Previewing AIX 6

Delivering new approaches to virtualization, security, manageability and mainframe-inspired continuous availability features to the UNIX® market.

AIX® is an open, standards-based UNIX operating system (OS) that provides the enterprise information technology infrastructure for thousands of clients around the world. IBM intends to take the next step in the evolution of the AIX operating system with the release of the AIX V6.1 OS.

Prior to the general availability of AIX 6, IBM intends to make a pre-release version of AIX 6 available in an open beta¹.

New approaches to virtualization

Workload Partitions AIX 6 introduces a new, software-based, virtualization approach called Workload Partitions (WPAR) that complements the existing IBM System Logical Partitions by reducing the number of operating system images that have to be managed when consolidating workloads. Workload Partitions enable the system administrator to consolidate multiple applications inside of a single running instance of AIX 6. Each Workload Partition can be separately administered from other WPARs in the system, including separate security and root level user. WPARs obtain a regulated portion of the system resources available to the instance of AIX 6 and share the AIX 6 resources such as kernel resource and I/O. Live Application Mobility Workload Partitions can also be moved from one system to another without restarting the application or causing significant disruption to the application end user. This capability, called "Live Application Mobility" will be enabled though a separately offered licensed program product, the Workload Partitions Manager that will generally available at the same time as the AIX 6 OS.

Security

Several significant security enhancements will be delivered in the AIX 6 OS including: Role Based Access Control Provides improved security and manageability by allowing administrators to grant authorization for management of specific AIX resources to users other than root by associating those resources with a role that is then associated with a particular system user. Role Based Access Control can also be used to associate specific management privileges with programs, which can reduce the need for run those programs under the root user or via setuid. Trusted AIX Trusted AIX extends the security capabilities of the AIX 6 by integrating compartmentalized, multi-level security into the base operating system. Trusted AIX is implemented as an installation option that can provide the highest levels of compartmentalized security to meet critical government and private industry security requirements. Encrypting filesystem The IBM Journaled Filesystem Extended (JFS2) adds even greater data security with the capability to encrypt the data in a filesystem. Clients can select from a number of different encryption algorithms. The encrypted data can be backed up in encrypted format, reducing the risk of data being compromised if backup media is lost or stolen. The encrypting filesystem can even prevent the compromise of data even to root level users. AIX Security Expert LDAP integration The AIX Security Expert was introduced with Technology Level 5 update to the AIX V5.3 OS, and provides clients with the capability to manage more than 300 system security settings from a single interface. The AIX Security Expert has been enhanced in AIX 6 with an option to store security templates directly in a Lightweight Directory Protocol (LDAP) directory—simplifying implementation of a consistent security across an entire enterprise. Secure by Default installation option The AIX 6 installation process will offer a new option, Secure by Default that enables only the minimal number of system and network services to provide the maximum amount of security. Secure by Default works best when used in conjunction with the AIX Security Expert to tightly control the security configuration of each system.

Manageability

In addition to the manageability enhancements delivered as part of Workload Partitions, Workload Partitions Manager and the security features of the AIX OS, there are other features that will be delivered to enhance the manageability of the AIX 6 OS including: Graphical Installation This new installation option is intended primarily for use by administrators with limited prior experience with AIX installation. Graphical Installation simplifies the installation process but includes options to navigate to the traditional installation menus if required. Network Installation Manager support for NFSv4 The Network Installation Manager (NIM) has been enhanced to provide additional security and flexibility by enabling the use of NFS version 4. NIM can use NVSv4 to provide stronger, Kerberos based security during the installation of AIX 6 and other software.

