What operating system are you using at your site or alternatively as a consultant, what is the most used operating system for your implementations?

Forgot one that is still around and free now as well...

Doh! You're right. Didn't think of it. You can vote for it under 'Other'

Being a resident NT implementation guy, I have to say that I work on NT the most. Not only on implementation but also on disaster recovery and optimisation as well. This means that I get to see an awful lot of the mistakes made by people just jumping in and hoping to install thier system on the easier OS..... Still it keeps me in work!

I'm implementing Baan 5c on AS/400. I have done near 10 other implementation on unix and NT server, always with Oracle Database. I was very surprized of the quality of the implementation of Baan on AS/400. It is really stable and easiest to maintain than on Unix or Nt platfrom. The cost of an AS/400 is really higher than other servers but we don't need an Oracle DBA (it save a lot of money...).

In addition the Baan support on AS/400 is higher than on other platforms, IBM has done a lot of work to force Baan to improve that part. IBM provide red books with a lot of technical tips and procedures.

The main remaining problem is that a lot of third-party software works only on unix and NT environement... but i'm sure that change will become since there is great probabilty that invensys choose IBM systems (I expect AS/400) for their own implementations.

Pierre.

Hi Pierre,

What do you mean by?:

The cost of an AS/400 is really higher than other servers but we don't need an Oracle DBA (it save a lot of money...).

Are you telling me that any Oracle database on AS/400 is self-maintaining? :)

As regards to AS/400, I know from very limited previous experience that it is a superb platform but I thought IBM was moving away from AS/400?

I said we don't need Oracle DBA because we use DB2 on AS/400. And DB2 is easiest to manage than oracle. AS/400 admin can do that we don't need a dba for that.

IBM continue to push AS/400. But they have renammed this server to e-series. Perhaps you have seen some advertisement about from ibm on web servers : eServers iSeries + websphere.... iSeries are AS/400.

It sure they try open the system. Baan works in an unix-like environement on this server (IFS). They push also Client Access that is an AS/400 administrator tool on windows platform...to don't fright young ITs with green screens :-).

In france there is a lot of middle-size company that have still AS/400 and they don't want to move to Unix or NT servers. Baan france was promoting NT servers two years ago and a lot of customers was very angry when they saw the quality of the implementation on NT server. Since ERP is now stable on AS/400 i think most of them will choose this plateform for their ERP migration.

Pierre.

Hi Pierre,

That's what get you when you assume that everyone is running Oracle :) . DB2 brings back memories from the time I was messing around with OS/2. I am a UNIX man myself but I don't need to be convinced that AS/400 is superior platform for server apps over Windows NT/W2K. Let's hope Baan and IBM keep up the good work!

I think there are more UnixWare and OpenServer installations out. Can you split it into:

- UnixWare
- OpenServer

Dieter

BTW: UnixWare is now Caldera and not longer SCO

There you go as you requested!

But even so, its not really a close race is it..... You would have thought that by now, there would be far more NT installations out there.

NT is one possibel Platform to install Baan, but you can also run it on UnixWare, Linux, Sinix, HP-UX, .... It would be nice to see a picture how many users are running on the different platforms.

6 years back Baan was proud to announce that they could handle a lot of different platforms and I think that´s still the best way to go. To have only one platform and to be married with only one supplier is always dangerous.

We are very satisfied with UnixWare. It´s fast, stable and gives us all the functionality we need (e.g. for scripting, interfacing, etc.). That is the only thing that counts for an ERP System and we know how to manage it without a mouse :-)

Dieter

I meant that I would expect a few more NT systems out there due to the cost element. Baan on NT is a great way for a small business to get an ERP system running for them. Thus, in this climate of reduced spending on IT systems, there should be more NT systems popping up in the forum...

I've used Baan systems on many OS's and each has a bonus and a disadvantage, personnally, I love the fact that I can click and shut down the server with a mouse, saves me having to remember the protocol for all those different UNIX commands, espec when you go to a server and the keyboard is not set up properly!

As I know Baan has already developed a portingset
for Linux. Has someone any experience with Baan
on Linux?

The Linux Portingset is working fine :-)

Dieter

We have been discussing the Linux option in other places on this site, but as yet its being tested. No-one seems to be using it in a live enviroment as yet. But then, there is still time for someone to take the risk and be the first.

Quote: Ravenscross
"Wrong view
I meant that I would expect a few more NT systems out there due to the cost element."

Check out this link regarding cost element of NT / Linux systems:

http://anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1527&p=1

I agree. NT is a mess in a productive environment with a high amount of users and a high workload. We run Baan on UnixWare (Caldera) with very low cost. System is extreme fast and stable as a rock !.

Linux: However I don't think you can licence that one and that they don't give support on it. I guess that someone at the porting and benchmarking department just wanted to see if it is possible to port it. As far as I know there is only a 6.1 version.

Regarding the AS/400: I did a project once with a customer who implemented baan on RS/6000 since AS/400 version was only just in pre-release phase. What I understood of the admin is that db/2 does it own reallocation of tables accross disk to optimize the performance! You can just add a few disk to the system, assign them probably to the database, let the thing work a few days and it has configured itself!

I think that AS/400 can be a very good platform to run on. However I have seen some very stable NT sites as well if you keep your fingers of it.

I had the opportunity to discuss the portinset availability with people working near the PEG portingset group, and from what we depreended is that a portingset is a huge work for Baan:
it takes 6 months between releases and beta testing, and even so, you get bugs on it!

Since Linux is usually associated to a low cost environment, I can see why Baan is not beeing able to relocate developers to it's portingset development.
That is why we only have one version of it with restricted functionality - someone picked a just released version for SCO/Unixware and changed the minimum to make it work under Linux with Oracle/TBASE (?).

Since this portingset has not been properly beta-tested, we may also expect problems with it, and a high limited functionality... I am afraid that it will be in a "geek" playground only untill Linux manages to make its way into "real" business world [non web related services as of now].

If the Linux portingset is really based on the UnixWare portingset than I have no doubt about it. We are using the UnixWare portingset since several years without any problems :-))

The Linux portingset was very stable and without errors in our tests. I have the strong feeling that Baan has other preferences and therefore they didn´t launch it. If they want to have a propper "beta-test" than it´s pretty simple: send it out to the interested users and wait for responses. Try to get this portingset from Baan and they will tell you that this portingset is not existing :-))

BTW: Linux is in "real" business. We are using it in many areas and with great success for our business.


Dieter

Dieter,

What DB platform did you use with the Linux installation. We are trying to get it up and running on a copied tbase environment but getting error 22 all the time when re-registering the tables. See thread: http://www.baanboard.com/baanboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102

So, how can I select multiple options???!!! We use Sun, AIX, HP, Digital Alpha, NT and Linux (well, not for Baan yet). That's what you get for a development shop ;)

Hi Kevin,

Multiple options have only become available with the latest version of the bulletin board software. Unfortunately, this and most other polls were started before the software upgrade. Hence you can only vote for 1 option. The only way to get multiple options would be to restart the poll from scratch.

I was surprised to see Sun being only 12% usage. I would have expected this much higher. Probably Sun installation have more users. On the BWU in 2000, Baan told that 1 out 3 of its installations is on Sun. Is this remour correct?