This new thread started after I wrote that Timothy tends to oversimplify things. Based on my experience here with a zLinux project and some (I admit now outdated) experience elsewhere, I am sticking to my guns on that.
Without getting into too much detail.. there were two projects (POCs) going on. One was related to moving TSM off of z/OS to run on zLinux under z/VM and the other was moving TAMe from AIX (I think.. it could have been Wintel). I did not work on the projects myself, but one of my team members did pretty much exclusively for a year. BTW, there was a part time consultant with z/VM and Linux "expertise" that was thrown in by whomever (IBM?) as part of the POC. Although my team member was always telling me he didn't get much support from him. As others have suggested, z/VM installation & customization was probably not a big deal. But I can see long term support being a little more of an issue. Things like applying / rolling out maintenance, backup / recovery, etc. However, the TSM / Linux part was a big deal. There were constant issues with driver levels vs. kernel levels, re-installs, trouble obtaining the proper levels, and issues with some third party software that was involved in interfacing to STK tape drives in a 9310 SILO. This of course was on top of the learning curve issues of an unfamiliar environment to the zOS sysprog working on the project (he was working with one of the VTAM sysprogs who had some VM and unix experience). This project was eventually canned. The TAMe POC never really got off the ground to begin with. 18 months after the start.... I'm not even sure where we are now. z/VM and zLinux still aren't dead yet. There is just nothing production running on it at the moment. I'm pretty sure they are still looking at other opportunities and perhaps even testing WAS on zLinux as I write. I'm not saying that our experience is typical. Part of the problem was lack of solid commitment by management with these projects and getting the resources needed. All I am saying is what I said to begin with - I think Timothy oversimplified how easy it is to get an application running on Linux or Linux under z/VM. Remember, these were only POCs, which to me is still quite a bit away from an enterprise ready production application. So, any others care to tell about their Linux on Z POCs or implementations? Did your projects stay on schedule and run smoothly? Did you have to hire new people or were the existing zOS or *nix people in your shop able to handle it? How much help did you need / get from IBM or other consultants? Mark -- Mark Zelden Sr. Software and Systems Architect - z/OS Team Lead Zurich North America / Farmers Insurance Group mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] z/OS and OS390 expert at http://searchDataCenter.com/ateExperts/ Mark's MVS Utilities: http://home.flash.net/~mzelden/mvsutil.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
