4 ms·

>It should not be an acceptable practice to just insert a CD and indiscriminately install software onto a production machine. Mainframe systems have well-docume

by wil421 7y ago

>It should not be an acceptable practice to just insert a CD and indiscriminately install software onto a production machine. Mainframe systems have well-documented and enforced change management procedures that need to be followed before any software is installed into a production environment. This applies to pretty much any production environment. Why would you have to work on a mainframe to understand this. As a side note I just realized I’ve never physically touched any sever I’ve worked on professionally.

rbanffy 7y ago
I get the feeling he sees more Windows servers and on-prem systems than the average HNer.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  That's probably usual for people that work with mainframes.
  - rbanffy 7y ago
    Indeed. Their desktops are all Windows. Sadly, the age of the 3278 is gone.
DrScump 7y ago
I just realized I’ve never physically touched any sever I’ve worked on professionally. In my career, nothing felt quite as high-tech in its moment as hands-on mainframe operation, oddly enough. - Loading a custom removable boot drive. - actually dialing in a hex address of a boot device on a console - knowing and using command sequences to bring up and down systems with thousands of simultaneous users - using quiesce to halt a mainframe, leaving all processes intact but frozen, so major hardware components could be worked on... then all processes resumed in place - bailing somebody out of a screwup that would otherwise require hours and thousands of dollars to redo - working on technology than spans 20+ years in the same shift Best of all, I was mostly on my feet all night rather than sitting at a desk. As for subsequent realms (UNIX, PC, VAX, etc), I started before servers were banished to racks and always had hands-on access back then. It was a big improvement when we could do DOS builds using cross-compilers on Sun and then serve the binaries over PC-NFS (welcome to 1993).
- wil421 7y ago
  Right after college I worked with one of those stereotypical sys admins that were very smart, into IETF newsletters, loved Sun, etc etc. He had 2 Solaris servers under his desk and I loved to listen to everything he said about them and Sun. Too bad his talent was wasted when his job was outsourced to cheaper locales, I mean RIF-ed excuse me.
  - DrScump 7y ago
    I remember feeling like I had really "arrived" that day I got my very own Sparcstation on my desk. But it was still not as much fun as operating an IBM 3081 with two banks of tape drives by myself throughout the night.

by wil421 7y ago

rbanffy 7y ago

I get the feeling he sees more Windows servers and on-prem systems than the average HNer.

marcosdumay 7y ago
That's probably usual for people that work with mainframes.
- rbanffy 7y ago
  Indeed. Their desktops are all Windows. Sadly, the age of the 3278 is gone.

DrScump 7y ago

I just realized I’ve never physically touched any sever I’ve worked on professionally. In my career, nothing felt quite as high-tech in its moment as hands-on mainframe operation, oddly enough. - Loading a custom removable boot drive. - actually dialing in a hex address of a boot device on a console - knowing and using command sequences to bring up and down systems with thousands of simultaneous users - using quiesce to halt a mainframe, leaving all processes intact but frozen, so major hardware components could be worked on... then all processes resumed in place - bailing somebody out of a screwup that would otherwise require hours and thousands of dollars to redo - working on technology than spans 20+ years in the same shift Best of all, I was mostly on my feet all night rather than sitting at a desk. As for subsequent realms (UNIX, PC, VAX, etc), I started before servers were banished to racks and always had hands-on access back then. It was a big improvement when we could do DOS builds using cross-compilers on Sun and then serve the binaries over PC-NFS (welcome to 1993).

wil421 7y ago
Right after college I worked with one of those stereotypical sys admins that were very smart, into IETF newsletters, loved Sun, etc etc. He had 2 Solaris servers under his desk and I loved to listen to everything he said about them and Sun. Too bad his talent was wasted when his job was outsourced to cheaper locales, I mean RIF-ed excuse me.
- DrScump 7y ago
  I remember feeling like I had really "arrived" that day I got my very own Sparcstation on my desk. But it was still not as much fun as operating an IBM 3081 with two banks of tape drives by myself throughout the night.