New IBM Power 720

[firestream]

Hi all,

My first post in ProgressTalk.
Our company are buying a new Power 720 to replace the old 520. Is there anything to look out for especially we are planning to try the Extshm just to give us more options on the 32bit limit.

Current environment:
9.1E04
AIX 6.1
32GB RAM
Running a mix mode of self-service client + Appserver + SQL-92 (BI server pulling data).
200GB SSD
200GB HDD
EMC SAN.

p/s: what happen to PEG forum btw?

 

[TomBascom]

Do NOT try to use EXTSHM. It will be a disaster.

Simply upgrade to OE10 and 64 bit Progress. You will be much, much happier.

Version 9 is ancient, obsolete and unsupported. How can whoever makes these decisions possibly justify going out and buying new hardware (and cutting edge new HW at that) but not bothering to keep the database software current? It's just ridiculous.

 

[tamhas]

PEG still exists, but hasn't had the search feature for a while.

 

[Rob Fitzpatrick]

I'm surprised that a company spending that kind of money wouldn't also want vendor software support. 9.1x on AIX 6.1 (assuming you're staying with 6.1) is not a supported configuration, and as Tom said 9.1E is long since out of support altogether. If you run 6.1 you need to be on at least OE 10.1B to be supported, and if you're moving that far forward you might as well avoid early obsolescence by going to 10.2B. It will work better and it will be supported longer.

Alternatively, if you're planning to go with AIX 7.1 on the new box, 10.2B is the only supported release.

 

[firestream]

I'm surprised that a company spending that kind of money wouldn't also want vendor software support. 9.1x on AIX 6.1 (assuming you're staying with 6.1) is not a supported configuration, and as Tom said 9.1E is long since out of support altogether. If you run 6.1 you need to be on at least OE 10.1B to be supported, and if you're moving that far forward you might as well avoid early obsolescence by going to 10.2B. It will work better and it will be supported longer.

Alternatively, if you're planning to go with AIX 7.1 on the new box, 10.2B is the only supported release.

Yes we are still paying DB maintenance but the problem with upgrading to the newest software is the re-compilation. We can't re-compile the source because of the single src policy and the different object version across the different company that we support in house. Management need to make a decision for a complete re-compilation and UAT testing due to the different object version and it's really time consuming to do so.

We are running 9.1E on AIX 6.1 for about 3 years now and it's stable so far.

 

[RealHeavyDude]

You are probably working for a big company where hardware vendor representatives are golfing with senior management

My experience is that hardware vendors always tell that all you need is the latest and greatest hardware stuff from them because everything that can't run native can still run in some emulation. Neither do they tell that you are losing some benefit doing so nor are they giving a hint that some software running on the current system might not be supported on their stuff.


Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[TomBascom]

I have no idea what a "single src policy" is or how it could have anything to to with upgrading to a current release of Progress nor what you mean by "different object version across the different company that we support in house" and why that would be relevant.

Whatever those terms mean, you are crippling yourselves with these policies. It is equivalent to insisting on running Windows 98 on a brand new and fully loaded PC. (Version 9 is just about that old...) Sure, it "works". But you are missing out on 12 years of major improvements (that you have paid for handsomely by keeping your maintenance current). And you are planning on trying to use a horrific hack (EXTSHM) to try to work around an issue that was resolved almost 10 years ago.

If the company enjoys throwing away money so freely please share the CFO's contact information so that I can hop on board this gravy train.

 

[tamhas]

If the company enjoys throwing away money so freely please share the CFO's contact information so that I can hop on board this gravy train.

Or, perhaps more to the point, if you are going to freely spend on this money on hardware, why not at least spend a little bit on a consultant to help you understand, plan for, and deal with the software issues?

 

[firestream]

Just some update.

Our new server is coming and we are planning to test and use one of the instant to run OE10 and re-compile all the source.

A quick question, can we run 9.1E client connecting to 10.x database via client/server connectivity?

 

[TomBascom]

No. The client must be at the same release level or higher than the db.