Facts about MainFrame
April 12, 2007
Recently I read some facts about MainFrame, I use to have a notion that MainFrame programming is something like typing code in assembly, i thought it to be montonous. But after reading this, I am bit titled towards MainFrame. For those who think that Mainframes is a field very few opportunities(including me once), Read on u will be surprised…
1. The mainframes hold approximately ” 70 % ” of the entire data stored in this planet
2. The latest ones can support over 25,000 users
3. They can support devices spread over 26 miles using fibre optics
4. The size of the “basic” OS is about 14 GB
5. This OS comes in about 57 magnetic tapes, But latest with 4 tapes
6. It takes ATLEAST a month to install and customize a basic mainframe OS configuration
7. It takes around 3 full days for a mainframe to get up and running
8. Basic configuration for development environment costs 8 crores (hardware + Software)
9. A full team of qualified system operators are always required to be on stand by to ensure successful operation
10. Earlier mainframes were provided with cooling pipes through which cold water was passed to cool the system – TCS have one in Chennai facility
11. Recent mainframes have variable speed fans in the cabinet to keep it cool
12. Have u ever heard of a mainframe system being hacked??? Mainframes are one of the most secure data installations ever
13. You cannot buy the mainframe OS, but u’ll have to pay a license to use it. The cost?? cool …..1.5 crores a year.
14. Finally, mainframes today r the most preferred data servers for even the most hi-fi of the organizations!
15. So far no virus has attacked Mainframes
The most amazing fact is that
Most of the people working on Mainframe had never seen the mainframe.Am not kidding, it is a fact.
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April 28, 2007 at 11:29 am
Peace people
We love you
July 27, 2007 at 6:22 am
hello..
can i jus kno wat exactly mainframe is al abt n wt ppl realle do thr??
November 23, 2007 at 5:40 am
thanks for your post.very much enlightening.
December 22, 2007 at 12:23 am
The note is quite disappoiting… It seems like mainframe is something very expensive and very sophisticated. However, despite the complexity of the work this platform can do, mainframe is not so sophisticated. And of course, the price – obviously compared with single PC the mainframe incomparably higher. However, most of companies which use mainframe are huge and have really big IT departments and data centers – for them it’s very inconvenient and really not cost effective to buy dozens of thousands of PCs or UNIX servers, then deploy this stuff, install the software(and don’t forget about software licensing which is usually done in terms of amount of processors!). Now imagine what the nightmare to maintain this environment and how much will cost operation of this environment – company will really require an army of IT guys, huge room with dozens of cooling and air condition systems just to avoid the overheat. And software upgrade/modification is not the job they will really want to do…
Another point is that mainframe is very reliable platform. It’s possible and is quite common in mainframe installations to have availability 99,999%.
About other technologies. Yes, mainframes usually do the work which is usually hidden for most of us. We just go to ATM, put the card and withdraw the money… Usually we don’t know that the request runs across different cities or even countries, authorized and processed actually on mainframe. And the response is on the way back within next few nanoseconds. It’s so fast that we even don’t think that the “brain” might be somewhere very far away.
About operating staff. Operators are required in most IT environments where continuous, 24×7 operation of production systems is required and generally it doesn’t related to mainframe technology at all. There are plenty examples of command centers for networks, UNIX data centers and even Windows (clusters, of course). And usually companies which need 24×7 (i.e. their systems are always available around the globe) have operations stuff for literally every kind of platform: AIX, HP-UX, Windows, Lunux, Solaris, AS/400, z/OS,z /VM, networks and probably for some others not very well known platforms.
It doesn’t take month to install OS on mainframe. If the guy who is installing OS (for example z/OS) doesn’t have necessary IT background then he could spend one month… But generally installation procedure of OS is not so cumbersome and doesn’t take one or two days to be completed. Another question is preparation of the entirely new system for production. In this case it will be necessary to install all required software, configure OS and its components, test the applications and other activities. And this process easily can take one month – it’s better to spend more time and check it twice rather then to overlook some errors in configuration. Just imagine the queues in NYC JFK international airport which are caused by failure of reservation system which in turn was caused by overlooked typo in configuration file…
And about “take 3 days to get up and running”. Again, it depends on the question in scope. If we have completely new mainframe (just ordered from IBM) then it’s correct – installation (physical mount, assembling of server components, cabling and other things) can take couple of days. If we are speaking about “switching on” the mainframe (for example doing procedure called “Power-on Reset”) then this procedure usually doesn’t take more then 10/15 minutes to complete and it’s generally depends on the amount of the available processors, attached I/O devices and other parameters. In some installations it can take longer in some less – it depends on the size of installation.
Other points seem to be quite correct…
December 22, 2007 at 12:41 am
and last point: the “basic” OS with size ~14GB usually also includes some very important and commonly used OS components, system management/measurement products and OS utilities. The OS itself takes just few gigs max.
February 4, 2008 at 10:09 am
where can i get 1 4m?
October 29, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I was searching for info. about main frame… i land here by accident, but the info. was powerful for me… thanks a lot.
June 24, 2009 at 7:06 am
so are yo working on Mainframe platform.
it is really intersting …lot of things to do in all.
Try it !
November 3, 2008 at 7:53 am
Anybody know,which OS is used in Mainframes.???
is “basic”, the name of OS???
and what’s the difference between mainframes and IBM p590,p595 series servers???
June 24, 2009 at 7:05 am
Z/Os is successor OS390 which is used as OS in Mainframe !
September 3, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Excellent site, keep up the good work