RE: IxS adapters (was IBM Linux Ad during Super Bowl - slim shady ?) -- MIDRANGE-NONTECH

>Of course your mileage may vary but my IXS data spread across 30
>some drives will out perform a much larger Dell system with 2 or 4 drives. 

I've heard this several times, and while I don't disagree with the facts
stated, I think that you're comparing apples to sewing machines. 

I'm torn on the IXS/IXA issue, but I would point out that to be fair to the
non-IXS side of the world, you have to add in a SAN to the mix. After all,
that's basically what you're doing with the IXS, you're using the iSeries as
a SAN. 

If I have 30 dell machines hooked into a SAN I have many of the same
advantages that have been mentioned for the IXS. These include a common pool
of DASD so I'm not wasting 40Gig on each machine, the ability to associate a
different physical machine with the storage of a machine (vary on/off), a
common backup platform, increased performance due to an increased number of
disk arms, etc.

I'm not saying that there isn't a reason to go with the IXS/IXA idea, I'm
just saying that we need to be at least comparing fruits.

-Walden

------------
Walden H Leverich III
President & CEO
Tech Software
(516) 627-3800 x11
(208) 692-3308 eFax
WaldenL@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.TechSoftInc.com 

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
(Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike.Crump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Mike.Crump@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 2:01 PM
To: Non-Technical Discussion about the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: RE: IxS adapters (was IBM Linux Ad during Super Bowl - slim shady?)


John makes a number of good points.  We have just recently deployed 9 IXS
and 1 IXA for different applications.  Overall I think it is very
beneficial to us.  Couple of random thoughts:

1.)  I'd rather not share our CD-ROM.  It does become a tight resource on
occasion.  If I had my way I would have ordered another CD-ROM for specific
use for the IXS.

2.)  While the DASD is more expensive the disk management is better and
when you have a disk intensive application....the performance is much
better.  Of course your mileage may vary but my IXS data spread across 30
some drives will out perform a much larger Dell system with 2 or 4 drives.
Nothing against the Dell system but that is the nature of my world.  It's a
mixed blessing to hear someone say that their SQL server application runs
much faster..... :-)

3.)  Conceptually this changes your hardware management to the iSeries -
some people like it and others don't.  We happen to like it.  It also moves
your hardware maintenance to one spot.  Call our trusted CE for all of our
problems.  Some people may not like that, we happen to have great CE's and
prefer it.

4.)  Changing storage spaces in the IXS world is wonderful.  Removing,
adding, resizing.  It all works as advertised and works well.

5.)  When consolidating windows servers I would not expect to take x number
of external servers and implement them on x - y IXS's.  In our world that
would occur by moving applications to OS/400 and Linux.  For those that I
can't I'd keep on the IXS.....

6.)  It is nice to expand control and backup and recovery to a wider group
of people.  Granted you can do that without implementing IXS's but it does
fit nice into the scheme of things.

7.)  Installing the IXS is a very simple task.  Someone in Rochester has
done a great job on that.

Great concept and very well implemented.  Someone up in Rochester deserves
a lot of credit.....








 

                      "Jones, John (US)"

                      <John.Jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxx        To:
Non-Technical Discussion about the AS400 / iSeries

                      asalle.com>
<midrange-nontech@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

                                                       cc:

                      02/04/2004 12:13 PM              bcc:

                      Please respond to                Subject:  RE: IxS
adapters (was IBM Linux Ad during Super Bowl - slim shady?)            
                      Non-Technical Discussion

                      about the AS400 / iSeries

 




The short answer is Yes.  But the number of possible IxS cards depends
on your system and will likely be much lower if you're not running a big
box.  12 on an 825, for example.

The purchase price of the IxS + RAM isn't very cheap, at least when
compared to an equivalent Dell.  Current list price for a 2GHz Xeon IxS
is $1900.  I think that includes 512MB RAM but I'm not sure.  Add $1450
for another 1GB RAM.

While you pay a bit more for iSeries vs. PC server disk, that disk can
be easily shared by your IxS servers.  Also, by allocating space only as
needed, you can manage your disk resources better.  You don't wind up
with 36GB disks that are only effectively using 6GB for an
OS/application partition.

You share the iSeries CD-ROM with the IxS.  No additional cost or
footprint.

You share the iSeries tape drive.  Or just have the iSeries back up the
IxS storage spaces itself.  Again, no additional cost or footprint.

Where it becomes really cheap, though, is in the hardware maintenance.
Cost over and above iSeries MMC: $0.

It's also cheaper when you look at the data center cost of the
footprint:  No additional footprint/rack space for the IxS cards and
only a minimal effect on HVAC & power.

There are other benefits:
- The IxS cards tend to be faster than an otherwise equivalent config
because of the underlying disk subsystem.
- The cards, in my experience, have been very stable.
- The Windows servers can be rebooted via a vary off/vary on command.
- There are some remote command capabilities.
- Disk volumes can be moved from IxS to IxS by changing their
description; no save/restore needed.  That includes OS volumes as well
as data volumes.
- The Windows is plain off-the-shelf MS; no iSeries tweaks other than
drivers.
- The can run Citrix or VMWare.

They're great for instances where there is Windows - 400 integration,
like as a deployment server for JDE/PSFT OneWorld.


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Damato [mailto:jdamato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 7:48 PM
To: 'midrange-nontech@xxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: RE: Fw: IBM Linux Ad during Super Bowl - slim shady?

Maybe I don't understand the power of integrated Netfinity stuff, or how
it's really done.  Can you really consolidate 100 Windows servers to one
iSeries?  If so, can it be done cheaply?

-Jim

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