Migration from Unix to Windows

After 14 years, we are considering migrating off of UNIX to a windows platform. Has anyone moved to Windows? From an administrator's perspecitve I am interested in thoughts regarding the learning curve or gotchas in maintanence and/or management. Thanks!

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Infor Lawson Technology Group - Discussion

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unknown

Sorry, can't speak to the Windows Admin stuff, but just wanted to make sure you were aware that Infor provides utilities to do the UNIX to Windows migration.

plancor

We migrated from iSeries to Windows. Administration of LSF on the iSeries is done with AIX command - basically IBM's version of UNIX. As far as administration of LSF, there is very little difference. We did implement some new products - such as Smart Office, LBI, and RQC - so administering these was new to us.

The database for me involved a bit of a learning curve. Files/tables on the iSeries are administered quite differently from MS SQL. All of our Crystal reports needed to be updated for new table file names and field names. I'm not sure if this would be an issue coming off of UNIX. We have others here who are quite comfortable with MS SQL, so the database differences haven't caused us much grief.

Jody Geiger

We are currently AIX/Oracle and we are also considering migrating to Windows/MSSQL when we switch to Version 10. Thank you for your replies Jeremy and plancor.

We have enjoyed being on AIX for many 7+ years since starting on Lawson, but with the new Sharepoint requirement, we are considering switching to Windows/MSSQL for our environment.

It appears that a Windows/MSSQL environment is becoming the trend for Infor Lawson 10. If anyone has made this transition and has any other comments about it, I'd greatly appreciate the perspective.

We'd probably be leaning toward a VMWare solution.

Specifically, I have these questions about Win/MSSQL switch.
1. Have you noticed any performance degredation going to Win/MSSQL?
2. Is there significant maintenance difference?
3. Are you using Powershell or VBScript for scripting in Windows?
4. Are you using virtualization VMware or other?
5. Other thoughts?

To try to answer plancor's question regarding Crystal Reports switch from Oracle to MSSQL, I would imagine that we'd have to touch all of the reports to update them also, not sure the table names or fields would change, but the source certainly would. I will be quite the undertaking, I'm sure.

Thanks in advance.

clara-tan

Just a point for the recent post - Even with the new SharePoint requirement, we still plan to stay with our AIX/standard edition Oracle since Sharepoint Foundation (free so I hear) should just be an additional windows server along side our virtual Smart office server. But I agree the trend does seem to be
Windows/MSSQL which might be a cost savings in of it self.

unknown

We seriously considered moving from AIX to Windows and DB2SQL to MSSQL on vmware, but we were completely unable to get sizing or any other information from our Infor contacts. It became painfully obvious to us that nobody had a clue how to help us make this transition, or any interest in doing so. We basically gave up and decided to remain on AIX/DB2. I hope you have better luck.

Getting a little off topic, just a comment regarding jboncha's post. Although Sharepoint Foundation is "free", there are very likely significant licensing impacts, particularly if you are using other SharePoint infrastructure or (particularly) Active Directory binding. Be careful not to assume that SharePoint Foundations is completely free without double checking with your Microsoft account rep.

jelibby

Just a point to share, sharepoint for workspace in 10 is use introduce to so infor product and lawson will work together in a single console. Thorough consideration needs to take place in decision making as technically you can run most of it in S3 workspace and smart office. With regards, to moving unix to windows let me know how i can help i did this many times and i can share some items to consider. thanks

Hans Mueller

I wanted to follow up with a couple of things in this thread:

First, per Jeremy's post, Infor now has built a set of utilities that are available to customers who use ICS or Infor Managed Services to assist in much (not all) of the manual steps needed to move from UNIX to Windows. These were produced as part of the TCO initiatives that the Lawson Global User Group has been pushing over the last few years.

Second, we do see an uptick in customers moving from UNIX to Windows, but for a variety of reasons. Stability of Windows 2008 and 2012. Costs of UNIX database vendors (like Oracle) versus SQL Server. Discontinued support for HP-RISC platforms, etc. But I don't think this is a huge movement - just an uptick.

With regard to Kelly's post, I am not sure why he ran into the issue he did, but the Infor Lawson team has a whole sizing team that should be able to answer these questions (and do everyday). Windows has been a supported platform for many years and we have a good base of customer experience to draw from, so providing sizing recommendations should not be a problem.

With regard to the last post - Yes, Sharepoint is required for Lawson 10 to run Workspace/Ming.le. That is the default UI for all customers. You can also run Smart Office (which is a chargeable product). You CANNOT run Lawson in a browser outside of Workspace/Ming.le (i.e. Portal) in version 10. And end users CANNOT run Lawson in LID in version 10. So your choices are either Smart Office or Workspace/Ming.le or both. We have some customers who run just Smart Office, but the vast majority run either just Workspace/Ming.le or both UIs.

On a side note, I would not base your decision to move from UNIX to Windows based on Sharepoint alone. There has been a lot of change in the UI space over the last decade - LID, Portal, Smart Office, Workspace, Ming.le etc. The longstanding goal for Infor is to remove dependencies on paid-for third party vendors (read as move to open source solutions for third party dependencies). That will take some time, and I am not sure if that includes the Sharepoint requirement as part of that initiative, but I would not want to have made the decision just because of Sharepoint and then find out 3 years from now that its no longer required. You should make this decision based on much broader factors than UI requirements.

Hope that helps.
Hans

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