RE: 24x7 information

[Jim Knight <jknight@xxxxxxx>]

I agree with Al.
We considered LPAR except that for continuous availability
AND disaster recovery, we may want to move the backup box to
a remote site in case of catastrophic failure.  We are in a retail
business, so in the event of a failure for a prolonged period, the cost 
in lost business greatly outweighs the cost savings going to a 4, 8, or 12 way.
This 400 runs both our only distribution center and our catalog sales
applications, including our Japan service desk.  Also, our on-line store 
depends greatly on this 400 for getting product availability information.  
Any unplanned outage of considerable time would cost more than we save.
Jim K

-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Pence [mailto:rp@rogerpence.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 7:52 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Re: 24x7 information


> With all due respect, I disagree.  LPAR provides a single point of
> failure.  If the CPU fails, all partitions are down.  When you IPL the
> primary partition, all partitions are down.  And what happens in the case
> of a fire or prolonged power outage?

Al--

Isn't your recommendation a little too absolute?

CPU fails--that's a problem. How often does it happen?
IPL machine--again, that's a problem--but how often does it happen. And,
isn't the concept of a primary partition supposed to go away?
Fire--both redundant AS/400s burn up
Power outage--both redundant AS/400s croak (unless you have the optional
gerbil-powered attachment in one of them)

Shouldn't Jim at least consider the potential cost savings that LPAR offers.
While there are exposures with LPAR that redundant AS/400s don't provide,
the cost savings (LPAR, for example, only requires _one_ licensed copy of
OS/400 across multiple OS/400 LPAR partitions) may make living a little
closer to the edge worthwhile.

rp

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