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Revamped mainframe platform

Walt Hagmaier, IST–CCS

The past 12 months have been ones of great change for the mainframe world at UC Berkeley. Starting in late June 2004, a brand new mainframe processor was installed in coordination with the data center relocation. This was done to solve three problems:

• Not enough capacity to run current or future applications.
• To reduce the mainframe's monthly costs.
• To develop a platform to support future campus projects.

The new machine is an IBM z890-450 series mainframe representing the latest in large-scale parallel systems architecture. Capacity was increased from 450 to 650 MIPS (millions of instructions per second) and memory by 400 percent from 4 GB to 16 GB. Connections from the mainframe to other hardware, like disk and tape, were replaced with all-fiber technology that is approximately 10 times faster than what existed previously. Also important was the new processor's ability to handle the new 64-bit operating system that would be necessary to run the upcoming PeopleSoft applications that would be installed in 2005.

This machine gives us the ability to have what IBM calls "capacity on demand". This means that as our workload increases or decreases, we can dynamically adjust our computing capacity provided to the campus. Often we need increases in our capacity due to spikes such as fiscal close or student registration. Hardware and software expenses then are based on how much we use each month versus the old model of spending based on the maximum amount of capacity you could possibly require. This allows us to pay for what we use, and not for what the equipment is capable of doing. This saves us thousands of dollars each month we run with the reduced capacity.

In order to achieve the benefits of the new technology, two important projects were completed:

• First, in September 2004, a brand new operating system was installed on the mainframe. The z/OS operating system was designed to run using 64-bit instructions, versus 32-bit, greatly enhancing the performance and throughput of the machine.

• Second, in January 2005, the workload was split into two logical partitions called LPARs. We configured the mainframe into a PeopleSoft LPAR and a non-PeopleSoft LPAR. We received tremendous pricing concessions from our vendors on workload run on the PeopleSoft side (HRMS, BFS, and the campus portal). The non-PeopleSoft side — Payroll, CARS, Financial Aid Office (FAO), and Student Information Systems (SIS) — is priced at a much higher level. Since about twice as much of our workload is PeopleSoft compared to non-PeopleSoft, we make significant savings — several thousands of dollars every month!

Overall, the UC Berkeley mainframe world has undergone a huge transformation and has been almost been completely overhauled in the past 12 months. There has certainly been a lot of hard work by staff, both within IST as well as throughout the campus. This hard work has already paid off, as seen last July and August when fiscal close performance on the mainframe showed tremendous improvement. Going forward, we are positioned to handle many new challenges like the upcoming BFS PeopleSoft upgrade in the latter half of 2005, as well as any other changes that are certain to come our way. Stay tuned for more news later this year.

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