Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. Been busy so I thought I'd take a moment to blog a bit about what's been taking a lot of my time from my podcasting series.
By day, I am a mainframe system administrator. The fun parts - for me - of computer systems are 1) learning them and 2) solving problems. The not-as-much part is making detail changes to systems like the ones I've done hundeds of times before. It's an important part of managing a computer system that actually does helpful things for other people; and I really don't mind (really) - it's just not as much fun.
This week so far has been *way* fun all over again for me. At work we have a new (and big and powerful) new system that - da da da - uses a new operating system and set of configuration tools. I am involved (with some contractors and others at work) in the process of configuring this new system and installing a number of AIX (an IBM version of Unix) Lpars (kind of like virtual machines).
AIX isn't exactly a "sexy" operating system like Ubuntu, but it is Unix and I'm being introduced to a lot of things that Unix and Linux server admins probably do every day. Oh and the new system supports Linux Lpars (*sweet*) as well as AIX ones.
AIX is required for a major new application my company will be converting much of it's business processes to. However, my management is also interested in seeing where we might have opportunities to take advantage of Linux and other open source software - especially if it can support test beds (or portions of the test beds) for this new application.
So in addition to my current mainframe duties (which I like), I'm being paid to learn/use AIX and probably Linux servers. On top of that some of what I'll learn will help me learn more about what's under the covers of my personal Ubuntu system. I'm unapologetic in my likes for the Linux :) .
So I'm putting in more hours at work, and my brain needs more down-time to absorb all this new stuff; but don't worry about me - if you are a computer geek, envy me (oh yeah).
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I use to be a MVS (ZOS) systems programmer for about 15 years. I have be doing AIX Administration for the last 7 years. I miss the mainframe world.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someday I will get another opportunity to get back into MVS.
I love building websites in joomla on the Linux platform.
Best Wishes,
Phil
www.joomlasolutionsprovider.com