UNIX - AIX help? Maybe I can.

[JakeTheHake]

Well, I don't ACTUALLY know really, but I did some research on this a while ago and found a graph showing market related salaries for System Engineers in the field of Operating Systems - Low ~R15k ; medium ~30k ; High ~50k. (per month, after taxes) As it being a general survey of about 35 engineers with solid(normal) and senior positions.

Specialists obviously goes higher, but chances of getting a solid steady income at that rate is either (a) ridiculous or (b) worth the business' money to invest in such a going salary. You'd pay for that (as a business) when something is wrong and needs fixing immediately. They won't breathe down your neck when you fix something, but they will check in every 22 minutes to see if the can get another 7 minutes cut down to the save the next 30 minutes on paying. Please do not take my word, as nothing is cast in stone.

Myself, I get paid what you call peanuts...BUT...I have the whole pSeries AIX environment to look after. Its got the tendency to assist in me getting up in the mornings. A general stable growth in the solidity of my 'matrix' (with me as Neo - this picture helps as well hehehe) with the occasional disruption of some senior decision wobbling the wheels a bit. Sometimes BIG disappointments, like how my credentials mysteriously evaporated from Senior Systems Engineer UNIX to Systems Engineer. As I said, I do what I love and love what I do. If I worked at a job and continued on with my life at 17:00 every day instead of serving myself in participation of the human experience - I'd go nuts, hide it, jump around and generally chase earthly 'stuff'. Call me blessed.....and PLATSAK (empty pockets).

Oh, and from all the years of a permanent position, the true upside is you won't get fired easily and the downside is you do a lot of other work and can't 'specialize' that much. Never anytime for studying, but stay in the know-how, since it is a lifestyle and not something to do.

 

[yeti]

@JakeTheHake
Just curious as to how your knowledge of AIX might extend to DB2?

 

[JakeTheHake]

See, DB2, well, uhhhh. {sigh}
In short, DB2 to me is like nodepat in Macrohard Wine-douse.
You need an editor, but it quite just doen't do it.....AT ALL. Sure it works, but not anymore than it should.

So while I should reserve my comments on DB2, I can actually rather share with you the 'end-user' portion of my DB2 experience, since the rest is non existent.

To answer your question - I have to do with DB2 in a couple of environments:
1. ContentManagement OnDemand (IBM product) runs with a DB2 instance. Our box hanged - deadlock. I bet you it is DB2.
2. Then there is IBM Systems Director - DB2.
3. The all new SDMC (still the good old xSeries 7024-CR6 model) - also DB2, but what there is more, you get a super-duper-pooper-scooper 8GB memory stick absolutely FREE - to keep it plugged into the USB at the back for EXTRA MEM ? WTF? We opened the CR6 to find more empty mem slots. So why the extra R2000 usb stick to make up for the mem issue? CR6 memory limit? You mean it is 32bit? With a usb-mem-extension....to get DB2 to run properly?
I must be veering off track totally - this Hake MUST be cooked, poached, fried or still swimming in the wrong river...

The reasons:
1. CMOD takes a loooong time to boot. Sure nobody complains that it is slow, because everyone just pushes documents to this server. Then somewhere along the lines it hangs. DEALOCK, so terminal session, no console, no errors, no dumps, no other software installed, I can flick the power switch and you won't see the difference. Start it up and it is asif nothing ever went wrong, until DB2 starts.
2. Director . . . .{sigh again}. You know, I once prepared an environment to the letter. New OS and everything, correct versions, enough allocated storage and following Nigel Hopkins' videos and understand thoroughly every step. I implemented Director and started it. Discoveries done and a week later I got chuffed with it. Now it was about the same time that I had SD get me a comprehensive inventory list of all AIX LPARs in our envirnment and then, nothing. DB2 crashed. It took the whole LPAR with it. Don't get me wrong - SD is a nice tool, but still suck I think. I tried it another time on my NIM LPAR and it took NIM with it to file13(/dev/null).
3. Then brand new successor to the HMC - The Systems Director Management Console. Very nice I do have to say. I touch the network setting and it wants to go and reboot. You know how long it takes to reboot a SDMC? About the same time an HP K500 serve4r to from keyturn to bootup - 23minutes and 40 seconds roughly.

