ADSM-L

Re: Monthly TSM FAQ 12/2002

2002-12-03 10:39:42
Subject: Re: Monthly TSM FAQ 12/2002
From: Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 10:13:48 -0500
>02-16.  Whatever happened to Richard Sims?

He got older, but otherwise nothing much else.  :-)

I got effectively knocked off the ADSM-L mailing list about 13 months ago as
mail incoming from Marist sputtered then ceased.  Thereafter, no email commands
to their Listserv resulted in a response.  We performed network traces from our
end and found that Marist was failing to properly negotiate TCP/IP connections.
(They are using VM, which has some "odd" TCP/IP software.)  At the time, I sent
mail to their administrator (via another path) and learned that it was a problem
known to them, occurring not just with connections to BU, but other sites as
well.  They had hoped that an upcoming system upgrade would fix the problem -
but it did not.  Over the intervening months I periodically tried resubscribing
to ADSM-L, but nothing came back.  I gave up trying, as other projects consumed
my time; but I continued updating ADSM QuickFacts, as I know from our web server
logs that there's a lot of interest in it, around the world.  (It's fascinating
to observe the accessing locales ripple across the globe as the sun rises in
each time zone.)

Prompted by this morning's mail from Lisa, Zlatko, and Henk, I just tried
resubscribing to ADSM-L, and this time got acknowledgement.  So I may be "back
online" (time will tell on that; I've been thwarted before) - but am a bit
rusty...

Much of my time over the intervening year has been spent in a major project to
replace our big central printer, a Xerox DocuPrint - choosing new technology and
implementing it.  As of November 30th, the Xerox was turned off, and we are now
printing on two IBM Infoprint 2105 printers, driven by Infoprint Manager,
running on one of our AIX systems.  The big challenge was to find a way to get a
tailored header page stapled with the body of the print job: it turns out that
all printing vendors treat the body of the job as a separate document, and so
anything additional is embodied in another document, and each document is
stapled separately.  I solved the problem with a Transform Sequence where I
merge a header page into ASCII, PostScript, PCL, and PDF print jobs, via various
means.  I've had a lot of PostScript experience, but had to dig into IBM's
AFP/IPDS printing technology, which is the basis of Infoprint.  The results have
been extremely satisfying.  We used to have printing backlogs of up to several
hours.  Now we rarely have any jobs waiting to print, the throughput is so
outstanding.  We had a print queue display screen set up outside the printing
area for users to see where their jobs were in the queue: this now confuses the
users as their jobs are printed before they reach the pickup window and, not
seeing the job on the display, they think it was lost.  They are learning the
reality, and we have turned off the display.  IBM's printers are the only ones
we have measured where the print rate equals published specs - simplex and
duplex.  Dealing with the IBM sales and technical people, versus those from
other vendors, was like night and day: IBM was consistently knowledgeable,
helpful, and professional, making the choice that much easier.  Being wholly
different technology, there was some trepidation, but now much comfort, knowing
we have a good solution.

Infoprint is a major technology whose size and complexity approximates that of
TSM.  Getting up to speed on Infoprint has been time-consuming.  It probably
won't surprise you to learn that I have created an Infoprint QuickFacts.  I
intend to upgrade my web pages to add access to that, as time allows.  (If you
know anyone seeking information in that area, they may email me directly.)
Whereas this has taken so much of my time (and I have more work to do in that
area), I haven't been able to spend much time in ADSM/TSM, so am a bit rusty.  I
remain the ADSM/TSM administrator here - in addition to Infoprint - so I remain
active in the technology.  If Marist's Listserv and mail system behaves, I'll be
able to keep up with what's current in TSM and chime in with occasional
contributions.  ADSM QuickFacts embodies most of my knowledge in that area, and
I'll continue to maintain that.

  Richard Sims, Sr. Systems Programmer,
                Boston University Office of Information Technology
                ADSM/TSM administrator, Infoprint administrator, AIX guy,
                developer of system monitoring software, etc.
                Lots of experience with getting older.
                http://people.bu.edu/rbs

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