was not CA-MSM installable! (Neither was the maintenance package I needed) It does do a good job of identifying and downloading your products and the pax files. It does do a good job of identifying the maintenance you need and downloading the fixes and SP packages. Actually, it does an almost too good a job, I ended up with several fixes for parts I don't actually need (especially in CA-Common Services). If the APPLY works, does do a good job of RECEIVE/APPLY for fixes. Restarting after a space error for example was more complicated. One product, seemed to be MSM installable, until the process croaked on space, then it magically became not MSM installable. (after working with CA support, it was determined that it never should have been MSM installable) Many products were not yet MSM installable, and the pax files (nicely downloaded) are deep in the USS file system, several hundred characters of directory specification deep! My next step when I left MSM for higher priority work (z/OS 1.11 install continuation) was planning to implement Dovetail's COZ to avoid the limitations of BPXBATCH trying to do pax deep down there. Tomcat (JAVA) is a CPU HOG (we have no ZAAP, are unlikely to get a ZAAP). CA-DATACOM :( I agree it has real potential to be useful. I am interested in exploring R3. Interestingly, this thread is the first I've heard of R3. I know that I need everything I can to streamline what is becoming more and more a one person job (until the mainframe is gone :( Dave Gibney Information Technology Services Washington State University > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Brian Peterson > Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 9:28 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: CA's MSM > > I've been working with CA MSM for a year or so - first the R2 release, > then > the R3 release. > > I really like this new tool. (I remember, and hated, aggrivator). > > It seems to me that one of the most significant results of this common > installation tool initiative is actually not the tool itself. Rather, > in my > opinion, it is the fact that all of the "tribes" within the CA family > now > have ONE install methodology - one that is common across all products. > > Recall that CA grew over time by bringing different development > organizations into their company via acquisition. Each of these > organizations brought their own product packaging practices along with > - > some of which have changed little over the years. > > Now, with the CA MSM initiative, a common set of packaging requirements > is > in place. > > Obviously, not every product has every feature of the new install > methodology available today. But, over the next (apparently short) > period > of time, more and more products are converting to the new methods. > > Seems to me this effort in itself will bring significant long term > benefits > to us as customers. > > Brian > > On Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:59:00 -0500, Daniel McLaughlin wrote: > > >We've been invited to a D&P on this next week. After reviewing some of > the > >demos and documentation I sure don't see how it makes life > easier..comments > >from those who have trod that road? > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] 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 [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
