Since launching this survey on October 14, I’m very proud to say that we’ve hit the 100,000 mark in all 3 categories.  This means that you folks have pledged that if you were to run Connections, Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler servers, then you would do it ONLY on IBM i.  All together, there is (so far) 100,000 potential licenses in your shops; from 20-user small businesses to 20,000-user giants. For solution providers and ISV’s there’s thousands in your customer’s shops too.  This tells IBM that not only is the IBM i community passionate about their preferred platform (well, they KNEW that), but that we’re more than willing to demonstrate that we won’t “just run insert-product-name-here on a Linux partition.”

If it’s not running on IBM i, many won’t run that product at all.

I know others out there have not moved to Sametime 8.5.2 because you can’t run all components on IBM i.  They’re sitting on Sametime 7.5 waiting for something to happen.

There are a good few of us (myself included) running Domino mail on IBM i and are handcuffed from using new Lotus Notes 8.5.3 social capabilities because we can’t run Connections on IBM i.

There’s 100,000 potential user licenses just waiting to get into the social game, or the mobile game or the audio/video conferencing game.  And I know it won’t stop there.  200,000 potential users was my lofty target before I go to Lotusphere in January.  I figured if I convinced a couple of big guns (5,000-10,000 users is a big gun by my standards…I have 250 users) then I’d have something to work with.  Imagine my surprise.  200,000 doesn’t seem that lofty anymore.  It seems very realistic because it is.

In just 2 weeks, you people have taken the initial steps of a loudmouth Lotus on IBM i advocate and ran with it.  You’ve been tweeting, tweeting and retweeting.  You’ve been emailing each other, discussing it in user group meetings, forums and LinkedIn and even promoting it on webinars.

I believe, based on the feedback I’ve received from IBM, is that they’re now starting to understand.  There is scuttlebutt.  They have noticed.  They are even engaging!

So…

Please continue to keep this going.

I encourage not only IBM i customers, but Lotus customers running software on Linux, AIX or Windows, to get involved if you do want to consider running these products on IBM i.  Imagine the power and simplicity of consolidating everything on IBM i.  More platform options means an extension and greater overall footprint of the IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) brand.  That makes the brand stronger which in turn makes it better for all of us.

Awesome job everyone.

If you’re an existing or potential IBM i (or existing System i or iSeries) customer and you want to run all components of IBM Connections, IBM Sametime or Lotus Notes Traveler on your system, then click here.

Your responses will be forwarded to the appropriate product managers at IBM that are responsible for platform support.

Currently IBM i isn’t supported on Connections or Lotus Notes Traveler, and is only partially supported on recent versions of Sametime.  Help us change that.

I figured I’d mention to fellow IBM i enthusiasts that I haven’t been part of a smoother software migration.  From pre-sales conversations to hammering out a couple of kinks at the end, the implementers were courteous, professional and technically proficient.  A nice group of folks to speak with as well.

I can say it couldn’t have went any better.

Please discuss.

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I have a Fire King DM2520-3 being delivered this Wednesday.  This little monster weighs in at a whopping 1050 lbs and will hold about 210 LTO tapes.  I only need storage for about 100 tapes, so there’s plenty of room for growth, documentation, CD/DVD media and other goodies we want to keep out of harms way.

While scoping out a fire resistant safe, I was given a few clear requirements.

• Get the best fire rating possible
  • The 3 hour rating may be overkill, considering a standard office fire temperature would be lower than the 2000 F heat that this safe is rated to protect against, so you can’t say I didn’t find the best available.  Actually, a 1 hour rated safe would probably suffice for most businesses considering if flame is in direct contact for 1 hour with your data safe then you’re probably storing your tapes in an oil refinery.  Heat away from the fire is a much lower temperature than the actual fire, and since most material/fuel will burn away fairly quickly, most 1 hour safes would do the trick.
• Theft protection
  • Considering this thing will take a locksmith a couple of hours to bust into if the front keypad melted off…it’s not easily broken into.  Plus you’re not going to get a few fellas to haul a 1050 lb box away without making a little noise and alerting security.

This puppy is also rated against 30 foot drops and explosions. I’m not sure what they test explosions with, but that would have to be a neat job.

I’m curious, what do you all use for storage protection?  Are there others out there with bigger, better and cooler physical media storage systems?

Comments welcome.

Check out www.systeminetwork.com and get yourself a subscription to a great resource.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to help.

If you’re using the IFS on your iSeries for users to store files then you’ve probably struggled with storage management.  I’ve often compared managing user storage to being a credit card company with a lot of irresponsible customers.  We give a customer a $1000 credit limit (i.e., 100 MB of storage) and they go on a spending spree.  Once they’ve reached their limit they ask for more money.  Since they have good credit we give them an extra $500 (i.e., bump their storage limit an additional 50 MB).  We may do this a couple of times before we catch on and send them to the collection department to hound them on a regular basis to get below their credit limit.

When users reach their storage quotas, simple things like generating spooled files are a problem because they don’t have any space to generate them.  Then they call IT when their reports don’t print.

Now, users who need their storage caps adjusted for a business requirement have a legitimate reason.  I’ll adjust your quota accordingly and perhaps make a case to add disk.  My beef lies with knuckleheads using 90% of their storage on pictures of their family trip to Disney World.  If you can afford the digital camera and the trip then you can afford a flash drive or a DVD burner.  So pretty please, keep the crap off the production server.

I put together a little automated email routine to inform users and cut down on storage related support calls.  Personally, I’d say I’ve easily cut the storage support calls by 50%.  Here’s the gist of what the user gets:

1. A quick explanation that every user has a storage quota and that they’re approaching it.
2. How much space they have left.
3. A list of files they own in descending order of size.  I also include the last change date of the object.

There’s a number of pieces that put this together.

1. Retrieve a listing of iSeries users using the DSPUSRPRF command to an outfile and then do some quick query/400 work.
2. I interface with our Domino server to get the email address for each user. This is done by way of a simple Domino agent that exports mail users to a csv file on our iSeries.
3. I determine which users are exceeding 90% of their storage quota via the output of the DSPUSRPRF command above.
4. I get a list of objects each user owns (using the RTVDIRINF command, some CL and query/400) and create a csv file for that user with some RPG.  The csv file generation stuff was put together after reviewing Scott Klement’s awesome website that has a section on working with files on the IFS (http://www.scottklement.com/rpg/ifs.html)
5. Each user is emailed the notification with the attached csv.  This is accomplished, in my scenario, with the Javamail application that you can install on your iSeries free of charge.

If anyone would like an explanation on how to do build this yourself, please let me know and I’d be happy to help.  It’s a Frankenstein solution, but it’s free and works well.