Fred,
I would agree with Shawn.  I have worked with DPA, and other EMC
products, and also with IBM products for many years.  EMC often makes
good products, but assumes that you don't need good documentation.  They
will have all the manual titles you could ask for; Quick Start Guide,
Administrators Guide, Programmers Reference, etc. but the manuals will
have nothing but superficial overviews in them.  Nothing like what you
would find in the equivalent manuals for an IBM product.  The IBM
Manuals may take a long time to find your way through, but at least your
odds are much better of finding what you are looking for. 

On the other hand, EMC support will give you extra help when you ask for
it.  IBM Support is usually mainly about defect support.  They aren't
there to help you configure the product; if it is working as designed
then you are on your own.  EMC support, however, has often answered
how-to questions about configuration issues.  So perhaps they are trying
to make up for the lack of good manuals.

Best Regards,

John D. Schneider
The Computer Coaching Community, LLC
Office: (314) 635-5424 / Toll Free: (866) 796-9226
Cell: (314) 750-8721

 
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Anyone using DPA?
From: Shawn Drew <shawn.drew AT AMERICAS.BNPPARIBAS DOT COM>
Date: Mon, May 10, 2010 3:49 pm
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU

We are using EBA/DPA We had a custom report running on EBA that didn't
work on DPA, so we are trying to get that worked out before we upgrade.
(DPA is being run in a test environment)

We've tested Aptare and Servergraph as well, and EMC's product fits our
particular environment better than the others. The main thing we do that
the others have trouble with is that we have multiple nodes per server
and
the others didn't handle this in the way that I wanted it. They just
handle them differently, not better or worse. You should evaluate this
for yourself.

My main problem with DPA is that there doesn't seem to be any advanced
documentation or training if you wanted to do anything above basic
reporting customization.
The Professional Services is the only way to do any advanced
customization. You could muddle around and figure out quite a bit by
yourself, but I wish there was some good documentation.

If you do purchase this, make sure and include a few days of PS and have
a
list of the custom reports you want.


Regards,
Shawn
________________________________________________
Shawn Drew





Internet
Fred AT UCHICAGO DOT EDU

Sent by: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
05/10/2010 04:15 PM
Please respond to
ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU


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Subject
[ADSM-L] Anyone using DPA?






I know this has been asked before (and not answered), but is there
anyone
out there using DPA from EMC? Has anyone given it a close look?


Fred Johanson
TSM Administrator
University of Chicago

773-702-8464



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