Michael Coffin's gone through the technical reasons to like VM:Secure; operationally, VM:Secure is a lot friendlier to humans. VM:Secure has (IMHO) an exceptionally well thought out UI, both for human users and for program integration (line-mode). It's easily possible to delegate directory maintenance to non-systems programmers, or even directly to normal users for self-service operation with little or no additional coding. While not impossible for DIRMAINT, it's a lot harder for normal mortals to understand how DIRM does things, and the command syntax (while regular) is ..... well, complex is a polite way to put it. VM:Secure also has a number of data migration and management tools that are really handy (the MOVE command to resize a minidisk when changing disk technology is *really* handy...).
In the last year or so, DIRM has improved a LOT (thanks, Les!) now that VM is getting some additional development funds. The VMSM interfaces that Alan suggested are a workable alternative to SRPI, but are *extremely* difficult to use for CMS (there's no CMS code to employ them, and it's a real pain to write RPC code with the unfortunate way LE libraries for C code are handled ...8-(). Keep in mind that CA is also giving somewhat mixed messages as to the fate of VM:Secure vs ACF/2-VM. (Yes, we know CA management is claiming that it's still a supported product, but I don't think that has been very effectively communicated to the CA field sales people, who are telling a lot of customers that they have to migrate to ACF2/VM, which is a huge step backward in ease of use and support, IMHO.) My 2 cents worth: DIRMAINT isn't nearly as bad as it used to be. VM:Secure is still better, but given the price different, it had better be. There are still a lot of shops that don't have either one, so you have to plan around that. To the original question author: check out UT Arlington's Ganymede system management tool. It has a lot of useful ideas, and adding CMS support to it wasn't too hard. -- db David Boyes Sine Nomine Associates > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Jason Herne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 04:39 > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Use of DIrmaint > > > > > > Hello all, > > > > > > I represent a team of people working on a project to > > help make z/VM > > easier to administer. One of our current problems is whether > > or not to > > make use of Dirmaint. We would like to get a feel for how > many people > > like/use Dirmaint. If everyone could please respond and let > > me know if > > you use or do not use Dirmaint (and why) I would greatly > > appreciate it, > > thank you. > > > > - Jason Herne ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > > >
