Yes I agree most stongly. Please IBM, give us access to the admin API.

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Steven Harris
Sent: Friday 11 March 2005 01:49
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: If we all complain, do you think they will add the WEB gui
back?


Mark,

That is a great post from you, and yes ISC is Version 1 and will improve
with time and use.

But, if you will allow me to reiterate a previous post:
There is a  new DSMAPI admin api that is used by the ISC to perform TSM
comands.  One additional way forward would be to expose this api, so
that
the talented members of the user community can develop the interfaces
that
*they* desire using perl/python/PHP/java or whatever.

This is an almost zero cost solution for IBM that will make life very
much
easier for them and for us.  Look at the utilty of the standard TSM api.
The adsmpipe program that was written for version 2 still works well on
version 5.  Many applications have been built on top of this api and it
provides great functionality for both IBM (eg the i5OS BRMS interface)
and
others.  The admin api could be as good - to see the sort of thing that
is
do-able look at http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php , and
particlarly have a play under the demos tab.

Please IBM stop treating us like mushrooms and let in the light.

Steve

Steve Harris
TSM and AIX Admin
Between jobs at the moment
Brisbane Australia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark D. Rodriguez" <mark AT MDRCONSULT DOT COM>
To: <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2005 4:19 AM
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] If we all complain, do you think they will add the
WEB
gui back?


> Hi Everyone,
>
> I am an IBM Business Partner.  I have been listening to what everyone
> has been saying about the ISC/AC.  I, also, have some concerns about
> this since I not only have to use it I have to be able to sell it to
> others to use.  I have been talking with several IBM'ers in this
> regard.  The people I have been talking to are on both the TSM
> development side and on the channel (sales and marketing) side of the
> house.  Obviously the channel people are very concerned when anything
> might possibly effect the ability of IBM BP's to sell their products.
> As such, I have been seeking to get them to put pressure on the
> development side to get some sort of improvements made.  I have talked
> with the developers to help them see the issues that I see with my
> customers as well as what I have learned from all of you on this list.
> Also, you should know that IBM is listening and they are willing to
make
> the necessary changes to resolve these issues.  They are monitoring
this
> list all the time so the only real survey you need to do is keep
posting
> to the list!
>
> Now before I go to much further, I must make this statement (i.e. here
> comes the legal disclaimer), anything that I am about to disclose here
> is simply the results and/or contexts of conversation that I had with
> various IBM'ers and in no way implies any commitment on their or my
part
> to provide any of the things we discussed.  In other words we were
just
> talking, but they were not promising anything.  The biggest problem I
> see with the ISC/AC is not the application itself, change is
inevitable
> and in fact in this case somewhat overdue.  The problem with the
ISC/AC
> is that there is not any reasonable migration path from the Web Admin
> GUI to the ISC/AC.  They just flipped a switch and now you used ISC/AC
> and oh by the way it doesn't support any of your older TSM servers.
Not
> a good plan and I think they recognize it as well.  However, I will
> defend the developers to the point that there were very good reasons
for
> the decisions that they made and how we wound up where we are today.
> Given similar situation I would have made similar choices with the
> exception I would have spent the time and resources to have a better
> migration path.  As you all have probably guessed by now the ISC/AC
> isn't going away any time soon, nor should it.  We have been long
> overdue for a improved GUI admin interface.  The ISC/AC isn't perfect
by
> any stretch of the imagination, but I have every confidence that IBM
> will develop it into a very mature tool as quickly as possible.  I
will
> mention some of the "POSSIBLE" enhancements that are upcoming later in
> this note.
>
> The focus of my discussion with the IBM powers that be was around how
do
> we give the TSM community a better migration path to the ISC/AC
> environment.  The key issue we focused on for creating a better
> migration path was the re-release of the Web Admin GUI.  Obviously the
> the best thing would be to re-release it and have it support all of
the
> 5.3 enhancements, but that comes at a cost.  The trade off would be to
> take resources away from the ISC/AC development in order to uplift the
> Web Admin GUI.  I don't think that is in the best interests of the TSM
> community as a whole.  I suspect that what will happen is the Web
Admin
> GUI will be re-released but frozen at the 5.2 level with no further
> development being done to it.  My guess is it will be around through
the
> 5.3 release and maybe little longer, like until all supported version
of
> the TSM server are supported on the ISC/AC.  I understand there was
some
> talk of making the ISC/AC backwards compatible with version 5.2 but
that
> did not go anywhere.  Re-releasing the Web Admin GUI under this
limited
> arrangement offers the compromise of best possible use of resources
and
> a good migration path for the end users.  This proposal would allow
> users to have time to migrate to the new ISC/AC and gain some
competence
> and confidence in the ISC/AC while still having a tried and true
> interface available to them.  Also, this gives IBM the time to make
the
> ISC/AC a much more mature product before having it be the only choice
> for GUI admin support.
>
> The ISC/AC is going to become a much better product over time.
Although
> it will certainly have a much greater value to those of you who have
> multiple TSM servers or who have several different IBM products that
> will be managed by the ISC, it will also be very good tool for those
of
> you with just one server and no other products managed by the ISC.
> There are 2 big TSM updates scheduled for this year one in April and
> another in the September/October time frame.  I would "GUESS" (i.e. I
> can't promise anything) that you will see several improvements to the
> ISC/AC environment.  Like most of you I thought the command line
> interface available through the ISC/AC was useless at best, well I
> predict that will be greatly improved.  It will have much more space,
> better fonts, just hit enter to get the command to run (I really hated
> clicking the submit button!),  and command recall.  Speaking of the
> submit button, how about the "GO" button that has got to go!  And I
> think it will.  And of course one of the biggest complaints is all the
> resources that it needs both during install and when it is running
> normally.  I think the install process will be cleaned so that you can
> install it with under 100M of temp space and  you will have an
> environment variable to tell it where to find that temp space.  They
are
> aware and are actively reducing the amount of system resources, i.e.
> memory and CPU cycles, that the ISC/AC will use when running.  This
will
> really help those of you running a single TSM server and wanting to
run
> the ISC/AC on the same box as your TSM server.  Overall the ISC/AC is
> maturing and will continue to do so at a very accelerated pace for the
> foreseeable future.  Your comments and concerns about it are being
heard
> and appropriate action are being taken.  I would encourage all of you
to
> continue to give your feedback on the ISC/AC on this list and through
> your BP's as well.
>
> Again, I want to make it clear that I do not have the authority to
make
> any promises as to what will be done in the future with these
products.
> At no time did IBM make any commitments to me (or anyone else to my
> knowledge) to implement any of the changes discussed above.
>
> If anyone of you would like to discuss thus further please email me
> directly and we can setup a phone call.  If there is enough interest I
> might be able to set up a conference call where we could discuss this
as
> a group.
>
> Sorry for the long post but I though this was important information to
> get out to all of you.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Mark D. Rodriguez
> President MDR Consulting, Inc.
>
>
========================================================================
=======
> MDR Consulting
> The very best in Technical Training and Consulting.
> IBM Advanced Business Partner
> SAIR Linux and GNU Authorized Center for Education
> IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert, CATE
> AIX Support and Performance Tuning, RS6000 SP, TSM/ADSM and Linux
> Red Hat Certified Engineer, RHCE
>
========================================================================
=======
>
>
>
> John C Dury wrote:
>
>>      I realise there are other threads about this issue but for those
of
>>you who don't know yet, the WEB GUI interface into the TSM server is
>>officially gone as of version 5.3. It's been replaced by something
called
>>the Integrated Solutions Console (ISC) which, in my opinion (and many
>>others) is almost useless.
>>      Do you think if we all contact our IBM reps, they could possibly
add
>>the WEB GUI back into the product? I know it's a long shot but I
imagine
>>if
>>enough of us say something, they might actually listen. Personally I
am
>>more of a command line person anyways but for our Help Desk people and
>>other casual users, it's a whole new learning curve.
>>Thoughts?
>>John
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>



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