Continuous availability features

Over the years, the AIX OS has included many reliability features inspired by IBM's mainframe technology. The release of AIX 6 introduces unprecedented continuous availability features to the UNIX market: Kernel support for POWER6 Storage Key This AIX 6 feature brings a mainframe-inspired reliability capability to the UNIX market for the first time. Enabled by the IBM POWER6™ processor, Storage Keys can reduce the number of intermittent outages associated with undetected memory overlays inside the AIX kernel. Applications can also use the POWER6 storage key feature to increase the reliability of large, complex applications running under the AIX V5.3 or AIX 6 releases. Concurrent AIX kernel update Concurrent AIX updates provides a new capability to deliver some kernel updates as Interim Fixes that will not require a system reboot to put into effect. This can reduce the number of unplanned outages required to maintain a secure, reliable system. Dynamic tracing AIX 6 provides a new dynamic tracing capability that can simplify debugging complex system or application code. This dynamic tracing facility will be introduced via a new tracing command, probevue, that allows a developer or system administrator to dynamically insert trace breakpoints in existing code without having to recompile the code. Enhanced software first failure data capture One of the key innovations used to improve the reliability, availability and serviceability of the AIX OS is the introduction of First Failure Data Capture (FFDC) technology. First Failure Data Capture, a concept borrowed from the mainframe, gathers diagnostic information about problems at the time the problem occurs-dramatically reducing the need to recreate the problem (and impact performance and availability) at a later time just to generate diagnostic information. AIX 6 builds on the FFDC capabilities introduced in previous AIX releases by introducing even more instrumentation to provide real time diagnostic information.

POWER6 processor exploitation

Like the predecessor releases of the AIX OS, Version 6.1 fully exploits the newest POWER™ processors, the IBM POWER6™ processor. Some of the POWER6 processor features that will be exploited by AIX 6 include kernel exploitation of Storage Keys, and automatic page size optimization.

Binary compatibility

AIX 6 is binary compatible with previous releases of AIX Version 5 as documented in the AIX binary compatibility statement. 32-bit and 64-bit AIX V5.1, V5.2, and V5.3 applications can be executed on AIX 6 without recompilation as long as those programs are well behaved and do not utilize programming techniques that are explicitly identified as non-portable. 32-bit applications written for AIX V4.1, 4.2, or 4.3 can be executed on AIX 6 without recompilation as long as those programs meet the same standards for well behaved programs.

Open beta program

For the first time ever, IBM intends to make a pre-release version of AIX 6 widely available prior to the general availability of the release. The open beta program for AIX 6 will allow clients to download, install and run an early version of AIX 6 on suitable IBM systems in a non-production, non-supported mode. This open beta program is planned for the middle of 2007 and is intended to provide clients with an opportunity to gain early experience with AIX 6. Open beta participants will be able to download preconfigured installation images from the open beta Web site and test many of the features of the AIX V6.1 release including Workload Partitions. No formal support will be provided beyond a Web forum where participants can discuss the program with other participants and report problems. More information on the open beta program can be found at open beta Web page.

¹All statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

using SSD instead of platter disks

I believe in near future there will be a big change on the storage system। SSD will be the current. What would it bring to us DBers? here's a letter from oracle newsletter:

"Donald K.urleson"

Using tiny data buffers with solid-state disks When using SSD instead of platter disks, the Oracle architecture changes radically, and we have two options: Option 1: Large RAM data buffers, solid-state disk files (SSD) In this option we have higher overhead within Oracle, as he tries to manage the heap to reduce I/O, which is now a negligible time expense (RAM-to-RAM data transfer is very fast). Option 2: Small RAM data buffers with solid-state disk files (SSD) In this option we force a read from SSD into a tiny data buffer. The overhead of the repeated loads is negligible, and we have spaced Oracle from having to manage a giant db_cache_size. SSD has the same super-fast access speeds, plus it backs-up to disk without effecting performance (SSD has much higher I/O bandwidth than disk). Bandwidth is very important today, especially with the current plague of super-large disks. Disk bandwith is more important than RAM speed, which has been relatively "flat" for the past 30 years, while everything else (disk, network, CPU) sees radically improved speed every year. Today, many Oracle database have shifted from being I/O bound (a 32-bit RAM constraint) to CPU bound (data buffer gets drive-up CPU consumption. This I/O shift led Oracle to make the great change to the cost-based SQL optimizer. Traditionally, the decision trees were built from estimated I/O costs, and this default change in 10g such that the SQL optimizer (the CBO) build his decision tree values based on estimated CPU costs. (This is why Oracle shops that are not 64-bit (I/O bound) will want to change the costing back to the earlier value of "_optimizer_cost_model"=io. The only reason for having a data buffer cache is to reduce the probability of having to re-read the data block repeatedly from disk. When we have no more disk, the data buffer becomes redundant. It would not surprise me if a future release of Oracle allowed for solid-state disks and removed the data buffer cache, but for now, the SSD block must be transferred into the data buffer to allow Oracle to manage the locks required for integrity and read consistency. If we think of the data buffer as nothing more than a place for Oracle to set locks, then we can understand why a smaller data buffer has faster performance. If we have duplicitous RAM (once on the SSD and yet again in db_cache_size), then we see higher management overhead from Oracle: Large data buffers take more time for standard management tasks (i.e. DBWR), and in many cases, smaller is better. Read more about Oracle SSD tuning as this article continues: http://oracle-tips.c.topica.com/maafS19abwE3mbIGPSxb/

