[DJ Nauta]

Hi All,

I am looking for some suggestion or opinions as to how to divide various lpars up amongst new hardware.

We currently have a p570 with 6 lpars, 3 of which are (Oracle) production type and 3 being developement type.

We are in the process of wanting to migrate other production and developement systems from various Solaris systems to new IBM hardware.

At this point I have the opportunity to decide which app goes to which new system. I can come up with valid reasons as to having a separate production and developement system as well as to having each new system with a mixture of both.

I am looking for other out there that may have the same situation and how the decision was made to host the apps as they are.

Any and all information is greatly apprieciated.

Thanks
djn

[rydekull]

Seperate production and development.

[DJ Nauta]

Hi Rydekull,

Thanks for the reply. However might I ask for further justification as to why have separate Production and Developement systems? Basically I need some ammo to throw... :>)

Thanks
djn

[Mtnduey]

Well, there are plenty of reasons to seperate production systems from staging/approval (or dev/QA if you prefer) but it truly depends on the environment you are running, what you use your AIX systems for, etc... A lot of variables go into this but here are just a few basics. Some of the below are examples of having extra hardware, others are just good tips to avoid testing in production. In any case, hope this helps.

• Firmware/Microcode updates (requires HW reboot) - Install and Test the new firmware/microcode on your dev/QA systems first, after testing gives the green light push to production in a future maintenance window
• VIO updates - Install and Test the new VIO updates on your dev/QA system first...copy & paste from bullet #1
• AIX OS Patching - could be anything from a new tech level or service pack to interim fixes to work arounds, urgent security flaws, etc... - install on dev/QA first, copy & paste from bullet #1
• Sys Admin changes & 3rd Party Software - Want to make a change to your setup? Want to enable or disable some port or service? Want to test out a different backup software any other software/tool/admin-toy/etc?

TIP-ing (testing in production) is a bad idea no matter how you look at it. Admins/Engineers always have the fire-fighter duty to one extent or another, but putting out a fire is one thing, starting one is another.

Yes there are costs associated with the extra hardware associated, but if you look at the cost associated with unplanned downtime, determine for yourself how much each hour of unplanned downtime costs.

Avg Number of Users per system (web-based or otherwise) x avg hourly income of users on system x number of systems (prod, dev and qa) = more $$$ spent on per hour of unplanned downtime vs just leasing some extra hardware.

Its sort of like riding a motorcycle. Sure you can get away with not wearing protective gear (helmet, leathers, etc..), but that one time you need it and dont have it could cost you your very life. So yeah, you can get away with not having extra hardware and you can get away with testing changes in production, but for how long? One day it's going to bite you in the rear, I just hope you're prepared.

If you have proposed these changes and you get rejected, make sure to keep a paper trail & store it offline, hardcopy, archive it to gmail, whatever, just keep a CYA file going somewhere you can access it in a pinch should the unthinkable happen.

GL