Conley's responses below. I can only guess that you're talking about an RMM
release 6 or more years old. Many may say it's just Conley being an RMM
bigot, but there is a lot of misinformation here that has to be set
straight, and I also acknowledge CA-1 as an excellent product. While I have
a huge background in CA-1 to RMM conversions, I would not hesitate to
convert RMM to CA-1 (hello, CA, are you listening?) More and more, the
choice between CA-1 and RMM comes down to business issues, not technical
issues.
Regards,
Tom Conley
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ibm-main
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2007 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: RMM to CA-1 or CA-1 to RMM
I was called to task for venturing an opinion without substantiating it.
This was a reasonable criticism so here are some of my reasons for my TMS
preference.
RMM con:
RMM lack of retained customer fields, eg vendor id
Not anymore. Profile support is provided in a recent release. This was one
of my requirements.
Lack of ?inq? function ? ease of clist mitigates somewhat
Huh? The panels give you what you want, and recent releases give you an
ISPF 3.4 command.
Lack of report writer ? sort more cumbersome
Double huh? The RMM report dialog will generate any report you want, and is
massively easier to use than either GRW or EARL.
Different rmm states can make scratching and init tape a pblm
Triple huh? EDGINERS was modified extensively based on work I did with RMM
development to be easy to use for bulk initing and scratching.
IBM tries to change std, eg add accode leave out expdt
Quadruple huh? EDGUX100 supports the old EXPDT values. RMM tried to break
away from the hard-coded fake date fields, but you can use EDGUX100 to
support 98000, 99000, etc. if you want to.
More parochial perspective, eg product and owner concept
Trying to break the CA-1 paradigm makes RMM more parochial? Product doesn't
even have to be used. Owner is a different concept, but again, recent
releases allow you to do more CA-1 like actions. CA-1 probably looked
parochial to the TPMS (tape pile management system) users of the 1960's.
RMM Storage location/shelves more confusing than tms vaulting
NFW. You can set up RMM locations to exactly mirror your TMS vaults. I
know, I've done it, many times.
Less knowledge base in the industry
Not true any more. Your information is seriously outdated.
Problem support has gotten "better"
Glad to hear that, we have had a lot of ups and downs with changing Level 2
personnel. When Tom Lane moved on, it took a while for David Boenig to get
up to speed, and now he's moved on, so I don't know how the current RMM
level 2 is doing. My last few clients have been CA-1, so I've been less
involved in RMM over the last year or so. But Mike Wood, the lead
architect, has always been NAILS. He just hasn't been able to do everything
I wanted (but he's running out of my requirements, 1.9 looks like it's
lowered my outstanding RMM requirements to single digits).
RMM pro:
Include with os
Better planned maintenance
Better doc?m
Lots of sort support
Clist variable support
Quicker os and tape drive support
Disagree with some of the above. Planned maint is a draw, doc is a draw,
quicker os and tape drive? NFW. You actually give up some performance with
RMM due to VSAM instead of the CA-1 direct access method, but you gain
flexibility because RMM can dynamically grow.
TMS pro:
Stability & functionality of age
Since it was the only/best game in town for so long, it?s the standard
?better? reporting (arguably)
Good problem support
Agree with all the above, except reporting, the RMM report dialog closes
that gap. Russ Witt is also NAILS, and his top-notch tech support is one of
CA-1's biggest advantages. You can't go wrong using CA-1 with Russ behind
it.
TMS con:
Yet another product to add. Usually another smp zone
?slight? lag in new products
Disagree again. CA-1 can be installed in the same SMP/E zone as other CA
products. I don't see any lag between CA-1 and RMM. Features and functions
continue to leapfrog over each other, but that's a good thing.
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