Thursday, January 26, 2006
Busy three weeks at work
I have been working on setting up a performance and capacity testing environment. IBM has "given" us a program to emulate a mainframe so we can run tests without affecting any other applications. At first, the P&C environment was to co-reside with QA so it needed to have both mainframe and emulation backends. Then it wasn't so it didn't. Then the WAS admin needed to verify the application server set up so it did. Every time we switch it back and forth, something breaks. I've also got a channel initiation problem that I can't figure out but have circumvented. I finally got everything stablized this past Monday. I'm really starting to like the Windows platform for MQ. The MQ Explorer GUI has a lot of useful features.
I've also been parachuted into a project to repatriate a website for an application that is being sunset. The previous MQ resource stalled it long enough that he threw it in my lap with the handoff of support. We scheduled a cutover test on Wednesday night. I assumed that people (myself included) knew what to do. The MQ guy at CGI took 25 minutes to flip over the channels from the other outsourcer to ours when it should have only take 10 or 15 minutes tops. We start testing, and it doesn't work. I go over to the WAS admin. In the WAS error log, we see a code that says the queue manager isn't available which it is. I've seen this before when there are DNS issues. We check the application properties file, and it is set up with the right IP address. We decided to pull the plug on the test since the problem couldn't be resolved that night thinking that it was an architectural issue. We didn't check the WAS stdout log. Then we had problems accessing the production site to check that the swing back went OK.
Thursday morning, I did a postmortem. I also set up our infrastructure to match the other outsourcer's (WAS and MQ co-reside) creating another queue manager. I was able to do some partial testing without a backend, and it worked. Friday morning, I started planning all the changes I would have to do to link the two queue managers (the one tested and the one I created). The WAS admin asked me if I had checked the transmission queue from Wednesday's test. I did, and there was one message there although we had done a number of tests. I didn't understand why at first. I went back to the WAS stdout log, and I can see the IP address flipping back and forth. I ask to WAS admin to swing back to the address we used in the test. The original setup now works! This time, he restarted the application server. All we have to do now is retest. No changes are required. The one message is from a swingback test we accidently ran on the testing URL.
I'm also working on getting the MQ clusters operational. Projects are being told to use the cluster but only the development environment is ready for primetime.
I don't have any time right now to take on JBoss or WebSphere responsibilities.
D.
I've also been parachuted into a project to repatriate a website for an application that is being sunset. The previous MQ resource stalled it long enough that he threw it in my lap with the handoff of support. We scheduled a cutover test on Wednesday night. I assumed that people (myself included) knew what to do. The MQ guy at CGI took 25 minutes to flip over the channels from the other outsourcer to ours when it should have only take 10 or 15 minutes tops. We start testing, and it doesn't work. I go over to the WAS admin. In the WAS error log, we see a code that says the queue manager isn't available which it is. I've seen this before when there are DNS issues. We check the application properties file, and it is set up with the right IP address. We decided to pull the plug on the test since the problem couldn't be resolved that night thinking that it was an architectural issue. We didn't check the WAS stdout log. Then we had problems accessing the production site to check that the swing back went OK.
Thursday morning, I did a postmortem. I also set up our infrastructure to match the other outsourcer's (WAS and MQ co-reside) creating another queue manager. I was able to do some partial testing without a backend, and it worked. Friday morning, I started planning all the changes I would have to do to link the two queue managers (the one tested and the one I created). The WAS admin asked me if I had checked the transmission queue from Wednesday's test. I did, and there was one message there although we had done a number of tests. I didn't understand why at first. I went back to the WAS stdout log, and I can see the IP address flipping back and forth. I ask to WAS admin to swing back to the address we used in the test. The original setup now works! This time, he restarted the application server. All we have to do now is retest. No changes are required. The one message is from a swingback test we accidently ran on the testing URL.
I'm also working on getting the MQ clusters operational. Projects are being told to use the cluster but only the development environment is ready for primetime.
I don't have any time right now to take on JBoss or WebSphere responsibilities.
D.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Spinning out of control
Because my boss left early Monday, my team was late getting an announcement. We found out Tuesday morning that our CIO is leaving once a replacement is found. My boss scheduled a short meeting Friday morning. We were told that projects within the IT Transformation program were being reprioritized, but outsourcing is still one of top five. Operational Excellence is out, but Customer Service is in. Two of the senior IT people are being shuffled aside. Shades of CLA before the takeover rumours started.
