Paul,
    Once the AIX box is set up correctly, it should require minimal
maintenance.  That said, you may want to include a bi-weekly or monthly
"AIX OS Health check" in your proposal where your AIX expert logs in and
reviews the system for an hour or so.  Ensure that all internal disks
are mirrored and error notifications can be sent to the appropriate
persons to respond to failures.

   I had an AIX TSM server in a classified environment - (difficult to
get to and no external communications).  After it was set up, I visited
it about once a month and rarely had to do any maintenance.

Cheers,
Neil

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Richard Rhodes
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:48 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Once more Windows vs. AIX server

> I wrote a report including the points mentioned above and some more
> (I/O performance, raw devices, quick etherchannel, easy expansion as
> they are targeting a p520, mksysb, LPAR, dynamic reconfiguration) but
> would like to hear from you if I forgot something really big that
> could be "the point" in such a decision.

We use Unix sytems (HP and IBM) for all our major database systems, TSM
servers, etc.  So, my opinion is obviously in favor or the AIX system.

But . . . .

If they have little to no Unix experience then I'd be worried about the
learning curve to managing a Unix system, and, the long term problems of
maintaining that knowledge.  I think your report should address these
issues. It's not "hard", but it will requirement a committment from
management to plan and allow for this.

Rick


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