IBM z Series virtual linux servers

[npdavis99]

All,
Here is my situation.
I work for a large financial firm(one of the biggest). I want to push JBoss because it is very easy to work with and reliable in my tests. I love it. It has revolutionized my thoughts on java application servers.

To make Open Source JBoss more palatable to management, I am considering selling it as a package, running in linux vms within a shared z Series mainframe. The mainframe guys are behind z Series linux vms like you wouldn't believe it. They have offered to help back me with all the support I need. They want the engine licensing much more than websphere licensing and have been very open to the idea of not using websphere if they can sell engines.

I can't seem to find any information about running JBoss in this type of environment.

My division, as in all large publicly traded companies, is subject to be spun off at any moment. Such is the nature of large companies.

To get around this possible eventuality and enable us to not be saddled with huge expenses(if we get spun off, and we can no longer host on the parent company's mainframes) I want to be able to move JBoss, and the code from the mainframe vm JBoss installation, to linux servers.

Our development environment will be normal linux servers. QA and production environments will be in a z series mainframe.

My question is this; will Jboss run in this z Series mainframe environment? I don't want to sell it and find out JBoss won't run in this environment.

The IBM guys swear up and down that if it is java, it will run, but if it doesn't, guess what, we are stuck in websphere and even more money gets sucked out of the budget; my escape strategy for division spinoff is severely hampered.

I want IBM machine reliability and scalability, but I want to keep them at arms length and not get sucked in to proprietary IBM software. If our division gets spun off, we take the IBM money and hire some really good linux or Sun admins and buy some serious x86 or sun hardware. Since we dev on linux x86, we are good: ) We even have some Sun boxes we can qa test jboss code on.

Our database will be Oracle on Sun.

Give me some help! I would really like to talk to someone running JBoss in a z series linux vm...

I only have about 1.5 years of java programming(15 years total programming, including php and c++), but am getting good. I just don't know the *true* portability of java based app servers. Supposedly the linux vms are redhat 7.3, on which, JBoss is very reliable.

Any experience and discussion on this would be very welcome. These boxes will not be exposed to the internet in any way. Long story, but that is where jboss mq in the dmz comes into play; ) No direct back-end tcp connections from the internet... required by security.

thx,
Neil

[jonlee]

I don't know if you have had much experience with WebSphere App Server - but it is pretty much a Java engine. So if it (WAS 5.0 - don't get sucked into guarantees of WAS4.0 or lower) runs on the zSeries then you can pretty much guarantee that JBoss will too. You'll probably want to use the same JDK (IBM call it SDK) that they run on it to ensure the JVM is compatible with their environment. But JBoss lives in the VM and has no JNI that I know of.

Also, if you already have an IBM relationship, get on the developerWorks programme and then book into a local SPC to try out JBoss. They'll charge $1,500 (or whatever) for use of the SPC but you should get help for testing what you want to do (they should be able to partition a zSeries box and get the RedHat linux partition installed and provide the JDK/SDK suitable for the environment). From what you are saying, I'd say it is worth the investment in time and money.

The IBM SDK 1.4.0 really sings on our Linux boxen (compared to Sun) so that is worth your while on its own.