I applied for two MQ jobs earlier this month, but never heard anything back.
D.
I applied for two MQ jobs earlier this month, but never heard anything back.
D.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Consolidation within the IT industry
Since I've been job surfing, DWL (software) has been bought out by IBM. Unisen (out-sourcer) has become part of Citigroup, and Solcorp (software) is now part of EDS.
D.
D.
Busy week at church
I got a note overnight last Saturday from our minister asking for confirmation of his salary so he could complete a contract style document for headquarters. I was expecting that we wouldn't have to worry about this until the end of the month when his paycheque had to be written.
I was able to contact the church treasurer that night and worked out some numbers. The Chair of the Unified Church signed off the document the next morning. After I emailed the final numbers to the treasurer, they were challenged. It turns out we have overstated his salary. The Chair made a deal that we would pay him the amount of any benefits (pension, health insurance, CPP) that we didn't have to pay headquarters or the Receiver-General. He thought that we weren't paying pension deductions, but we are. This means another meeting after church this weekend.
That Sunday morning, we also had a meeting to nail down last minute details for a dinner meeting on Tuesday night. This is part of the Visioning process we have been going through for the last five months. The committee had hit a roadblock when we tried to set up an action plan. We just couldn't get anyone to commit to actually doing the work. We set up the meeting to preview our work to the congregation and to get some ideas from them as well. The meeting was well attended, and the food (chicken breast/salmon, vegetable casserole, roasted potatoes) was great if late. We even got some of the last holdouts to attend. Almost every active member of the church who was able was there. Still, it was only about three dozen people.
At the end of the meeting, they announced the deficit for last year. It looks like it's going to come in at about $10,000. We're on a slippery slope here. We need to attract new members, but we are so drained after what we went through with the last minister.
Thursday night was choir practice as per usual.
D.
I was able to contact the church treasurer that night and worked out some numbers. The Chair of the Unified Church signed off the document the next morning. After I emailed the final numbers to the treasurer, they were challenged. It turns out we have overstated his salary. The Chair made a deal that we would pay him the amount of any benefits (pension, health insurance, CPP) that we didn't have to pay headquarters or the Receiver-General. He thought that we weren't paying pension deductions, but we are. This means another meeting after church this weekend.
That Sunday morning, we also had a meeting to nail down last minute details for a dinner meeting on Tuesday night. This is part of the Visioning process we have been going through for the last five months. The committee had hit a roadblock when we tried to set up an action plan. We just couldn't get anyone to commit to actually doing the work. We set up the meeting to preview our work to the congregation and to get some ideas from them as well. The meeting was well attended, and the food (chicken breast/salmon, vegetable casserole, roasted potatoes) was great if late. We even got some of the last holdouts to attend. Almost every active member of the church who was able was there. Still, it was only about three dozen people.
At the end of the meeting, they announced the deficit for last year. It looks like it's going to come in at about $10,000. We're on a slippery slope here. We need to attract new members, but we are so drained after what we went through with the last minister.
Thursday night was choir practice as per usual.
D.
From a fellow mother and former CLA colleague
To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students... here is something to make you chuckle.
Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.
After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.
And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"
"Don't what? " Adam replied.
"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.
"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit! "
"No Way! "
"Yes way! "
"Do NOT eat the fruit! " said God.
"Why ? "
"Because I am your Father and I said so! " God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.
A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!
"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit? " God asked.
"Uh huh," Adam replied.
"Then why did you? "said the Father.
"I don't know,"said Eve.
"She started it! "Adam said.
"Did not! "
"Did too! "
"DID NOT! "
Having had it with the two of them,God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.
BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!
If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself.
If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!
1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.
4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.
ADVICE FOR THE DAY:
Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.
AND FINALLY:
IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:
"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!
Quick, send this on to ten people within the next five minutes. Nothing will happen if you don't, but if you do, ten people will be laughing.
Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.
After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve.
And the first thing he said was "DON'T!"
"Don't what? " Adam replied.
"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.
"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit! "
"No Way! "
"Yes way! "
"Do NOT eat the fruit! " said God.