怪文

From新郎

getting cold

Have been getting cold for two days. very uncomfortable.
.........
I just feel unhappy that why cannot she accept so basic a term. I believe what I do is for our best. I can sacrify much but I just cannot afford too further in career. Is it too difficult to understand?
Love is not let you lose everything, is not to just limit you on side.

Band 7

Just saw the note from my direct manager saying my promotion to Band 7 is OK and will be effective from Jun.1.
No much feeling of happiness, anyway, I'll leave IBM China after three hard-working years. But it's good, though I think it is a little too late. I believe that I deserve.
Future road is still need much effort to struggle and I cannot care too much about the trival feeling and time difference. It's getting harder when I go to US, and I should try my best to find my way out.
It's not time to summarize but time to further plan the future.

DB2 packages: Concepts, examples, and common problems

http://www-128।ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0606chun/
John Chun (chunj@ca.ibm.com), DB2 Advanced Support Specialist, IBM
Paolo Cirone (pcirone@ca.ibm.com), DB2 Advanced Support कोन्सुल्तंत

今天在华为做事的时候说起package，想起了这篇文章中的内容。回来再看看，顺便就贴在这里：）以后自己查起来也方便，哈哈。偶基本上本着方便自己然后方便大家的原则，莫拍！哈哈。

徐静蕾的字体

leave request approved

Jun.8 will be my last working day. Three years and two months.

it's a very difficult decision.

But when done, feel easy now.

why DPF?

it's topic I droped on the usenet and I expect some detailed discussion and we can have a deeper and broader knowledge on this expensive DB2 UDB feature।

Hi gurus, I know many of you are very senior DBAs and experts from IBM
internal, so I really want to know your advice on this basic topic.
"why dpf?"

usually there's a rumor, em, I believe it's a rumor, that DPF can help
you get greater performance, so even only one server, many IBM
presales will sell DPF feature with the performance story. DPF
license is not a cheap one:)

I believe DPF is much more for scalability than performance.

I believe that only when your data/table is larger than non-DPF can
serve, or you have to use more than one server, you use DPF.

how about your opinion? can you list the reasons you use DPF? Thank
you.

150,000 U.S. layoffs for IBM?

来源source
NOTE: all below is from the link above.

Last year I wrote a series of columns on management problems at IBM Global Services, explaining how the executive ranks from CEO Sam Palmisano on down were losing touch with reality, bidding contracts too low to make a profit then mismanaging them in an attempt to make a profit anyway, often to the detriment of IBM customers. Those columns and the reaction they created within the ranks at IBM showed just how bad things had become.

Well they just got worse.

This is according to my many friends at Big Blue, who believe they are about to undergo the biggest restructuring of IBM since the Gerstner days, only this time for all the wrong reasons.

The IBM project I am writing about is called LEAN and the first manifestation of LEAN was this week's 1,300 layoffs at Global Services, which generated almost no press. Thirteen hundred layoffs from a company with more than 350,000 workers is nothing, so the yawning press reaction is not unexpected. But this week's "job action," as they refer to it inside IBM management, was as much as anything a rehearsal for what I understand are another 100,000+ layoffs to follow, each dribbled out until some reporter (that would be me) notices the growing trend, then dumped en masse when the jig is up, but no later than the end of this year.

LEAN began last week with a 10-city planning meeting for Global Services, which wasn't, by the way, to decide who gets the boot: those decisions were apparently made weeks ago, though senior managers have been under orders to keep the news from their affected employees.

If you work at IBM Global Services, ask your boss outright if you are on the list to be fired. It puts the boss in a bind, sure, but might lead to a sort of "Alice's Restaurant" effect in which hypocrisy is confronted and exposed.

