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00541 - New to SAP and not yet on AS/400
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New to SAP and not yet on AS/400
> We still believe that the AS/400 is far more better than WinNT.It is, definitely, especially for running critical applications like SAP.
The main concern with the eternal platform choice problem is the following:
take a given "SAP" power (xxx DS/h or yyy saps, etc...). Then price the
servers/disks you need on NT then Unix then AS/400. The fact is that Unix is
2X more expensive than NT and AS/400 2X more than Unix (this is a rough
average of course, but how true).
Of course there is MUCH more involved in the middle/long term cost
calculation. But in most cases the guys who decide only see the short term.
Hopefully not in all cases 🙂
Also it depends if there are already AS/400 servers installed or not. If
there is not yet any knowledge of OS/400 in the team, acceptance is much
more difficult, because "proprietary" sounds obsolete to deciders....
> However, the management is not convinced about SAP on AS/400.
See above.
> Even the SAP-consultants really don't like the idea of switching to
AS/400.
> Personally, I think that they don't know anything about 400 and are
therefore
> afraid of losing the contract, should we decide to go from NT to AS/400.
>
You guessed it...
> This brings me to my first question :
> Can anyone of You help me with some "succes"-stories from SAP on AS/400 ?
> It would be even better if You have done the switch from NT to 400.
>
Never made the switch, but I've been working daily on all 3 platforms for 3
years now. ALL my AS/400 customers are happy with the reliability of SAP on
the AS. I don't see how they wouldn't be. It simply never crashes. Maybe it
can happen but I never saw it. How many dozens of BSOD and Dr Watson on
disp+work.exe have I seen at NT customers?... too many to remember. You
never have to reboot the OS. Doing an OS/400 upgrade (which is the same as
an OS PLUS DB upgrade on other platforms) can be done without SAP knowledge,
I couldnt believe how easy it was for a customer to go from V4R1 to V4R3
(2nd test soon to V4R5). You have virtually no database administration task
load (I don't think you need a full time person to do a few RGZPFM when
needed :-). You have only 2 hardware/software vendors in your SAP project:
IBM and SAP. How many do you have on NT? PC manufacturer, Micro$oft, SAP,
Oracle, additional backup software is the bare minimum. Don't let them say
it's not a problem. It is. Nobody will be responsible when the NT server
freezes, does BSOD or other NT fun stuff.
OS/400: You don't need any additional tool to make online backups. And so
on....
> I've heard from some people that SAP is a "Black Box" and that it really
doesn't
> care on which platform you're running it.
This is true from the user point of view, not from the administrator point
of view 🙂
> Should we decide to make the switch to AS/400, will my knowledge of the
AS/400
> come in handy and will I still be able to explore the OS and all his
goodies ?
>
As every OS platform, you need good knowledge of it if you're the SAP Admin.
So yes you'll be happy with your task. If you get NT, well, be prepared to
stay late in the evning quite often to reboot the server because
consultants/users cannot be interupted, etc.. Plan your weekly reboot "just
in case" (don't smile, they all do it. A NT server needs at least a
"preventive" weekly reboot, although it almost never makes a full week
without rebooting before anyway :-))
Enough for today.
Thierry.
PS: no, i'm not an AS/400 salesman 🙂
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