"Why ? "
"Because I am your Father and I said so! " God replied, wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants.
A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked!
"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit? " God asked.
"Uh huh," Adam replied.
"Then why did you? "said the Father.
"I don't know,"said Eve.
"She started it! "Adam said.
"Did not! "
"Did too! "
"DID NOT! "
Having had it with the two of them,God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.
BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!
If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself.
If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you?
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!
1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.
2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.
3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.
4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.
5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.
6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.
ADVICE FOR THE DAY:
Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.
AND FINALLY:
IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:
"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!
Quick, send this on to ten people within the next five minutes. Nothing will happen if you don't, but if you do, ten people will be laughing.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Back on the job
I moved the other two queue managers to shared DASD after getting my sysadmin buddy to reboot the server once again. Everything went tickety-boo.
I added all the queue managers to the heartbeat file on both machines in the Linux cluster. The next thing I know, the queue managers on the first machine have failed over to the second machine. The first machine then shuts down. Thank God this is only the QA environment. Well, at least now we know the clustering works. I forgot to start the listeners, and the heartbeat looks for them (that's my theory for now).
The two queue managers from the first machine aren't running though and won't start. Their subdirectories are corrupted. I find out later that there was some kind of VMWare backup running at the time of the shutdown. This is what trashed the directories.
I asked the sysadmin to do a restore of the original /var/mqm directories. There is no backup! The backups have not been running, and the tsm administrator position is unfilled. The only alternative is to recreate the two queue managers from scratch and redo the move to the shared DASD. Done and done. I will attempt to re-enable the heartbeat tomorrow.
D.
Monday's soup: curry chick pea (did I mention the soup is great here)
Today's soup: meat chili
I added all the queue managers to the heartbeat file on both machines in the Linux cluster. The next thing I know, the queue managers on the first machine have failed over to the second machine. The first machine then shuts down. Thank God this is only the QA environment. Well, at least now we know the clustering works. I forgot to start the listeners, and the heartbeat looks for them (that's my theory for now).
The two queue managers from the first machine aren't running though and won't start. Their subdirectories are corrupted. I find out later that there was some kind of VMWare backup running at the time of the shutdown. This is what trashed the directories.
I asked the sysadmin to do a restore of the original /var/mqm directories. There is no backup! The backups have not been running, and the tsm administrator position is unfilled. The only alternative is to recreate the two queue managers from scratch and redo the move to the shared DASD. Done and done. I will attempt to re-enable the heartbeat tomorrow.
D.
Monday's soup: curry chick pea (did I mention the soup is great here)
Today's soup: meat chili
Saturday, January 07, 2006
The good ...
I've been off all week.
A few weeks ago, I built a small MQ cluster from scratch. The next week, I tried to move the one half to shared DASD as a first step to making it Highly Available. No dice! I kept getting messages that the directory was read only so I left it. My Linux support buddy was off until after Christmas anyway.
Last week, my buddy was back. While he was working on the first half, I gave the second half a try. No problem! I just followed the IBM documentation step-by-step. I was even able to run a script intended for the AIX platform, and it worked. My buddy just restarted the server to clear the read-only directory problem. There's something not quite right about Linux (you get what you pay for). I'll work on the first half when I get back to work.
D.
A few weeks ago, I built a small MQ cluster from scratch. The next week, I tried to move the one half to shared DASD as a first step to making it Highly Available. No dice! I kept getting messages that the directory was read only so I left it. My Linux support buddy was off until after Christmas anyway.
Last week, my buddy was back. While he was working on the first half, I gave the second half a try. No problem! I just followed the IBM documentation step-by-step. I was even able to run a script intended for the AIX platform, and it worked. My buddy just restarted the server to clear the read-only directory problem. There's something not quite right about Linux (you get what you pay for). I'll work on the first half when I get back to work.
D.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Department Christmas Party
Monday, January 02, 2006
... and the ugly
I still surfing for jobs. There's a couple (MQ support at RBC and Accenture) that I'm seriously considering applying for.
At the offsite management conference late last year, Strategic Sourcing (out-sourcing) was identified as a key initiative.
D.
At the offsite management conference late last year, Strategic Sourcing (out-sourcing) was identified as a key initiative.
D.