Now, I would like you to please correct me on these things. I do not want to talk bad about anything DB/OS/APP related. I believe anything can supply us ability. But why is it that DB2 starts and stops forever and slows down and just stops somewhere in the middle? And why is it worse if Java is involved?

Please share so I can turn my - into + regarding.

 

[JakeTheHake]

By the way, I use Notepad++. It got it integrated into the Windows environment, so basically pushed note and wordpad into the corned, put the dunce caps on them a told them to focus on how notepad++ gets it right.
Try it and if you like it, buy it. Worth every cent.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I'm so glad I don't have to work with DB2. Pretty much any time I get to work with one of these expensive commercial databases, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Companies who use them always seems to be too stingy to pay someone who knows what they're doing to install and configure the damn thing. So I have to explain why their servers are running like trickle. It usually goes something like this: "Our server is slow!" "You're running Oracle/Sybase/DB2/Caché/Pervasive - you're on your own." "But it's an enterprise database! Why is our server slow?" Facepalm. It's almost as if saying, "Why is my car heavy on fuel?" "Because you drive a Hummer in 1st gear" "But it has chrome bumpers!?"

 

[JakeTheHake]

HAHAHA - kaksnaaks!!

I feel very very very sorry for the word LOGIC. This poor old word/concept is such a dandy great one, yet gets raped over and over.....just like the word FREE.

There is obviously no link between more logic when you get higher up the ranks of seniority. Maybe it is that money clouds logic....I don't know. I wish I knew. I did find out recently that the unwritten law/rule of going higher up the chain is to do less, but it is a fine line. You got to be clever (not smart) enough to know what to say when and where. If you are not 'around' at the right time and place, you will not be noticed. That puts you on the lowest level. Sortof like that snakes-and-ladders game.

Oh and it hurts when mr "senior-I'm-supposed-to-look-up-to" waves those tail feathers. Dare we not 'smile and wave', then tomorrow we will be dealt with in a manner that we "ususally wipe our asses off him". Either way, more wheels are buckling. Sometimes I wished to have the IT Manager's position for like 3 months. I'll turn this place upside down and a employee's dream - boosting production by 300% or something. See, I thoroughly believe that work should be part of life, not something you have to do and then go on with your life. We spend countless of hours at some office or whatever. I once received an email on what the Google offices look like. Flabbergasted I was, because it was a physical representation of what I had in my mind. A work environment where people participate through their character and what they good at. Embrace people's existence. But NOOOO, we got to have it military style. There is no room for this . . this WORD I am using - expression.

People learn for two reasons - either they want to or they have to. Hardly anyone want to have to or have to want to. How many people do what they don't want to. I sit next to a Zombie (what I caal them - the walking dead) at my office. Predictable as a watch. But it is nice in that little square box. Safe. It took so long to get used to it. Please don't shake it. I'd love to see the reaction on the face when I rip out a fly swat. Sometimes I discipline myself when thinking they will be more productive if they rather become plantfood to help trees provide us with oxygen. A double bonus is that they will then not consume any oxygen either. The bright side is that we look good without even doing anything special.

"BUT its got chrome bumpers" - mr. koffiejunkie, thanks to you (and LOGIC), you just made my day!

Oh by the way, I saw an episode of Topcar (in HD nogal) where Hammond test drove the Murrauder around Jhb - buying McDonalds, drove over cars and through a wall. What a machine. I think its around R3.5mil. Anyways, so the popped a Hummer with 3.5kg plastic explosives and ended up with pieces of scrap metal. It then climbed out of a hole deep enough for a man to fit and had a buckled and flat rear wheel.

 

[koffiejunkie]

On the topic of beards: http://www.thebeardly.com/

 

[JakeTheHake]

HAHA ! Thanks for sharing this. No wonder why I don't like shaving. Maybe my beard can start doing AIX admin with me....

 

[BigAl-sa]

On the topic of beards: http://www.thebeardly.com/

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