Monday, November 14, 2005

ISC+TSM AC

Many people have been complaining about the ISC+TSM AC and I have been one of them.  The concerns have been plentiful, “We have to learn a new interface”, “There’s no DRM functions”, and “It requires a server just to support it!”  All these are valid protests and the one that bothers me the most is the fact that in a DR situation you would have to rebuild the ISC system/instance along with the TSM server to have web accessibility.  This adds time to an already urgent situation.  So what good does the ISC+TSM AC provide?  For starters a single interface for accessing all your servers, a single login, more functions when it comes to hardware management, and in the event of a disaster it forces you to learn the command line.  I know the last item might frustrate a lot of people but the truth is you need to know the command line to be a proficient TSM administrator.  I love the web interface and I recommend TSMManager, but when in a DR situation you have to be able to handle the command line if you want to get back up and running. Granted you have no other choice than command line until the system comes back up and is running again, but afterwards you’ll need to do typical admin work and the ability to do it through the command line will increase you rebuild speed helping you meet SLA time frames.  I don’t think Tivoli had this in mind when they went to the ISC+TSM AC but in my opinion too many people rely on the web and don’t learn the commands needed to be truly proficient.  I find it amazing how many don’t even know how to use the HELP command.  So I could complain about the change in interface but change happens and although we don’t always like it (I don’t care for this one) we have to be able to change and adapt with it if we want to last in this work force.

3 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I have to agree with Chad. I was taught to use the command line interface when working with TSM and therefore I mainly use the CLI line in the old web interface just because it is easier to read the command outputs formated by the browser than scrolling in the DOSpromt/bash window.
    So when I encountered the new ISC for the first time I found it very annoying that the command line output opens in the new window. This was so important thing for me that the other complaints (missing DR, long install time, resource consumption) were much less significant.
    Also the old web interface was also not without a problem. Sometimes it lets you to create a nonsense command, or forces you to define a parameter you do not want to set ... etc.

    So Chad is right - learn how to use the command line (so you really know what are you doing) and use whichever web interface you like - but only for making your work more comfortable.

    Harry_Redl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah the reality is that with the old web interface it wasn't there for you when you had to rebuild or do DR. And with the ISC its even harder since you gotta rebuild the ISC instance too. Learning the command line is not that hard, especially with all the help built into the admin and client interface. Plus the web can't touch a good shell script!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like ISC and I am command line guy.... I think ISC has some nice feature to offer..only problem i have with ISC is take forever to load...other then that...its ALL GOOD...

    ReplyDelete