Re: V4R4

[mcrump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

SupportLine calls were


1.)  After microcode cd load the system reported 4 drives not
communicating.........talk about expletives being shouted.  I called SL
immediatly, they called back after 15 minutes, immediately wanted to treat it as
a hardware problem, I said I think the drives are operational.  They conceded
and we stepped through DST and drives showed up as active.  We jointly
conferenced hardware and they explained the likely cause to be that the V4R4
microcode forced a reload of microcode to the disk drives and at that point in
time the drives would not have been communicating to the system.  The system was
doing it's IPL thing and checked hardware and viola.......basically a matter of
timing.  We loaded the the OS/400 CD and selected install operating system on
DST and away we went.

2.) On one system I neglected to run the 'Work with licensed programs for target
release' on the 'Prepare for Install' - my fault.  On the other 3 I had done
this well in advance.  Bad, bad practice to wait to the last minute.  As I was
processing CD's I was getting a software error with the optical drive and could
not complete this step.  Called SupportLine.  Waited 1.5 hours.  There was a PTF
available for this type of problem but essentially I was processing CD's fast
enough that the drive had not succesfully loaded the disc but I was responding
with the continue.  The result was a corrupted table and hence the error.  I
applied the PTF and intentionally waited until the CD light quit flashing before
continuing.  Got it done.

3.) After the system came up.  I could not CA/400 SNA devices to get a signon
display.  Called SupporLine.  After waiting 1.5 hours I did some more checking
and found out I could not DSPT between any systems.  DDM worked, SNADS worked,
no DSPT.  SupportLine contacted me after about two hours.  The error message and
the sense code directed us to the PTF SF57978.  Which took about two minutes to
download and another two minutes to apply.  After that everything worked like a
champ.

As you can tell, I did not hesitate to call SL (we have 7x24 coverage).  My
waits were sometimes long.  The resolutions were pretty darn quick once I talked
to the rep.  All reps were pretty helpful and knowledgeable.




Chuck Lewis <clewis@iquest.net> on 09/28/99 06:58:11 AM

Please respond to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com

To:   MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
cc:    (bcc: Mike Crump/IS/Ball-Foster)

Subject:  Re: V4R4



Congratulations Mike !

I can only IMAGINE doing 4 boxes at once with all that different software !!

Glad it went smoothly. What were the reasons for the Support Line call(s) ?

Get some rest !

Chuck

mcrump@ballfoster.com wrote:

> We just did a nutty thing and upgraded 4 production machines from V4R2 to V4R4
> over the weekend.  These servers run many differenct applications: custom
COBOL,
> RPG, and MI applications; JDE; Infinium; Showcase DataWarehouse; ESSBASE,
CA/400
> (V3R1M2 and V3R1M3), 100's of AFP printers, and loads of 3rd party software.
>
> We did this for many reasons: new hardware support, Y2K, and new OS/400
> functionality.  We did not want to wait until after year end which for us
would
> have put us into the late February/early March time frame to go to V4R4.
>
> The installations went well with a few minor glitches and we did have 1
initial
> problem after the upgrade.  All situations were handled well by calls into
> SupportLine.  My only complaint is waiting for a $%*&#@! call back.
>
> The after affects have been minimal.  The thing that drove me nuts was all the
> darn license keys to enter and wonderfully I have one machine that has some
> license keys for a P30 and some for P20.  Needless to say the P20 codes won't
> work so were are getting some annoying license messages.
>
> In summary:
>
> The V4R4 installs went pretty smooth.
> SupporLine help was great once I got to talk to a support person.
> V4R4 has been 'stable' for us.
> There have been no noticeable performance issues.
>
> I did do a few things differently (possibly):
>
> I installed the DB2 group ptf (99104).  With Showcase, DDM, DRDA, and SQL
these
> seems to be the best move.
> I did install currently available AFP ptf's.
> I did have to install a PTF SF57978 since DSPT and SNA PC5250 sessions would
not
> work on anything after we first came up.
>
> Anyway, just thought I would provide some of you with some information and
food
> for thought.
>
> Now, if I can recover from the sleepless night and play with some of the new
> things....
>
> Mike
>





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