Upgrade to 8.12 or upgrade to different OS and Hardware

We are currently on JDE XE and our environment is getting to the limit of it’s lifetime in regards to the HP-UX ES, Win 2000 DS and Oracle 9I Db. All are on older hardware that is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. We started evaluating our options earlier this year and the only option that would allow us to upgrade all of our hardware as of late May appeared to be an upgrade to a more recent version of JDE (8.11 or 8.12) to be able to utilize newer hardware and backend software (OS and Db releases) according to the MTRs published at that time. In addition, our corporate directives mandate eliminating HP-UX from our environment, leaving us with the options of AIX, Windows or Linux for the ES. A recent review of the MTRs on the Oracle website, however, reveals that JDE XE is now supported on Windows 2003 and Oracle 10G. This now gives us the option of upgrading our Oracle and Windows servers as well as utilizing the option that already existed of going to AIX for the ES. Since we have been on HP-UX since the first inception of JDE B7332 at our location, I have never really paid much attention to the AIX specific tricks and traps and comments. I wanted to ask those of you on AIX to share your evaluation of that platform as an ES for JDE XE. In addition, I also wanted to ask those of you who have gone in this direction to share your experiences in upgrading to Windows 2003 for the DS and Citrix client and also any experiences in upgrading to Oracle 10 G database.

From a performance perspective - it really doesn't matter what platform choice you choose - with the right combination of budget and skills, you'll get that platform to perform to whatever your requirements are.

The only true choice as far as platform is concerned should be based on your internal IT skillset. If you know windows, then why bother to learn a different OS ? If you know AS/400 - why bother to acquire unix skills ?

As far as the different flavors of unix is concerned, however, HP-UX is by far the most popular platform with JDE customers, followed by Sun Solaris and then AIX with a smattering of Linux customers following (but growing) at the back. Unix, however, still make up less than 10% of all customers - AS/400 and Wintel make up the majority in combination (though Wintel is predominately SQL Server of course). Keep in mind, however, that Unix customers are often the really "big" customers with lots of users - whereas Intel customers are often those with a smaller install base.

However, from a PERSONAL perspective - I really like the RS6000 equipment. I don't think they're that fast, but for some reason JDE (Xe) has always been pretty darn stable on RS6000 architecture - and I think you'll hear that sentiment from AIX users on the board.

Win2K3 is now very mature as far as JDE is concerned. Do not attempt a win2K3 upgrade - instead perform a fresh install. Remember that deployment servers shouldn't change their name of course - there are a ton of articles on the list that can help with installing a new deployment server. Just remember that Terminal Services is standard under Win2K3 - so you will have to add "OWDEVELOPER=TRUE" to all your JDE.INI, including the deployment server.

Stay clear of Oracle RAC - again, lots of articles on the list about RAC - but 10g is fine.

As for citrix - there are no issues with Presentation Server 4.5 under Windows 2003.

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Keep in mind, however, that Unix customers are often the really "big" customers with lots of users - whereas Intel customers are often those with a smaller install base.

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Jon, I wouldn't call Praxair a small customer, we have been windows and ms sql from day one. We are currently windows 2003 and sql 2000. We are looking to migrate to sql 2005.

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As for citrix - there are no issues with Presentation Server 4.5 under Windows 2003.

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We are running terminal servers with windows 2003 and presentation server 3. I would not recommend that version of Citrix. It's printer support is very instable.

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Jon, I wouldn't call Praxair a small customer, we have been windows and ms sql from day one. We are currently windows 2003 and sql 2000. We are looking to migrate to sql 2005.


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Hi Greg - I don't like to correct you, but Praxair started on Windows/Oracle (I helped migrate you to SQL after the Xe upgrade!). In fact, from "day one" I think they were one of the few shops that were trying to implement S/390 Oracle in the VERY VERY early days (but I might be mistaken there) and were pushed to Wintel/Oracle when JDE dropped support for S/390 in 1997.

Anyway, as I stated, often the Unix/Oracle installs are larger user counts (due to the significant budget required to support usually) - and although the SQL server installs are mostly smaller to medium user count implementations - there are plenty of exceptions all over the place !

Jon,

You're right, I forgot about Wintel and Oracle. We moved off of that combo years ago. It's always been windows in North America. South America is Unix and oracle. Asia was World until they jumped over to the E1, then the combo was Wintel and SQL.

Gregg