LEAN is about offshoring and outsourcing at a rate never seen before at IBM. For two years Big Blue has been ramping up its operations in India and China with what I have been told is the ultimate goal of laying off at least one American worker for every overseas hire. The BIG PLAN is to continue until at least half of Global Services, or about 150,000 workers, have been cut from the U.S. division. Last week's LEAN meetings were quite specifically to find and identify common and repetitive work now being done that could be automated or moved offshore, and to find work Global Services is doing that it should not be doing at all. This latter part is with the idea that once extraneous work is eliminated, it will be easier to move the rest offshore.

All this is supposed to happen by the end of 2007, by the way, at which point IBM will also freeze its U.S. pension plan.

The point of this has nothing to do with the work itself and everything to do with the price of IBM shares. Remove at least 100,000 heads, eliminate the long-term drag of a defined-benefit pension plan, and the price of IBM shares will soar. This is exactly the kind of story Wall Street loves to hear. Palmisano and his lieutenants will retire rich. And not long after that IBM's business will crash for reasons I explain below.

I am told there is a broad expectation at all levels of IBM familiar with the LEAN plan that it will cause huge problems for the company. Even the executives who support this campaign most strongly expect it to go down poorly with employees and customers, alike. But in the end they don't care, which shows that only the reaction of Wall Street matters anymore.

So we can expect round after round of layoffs, muted a bit -- as they were back in the Gerstner days -- by some of those same people being hired back as consultants at 75 percent of their former pay (50 percent of their former cost to the company since they won't be getting benefits). Throw in some overtime and it won't look bad on paper for the people, but it is also very temporary.

Taking a pure business school approach to this news, it probably doesn't look so bad for IBM. What's wrong with a multinational corporation moving work to its own overseas divisions? Squint hard enough and it can even look like good management. Global Services IS overweight and inefficient. Something has to be done and the company has already considered (and apparently rejected) a range of options, right up to putting Global Services on the auction block.

The problem with LEAN is that offshoring on this scale creates huge communications and logistical problems, doesn't generally improve customer relations, and won't save money for years without the parallel gutting of the pension plan.

And it is just plain mean.

This is a policy based on perception. Streamlining and downsizing look good to customers unless it is their project that is being chopped, because implicit in LEAN is that Global Services will be eliminating not just employees but customers, too -- customers whose contracts were underbid and whose projects may never be profitable for IBM. Maybe such axing of customers is necessary, probably it is inevitable, but it hardly has a ring of corporate honesty. Customers to be dropped haven't yet been notified, either.

It is especially disconcerting for an action of this scale to take place at a time when many companies (including IBM) are complaining about a shortage of technical workers to justify a proposed expansion of H1B and other guest worker visa programs. What's wrong with all those U.S. IBM engineers that they can't fill the local technical labor demand? They can't be ALL bad: after all, they were hired by IBM in the first place and retained for years.

What is unstated in this H1B aspect of the story is not that technical workers are unavailable but that CHEAP technical workers are unavailable. Lopping off half the technical staff, as Global Services is apparently about to do, will eliminate much of the company's traditional wisdom and corporate memory in an act that some people might label as age discrimination.

The worst part of all is that nobody at IBM I have talked to thinks this can or will help the business. It will probably just speed up the death spiral.

国学最低书目

发信人: Microsystem (clam), 信区: ChineseClassics
标 题: 国学最低书目 ZT
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Sun May 6 03:55:11 2007)

.......　　

近代梁启超先生曾将国学入门书目最低限度列为——经部：《四书》、《
易经》、《书经》、《诗经》、《礼记》、《左传》；史部：《战国策》、《史记》、
《汉书》、《后汉书》、《三国志》、《资治通鉴》(或《通鉴纪事本末》)、《宋元明
史纪事本末》；子部：《老子》、《墨子》、《庄子》、《荀子》、《韩非子》；集部
：《楚辞》、《文选》、《李太白集》、《杜工部集》、《韩昌黎集》、《柳河东集》
、《白香山集》。

梁任公并认为："以上各书，无论学矿、学工程报……皆须一读，若并此未读，真
不能为中国学人矣。"

只是如今现代快节奏式的生活潮流，要一一去阅读这些古文，恐也不是易事。

1978年，香港中文大学新亚书院设立"钱宾四先生学术文化讲座"，请钱穆作了系列
讲座。在讲演中钱穆指出有7部书是"中国人所人人必读的书"——《论语》、《孟子》
、《老子》、《庄子》、《六祖坛经》、《近思录》、《传习录》。钱穆先生所说前五
书，是为国人学子必读书，深表赞成，想来这也便是国学最低书目吧。

