JDE World a7.3 cum5, OS/400 i5.4 future planning.

[woodwrth]

Looking for options on how to proceed with upgrades or stay static and consequences.

We have a i5 520 with i5.4 on it. We use JDE World A7.3 cum5. We don't have JDE maintenance.

We realize that IBM will probably announce removing i5.4 from support this year and give a year for companies to upgrade to i6.1 or better.

Our IT strategy right now is to maintain a static environment for as long as possible.

From talking to our JDE rep we will need some JDE sars and support to upgrade JDE to be compatible with os/400 i6.1. (not sure how far we need to go). Trouble is we will need to re-license to get that support.

A challenge we have is that we have been running JDE a7.3 cum5 for 13 years. It runs the company, everyone is happy, so why upgrade or spend money to upgrade with no perceived bang for the buck.

From talking to our IBM rep, we can pay to keep support for i5.4 for an additional year. This takes us to somewhere in 2013.

What happens when support for i5.4 runs out?
We pay support for other iSeries software packages, but at some point they will stop supporting i5.4.

I'm just looking for comments, suggestions. If your company is in a similar situation, what are you planning and why.

Thanks for any advice.

Greg

 

[scott_parker]

We are in almost the same boat. Although we are on JDE 8.1 and like most people we have been using it for 10+ years.

Custom mods aside, we seem to have an additional problem that most of our JDE Objects are “not observable".

Our current plan is to rent another iSeries with 6.1 OS on it, and load our current setup and “See what breaks”. I think that is going to be just about everything JDE.

We will be doing that later this year.

If anyone else has any insights into this issue, I would also love to hear them.

 

[Donna L]

We have already upgraded to i6.1. Unfortunately this is a major OS upgrade that requires all objects to be recompiled. If you do not have access to the source you will have a problem. The recompile and upgrade did not present many problems once it was complete but it was time consuming. I wish I had a better response. Soooo sorry. Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

 

[Eric Lehti]

You should NOT spend money to upgrade your hardware and software unless you see benefit from newer hardware and software. Will your hardware and software run another 30+ years? If so, stay where you are.
However, if your detailed research of enhancements to IBM hardware and JDE software shows benefits for your organization, upgrade!
IBM and Oracle will be happy to show you their latest goodies. Happy researching!

 

[mgerritt]

I have always considered it an unacceptable risk to run key business systems on unsupported software.

 

[woodwrth]

Donna i'm assuming you were at world 7.3. What cume level were you? After you upgraded and recompiled, did you have any licensing issues with jde?

Greg

 

[Donna L]

We were and are on 7.3 cum 16. Licensing was not a major problem but we have Oracle support. There were a few programs we needed to get access to since all have to be recompiled and that would have been a problem if we did not have current support. I understand that if you have dropped support you have 2 options - 1. pay fees for all missed support payments or 2. Pay for software as a new product. Since this was not the case with us, I can not be sure how true it is. The recompiles were just that, there were no changes. I believe you will have to confirm all ptf's that are needed. Hope this helps and let me know if you need more info

 

[edwardssoftwareservices]

I have just taken 2 clients thru this. The 6.1 conversion is similar to the CISC to RISC conversion from a few years back. The key to sucessful conversion is that objects require observability. Base A7.3 had most program objects with observability removed, as each Cum level was applied additional software was sent with observability. Even if you are at a high Cum level, You will still have problems with several objects like P00menu, and a few others that JDE never released with Observability.

The bottom line is if you need to move to V6R1 then you will need to pay Oracle for maintenance to move ahead.

 

[woodwrth]

Scott just curious, did you rent the iSeries and try your plan? If so, how did it turn out?

Thanks

Greg

 

[scott_parker]

Not yet. Its slated to be on my "List of things to do" 4th quarter this year, 1st quarter 2012.

 

[EmmanuelW]

Just to add my couple of cents:
I agree that it's a bad idea to run a business on unsupported software.
Also, programs do not need to be recompiled to go from 5.4 to 6.1; they do require conversion, which is different than recompiling - you don't need source, for one.
Finally, even though your users are happy, and everything seems to be hunky-dory as-is, I hope you realize that the later releases of the OS and World have added many cool features. One example from each: the "DFRID", parameter on restore commands, and PC Upload/Download in JDE.

Cheers,

Emmanuel

 

[JNGJDE]

We are thinking about doing the same thing to upgrade to V6R1. We are at A7.3 cum 7 currently on OS V5.4 . I spoke with JDE and they said I have to apply 3 patches and updates. Like one user mentioned, it is not a simple process of just making the object “observable” and not a source recompile but a object recompile to allow the objects to compliant to V6R1. JDE mentioned that this is not a 123 thing, it will take a weekend. Plus all the custom codes you have.

We are thinking about doing this because buying new hardware is lot cheaper then having to maintenance agreement from IBM to support OS V5R4.

Has anybody taken A7.3 cum 7 to OS V6R1? If so, what obstacles I might face.