Tag Archives: zSeries

Runing Lotus Domino on a mainframe

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Sean Burgess suggested that I blogged about running Lotus Domino on z/OS for a development server so here goes:

I am acting as an IT architect for a system called ePOS which acts as a frontend to a payment solution called IBM Payment Systems. This frontend solution is running on Lotus Domino R8 for z/OS – and was upgraded on August 26 from R7 in order to better consume web services on a backend system. The mainframes in question are two IBM z990 (eServer zSeries 990) running z/OS 1.9.

The system setup for the Domino solution is as follows:

  • development server: single Domino server on a single z/OS LPAR
  • combined test and pre-production server: two Domino servers in a cluster on two seperate z/OS LPARs
  • production server: two Domino servers in a cluster on two seperate z/OS LPARs

Please notice that the two mainframes are responsible for all of the 5 LPARs mentioned above.

Teamstudio CIAO! is used for configuration management of the databases on the development server.

The development server is accessible from the intranet only while the test and production servers are accessible from both intranet and internet. The common IBM LDAP (IBM Bluepages) is used for authentication for the intranet systems while a seperate LDAP server is used for the authentication of internet users. The ePOS application accesses backend systems using Java APIs and web services.

I have previously blogged about architectural patterns and Lotus Domino and in this case the architectural pattern used to access Domino from the internet is the “caching proxy and Domino” pattern combined with the high availability caching proxy pattern. This means that the Domino server cluster is located on the intranet while a redundant reverse proxy server (Tivoli Access Manager WebSEAL) is located in the DMZ.

As mentioned I have the role of being the IT architect for the solution running on these servers. I am not responsible for the actual installation of Domino on z/OS but besides doing architecture work I am also involved in the administration of the Domino servers.

Update August 26: The development server has been upgraded from Domino 7.0.2 to Domino 8.0.2.

Draft Redbook on Linux virtual servers under z/VM

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A draft Redbook on Linux virtual servers on IBM zSeries and System z9 under z/VM is available. The Redbook shows in a cookbook format how to install and configure z/VM in an LPAR and then how to install Linux under the z/VM – thereby enabling Linux on z/Series. The book uses RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 for zSeries as the z/Linux distribution.

I have previously blogged about the IBM System z9 Business Class and its usefulness for virtualization and also about reasons for running Linux on the mainframe.

Mainframe for new purposes?

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According to The New York Times IBM will later today be “introducing software tools, academic programs and support for outside developers that IBM says are intended to bring new business and new programmers to the mainframe. IBM is trying to position the mainframe for corporate customers as a ‘hub of Internet-based computing.’”

Also according to the article: “The software tools IBM is introducing will enable traditional mainframe programmers and programmers skilled in modern computer languages, like Java, to write software programs tailored for the mainframe but including Internet technology. This Web services technology makes programs more flexible as individual building blocks of code will be able to communicate with others automatically.”

Update: The Mercury News also has an article on the upcoming announcement.

Update 2: This has now been officially announced by IBM in a press release entitled “IBM Unveils Software and ISV Initiatives to Handle Surge in Mainframe Transactions“. Focus is on using the mainframe as a hub for SOA.

Mainframe for the masses?

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Yesterday on April 27 IBM announced a new mainframe for small and medium sized businesses called the IBM System z9 Business Class.

From the press release:
“IBM today launched a new System z9 Business Class mainframe with pricing starting at around $100,000 and designed to tackle the critical computing challenges of our time: the coming wave of automated Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), new heightened expectations for data security and the rapid expansion of emerging markets.”

The mainframe is very useful for virtualization – as mentioned in the press release: “one System z9 Business Class system might handle the workload of up to hundreds of distributed servers based on Unix or x86 class systems.”

eWeek.com has an article on the announcement [via the Mainframe blog].

I have previously blogged about running Linux on the mainframe.

Update: a draft Redbook called “IBM System z9 Business Class Technical Introduction” is available.

Update 2: IBM Eye has also blogged about the announcement.

Why run Linux on the mainframe?

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Via the Mainframe blog I came across a post on reasons for running Linux on the mainframe. The post is very interesting and discusses the I/O difference between a mainframe and a PC based server.

I am currently involved in a project that establishes several Linux servers in both a DMZ and in an internal LAN all running in z/VM on a mainframe. Some of the purposes of these Linux servers is to load balance and reverse proxy requests from the Internet to back end systems.