有鉴于欣赏国学而被古书之浩瀚惊呆的朋友，我觉得有必要将国学入门书目再调整
一下，浓缩到底。把一些对我们来说苦涩死板又诘屈聱牙的古书（如《尚书》、《易经
》、《诗经》）先放一边，先选读一些较富趣味性的古书。

　　经部：一般来说，现代政界与学术界反孔非儒的神经已经疲软，因而现在通行的四
书五经里很少再有扭曲儒学的歪解，四书五经的版本很多，都还可以。值得一提的是，
台湾学者南怀瑾先生的《论语别裁》与《孟子旁通》（这两本较有意思，在领悟圣人微
言大义时，或犹能会心一笑）当足一读。宋代学者兼儒家大师二程曾说："学者须先读
《论》、《孟》，穷得《论》、《孟》，自有要约处，以此观其它经则省力也"（《近
思录》）。二程甚至认为，《论语》和《孟子》学好了，其它经也可以不学。在此，姑
不论学好《论》、《孟》是否便不必再学其它儒家经典这一问题，于中可见《论》、《
孟》之要。

史部：太史公的《史记》相信一定有很多人读过。其他史籍凭各人爱好，我们要是
喜欢历史，大可读遍《二十四史》。不过便是不喜欢历史，那前四史（《史记》、《汉
书》、《后汉书》、《三国志》）还是要读的吧？

子部：《庄子》一书走笔峋丽，其文恣肆，应可助长我们的文采，五四前后，著名
教授兼作家施蛰存还建议青年读《庄子》（和《文选》），可见其要；《墨子》虽也有
点难懂，不过墨子是位杰出的思想家，要了解墨家学说，请读《墨子》；读《韩非子》
一书，可以了解法家之八九；当然还有道家著作《老子》。

集部：首推《文选》；其次所谓文尊韩柳，诗推李杜，所以《韩昌黎集》、《柳河
东集》、《李太白集》、《杜工部集》自当读读。但既是国学最低书目，那韩、柳、李
、杜任选两本也便是了。

一言以蔽之，《论语》（必读）、《孟子》（必读）、《史记》（不可不读，但可
选读章节）、《汉书》（不可不读，但可选读章节）、《后汉书（不可不读，但可选读
章节）、《三国志》（不可不读，但可选读章节）、《庄子》（不可不读，但可选读章
节）、《老子》（不可不读，但可选读章节）、《墨子》（不可不读，但可选读章节）
、《韩非子》（不可不读，但可选读章节）、《文选》（不可不读，但可选读章节）、
《韩昌黎集》（或选《柳河东集》，当读，可选读章节）、《李太白集》（或选《杜工
部集》，当读，可选读章节）。

至于近、当代学术论文，可先不读。若不曾饱读四书五经、诸子百家、史家著作，
便去看那学术论文，无疑较难明了。只因涉猎不广的话，既难以读懂书中所论之要，又
有先入为主之误。是以可等有些基础后，再读不迟。

不才窃以为读书求学总会有益于已，诚如古人所云——"人之有学，如木之有枝叶
也。木有枝叶，犹庇荫人，而况君子之学乎？"（《国语》）

谨与二三子，其勉之哉……

google面试题目

刚在mitbbs上看到的,觉得有意思। n久没有动过这方面的脑筋了:)

1.求直方图的最大内接矩形,假设每个细条的宽度为1.这个题很hot,两个人来问.我没想
出什么好的算法.
2.NxN行列有序的矩阵查找一个数.以前有人遇到过.O(N)的时间复杂度
3.给定一篇文章,求包含所有单词的最短摘要.O(N)的时间复杂度
4.将MxN的矩阵转秩,要求O(1)的空间复杂度.参考群论中cyclic group,group
generator
5.开放式问题,怎么避免重复抓取网页
6.开放式问题,有些网站每天只允许有限次访问,怎么抓取网页使得索引尽量全面和新鲜
7.写一个singleton pattern的例子
8.vector vs. arraylist, growth strategy & complexity
9.在C++文件中只declare class A, 但不以任何方式define class A, 是做什么用
10.virtual function
11.讨论html vs. xhtml vs. xml
12.描述在浏览器中敲入一个网址后所发生的事情.dns,cache等