Tag: tips

Many companies have been successfully using legacy ERP systems to support their business operations in manufacturing, wholesale and distribution. Most of these systems have been in place for many years, despite changes in vendor ownership. Although the ERP transactions continue to support the business, many companies have been assessing the shortfalls of their systems versus [...]

Renewing your Software Subscription and Support (may also be referred to as Software Maintenance) is one of the most cost-effective ways to protect your software investment. It saves you time, it saves you money, and it ensures your uninterrupted access to vital technical support and product upgrades – features that can make a real difference [...]

With the outlook getting worse week after week, we have to start thinking about areas of our ICT infrastructure where there may be wastage, and how we can generate greater efficiencies to help the business produce savings. Here are a few quick tips suggested by Par Botes, CTO, EMC Asia Pacific and Japan. Eliminate the [...]

If you are contemplating upgrading to HMC Code 7.3.3., here are a couple of tips that may assist you when you perform the install. After you have imported your system plan or created your LPAR’s, you may get this error when you open up a 5250 console session: HMC not configured for this LPAR and [...]

With the technology advances such as server consolidation and higher processor power, within smaller footprints comes a side effect – heat! There is a lot of cost involved with adding additional air conditioners and building/remodelling data centres to accommodate for this additional heat - not to mention the effects that this can have on the environment. [...]

Not only does the POWER6 processor provide a greatly increased processing rating, but has also gained recognition in proving that it is far more efficient in the way it uses power to run. The POWER6 processor has several new features, including: power trending, power saver mode, and thermal reporting. So what do these features do [...]

This month we added another newsletter to our web site from the print archives. This time, we’re revisiting December 2005. Highlights of December 2005 IBM iSeries Technical Update 2005 Hardware Management Consoles – A One Minute Guide IBM Support Line How To Reset The Dedicated Service Tools Password  Buying Hardware From Computer Merchants How We Streamline [...]

… make sure you send us the hardware configuration We often receive calls from our customers asking us to make an offer to purchase a server they have finished with. In order for us to correctly value your server and find every item of value in the server, we need to get the server’s configuration. [...]

When powering up IBM Blades in the IBM BladesCenters, you may notice that the lights on the keyboard flash. If the lights do not stop flashing, re-seat the management module. This module is hot swappable. Tip – don’t hit any keys until the lights stop flashing.

Many of us who have been around a while will know that partitions in an IT environment are nothing new, particularly in a mainframe environment. However in the past few years the concept of Logical Partitioning has made a resurgence. The benefits to users are many, including: Reduces floor area, reducing real estate usage Ability [...]

Whenever you migrate from a test environment across to production it’s important to check your firmware levels - especially on StorEdge 3000 series arrays. Our best advice is to have a technical professional undertake the installation, which will minimise downtime and any potential data loss. On your Sun servers, check your firmware levels too. From the Sun [...]

Disk replacement under Solaris 9 and 10 is different to previous versions of Solaris With Solaris Volume Manager (SVM), a lot of people are replacing disks and skipping the correct procedures because they’re not aware of them, and this is leading to problems at a later time. When you replace a disk, you really need to [...]

Passwords are one of those things that are so easy to forget or misplace. But it’s really important you let us know your relevant passwords when we are buying equipment from you. Cautionary Tale Recently we purchased several IBM 2109 switches that customers were upgrading from (both F and S models). Some of the switches had [...]

CONSOLES! Any of us that has ever had to set up an operations console, or change your System i from Twinax to operations console, would know that sometimes it can be a challenge. Refer to this link for troubleshooting a console. Recently I was configuring a HMC on a new i525, with HMC 7.3 installed. [...]

Have you had the air conditioning serviced lately? What happens if it fails? How will your insurance cover you? Cautionary Tale Recently while talking to a customer, I was told about a situation you never want to be in. The air conditioning system had failed in the IT room and yes, you guessed it, had [...]

Just like you, we rely on our IT systems to support our business objectives Without these systems we may as well turn off the lights and go home, as it is almost impossible for us to operate without them. In the mid 1990′s we decided that we needed to implement a Disaster Recovery plan. We [...]

Computer Merchants are always thinking of, and discovering, new and better ways to package and ship our products The way we pack our products is vital to us, to make certain that your equipment arrives to you in the best condition. We understand that lost or broken equipment can lead to costly downtime for you. [...]

At Computer Merchants we are often asked where our second hand equipment comes from and how old it is. These may seem like important questions but the most important question is really “Will I be able to put the equipment under maintenance cover with my maintenance supplier?” This is important because once it is covered [...]

Batteries on Sun StorEdge A1000, A3500 and T3 Storage arrays When a battery has failed or when a battery has reached its “Life Span” and requires replacement as per the maintenance schedule, it is very important that you reset the “Battery Age”. If you don’t reset the “Battery Age”, your system may continue to report [...]

Just like we keep up to date with the maintenance of our home with items like insurance and rates etc, it’s also important to remember to do the same with your IT infrastructure. Here’s a short checklist you might want to go through to check that you’ve got your house in order. Software Is your [...]

As many of you are aware, all iSeries machines built and sold by Computer Merchants have default passwords pre-loaded with accompanying documentation outlining the rack configuration, software installed, information about license keys etc. Many of our clients change these passwords upon delivery of their new equipment and we do encourage you to change these. In [...]

Businesses around Australia and New Zealand depreciate their IT hardware at all sorts of different rates. Some can be over a few years and others up to 8 years plus. Very often, within a particular depreciation schedule there comes the need for extra disk, memory or processors. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to purchase brand new [...]

A Performance Chart is a tool for comparing different servers It allows you to know the improvement you can expect from an upgrade of your machine. Each machine is rated on performance criteria such as: floating point calculations, web server performance, client/server interaction, or raw computing power. Results are then displayed in an easy to interpret [...]