Having been part of three original joint studies with ESMS (which never saw
the light of day), WDSF (which morphed into ADSM) and finally another ADSM
project back in the late '80s and early '90s, I only had access to the line
mode admin client in the early days and I still use it to this day.  Reason
number one is that it provides full functionality.  I've looked at all of
the web and GUI clients in countless releases and versions and none of them
are able to do things that I really need to do in some manner that's usable
to me.  Configuring the server is probably the most difficult thing to do
with a UI and the line-mode client works best, assuming you know all of the
commands.  Luckily, almost all of the help files have references to
pertinent commands at the end and you can use those to wind your way
through the maze of commands required to do simple things like defining a
SCSI tape drive (set up the device, drive, path, etc. can all be figured
out by reading the help files but you need to read multiple help files to
get the whole picture together).

I know I'm a dinosaur and administrators out there who are very
uncomfortable with anything but a GUI are probably not going to ever get
away from it but scripted dsmadmc commands (when crafted correctly) are
extremely powerful when coupled with simple filtering tools like perl, awk,
sed, grep, etc.  Add to this the SQL query capability and all of the
helpful people on the list who know how to build those queries and you have
a very powerful interface.

I disagree that it's easy to provide a GUI.  It's probably the most
difficult thing in the world to create.  Just look at SMIT.  How many years
has that tool been in development?  It's pretty good, probably the most
impressive GUI I've seen for UNIX systems administration but you really
can't beet the line mode commands if you want to automate things.

Anyway, I hope you have a nice weekend, too.

Mitch

"Thomas Rupp, Vorarlberger Illwerke AG" wrote:

> Hello,
>
> this "the old admin GUI is much better than the Web interface" subject
> pops up now and then.
> The poster of the first message always dreams of a Windows or Java GUI
> that supports the latest TSM server (btw I'm dreaming too).
> A few minutes later the list gets drowned by "me too" messages.
>
> I think there was/is a SHARE requirement for a *real* admin interface
> (can you filter your tape volumes with the web interface?).
> I don't understand why Tivoli isn't listening to their customers.
> Tivoli should start a survey on how many customers would like to have
> such an animal and on what platform. Based on this results it should be
> easy to provide a GUI for the platform users want.
>
> So please Tivoli, LISTEN!
>
> Ok, enough grumbling for today.
> Have a nice weekend
>
> Thomas Rupp
> Vorarlberger Illwerke AG