RE: Setting up a Service Tools Server - to use for sharing PTF image catalog between partitions -- MIDRANGE-L

You "can" use the same line for the PTF apply and normal communication but (
and this is the big but... ) they cannot be used at the same time, therefore
as Larry stated, practically it's not reasonable.

I have one customer in very similar situation to yours. In that case we had
sufficient slots in the expansion chassis to add the 5706 cards and create
the network. We also added a switch into the mix that has ONLY that LAN on
it. That minimized contention on the LAN to speed it up some. I don't
really know how much it helped, but at least it made us feel good.

Once the cards are in place the setup is the same for physical or virtual
LANs. If you do have extra ports on existing cards you can use those.

There are more creative ways to get it set up, but then you get into a
situation where you need better than average knowledge of dynamic LPAR and
device resources etc.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DrFranken
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 5:59 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Setting up a Service Tools Server - to use for sharing PTF
image catalog between partitions

Jim,

Basically you need to figure out how with your network you can
create a Service Tools interface on both 525 partitions and 2 of the 720
partitions.

Jim O. mentioned using a VLAN between partitions and that works
marvelously for all the partitions that are on that server. The Host
partition (in your case Test) gets a normal IBM i Ethernet line and private
IP address on that new VLAN. The other two partitions will have their
service tools ('Lan Console') interface on that VLAN. WHen you create the
virtual optical device here the IP you reference will be the IP address of
the Host(Test) on that private VLAN.

For the 525 partitions you'll need to come up with one additional
physical Ethernet port for each partition. That port will be connected to
your production network just as if it were a true LAN Console and it will be
assigned a unique IP address in that same network. WHen you create the
virtual optical device here the IP you reference will be the IP address of
the Host(Test) on the production network.

For all practical purposes the port cannot be shared between Service
Tools and IBM i, they are two different TCP stacks in two different parts of
the code.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 12/26/2013 3:00 PM, Jim Essinger wrote:

Thank you Jim and Larry,

So I have 2 partitions on a 525, and 3 partitions on a 720. The
testing partition on the 720 has the images loaded. Do I set up the
VLAN on that partition, or do I set up 4 VLANs on the target partitions?

Both?

I will need an actual gigabit Ethernet adapter configured, right?
Can this adapter be shared with other normal Ethernet traffic?

I don't see any IBM documentation to support this configuration or
give me instructions for creating the correct interfaces through the
HMC. Can you point me in the right direction for that documentation for

VLAN creation?

Thanks!

Jim Essinger
Western Power Sports
Boise ID

On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Jim is right, ignore the message. It's telling you that if you truly
wanted to do LAN console it wouldn't work as it's not a supported
adapter for that specific function. For the purposes of PTFs though
it provides the connection we need.

If the host partition with the PTF images is not a partition on this
same system then the selected adapter needs to be a physical adapter
on the LAN segment with the host OR needs to be a virtual adapter on
a VLAN that is externally bridged with either VIOS or IBM i.

Always remember the admonishment to NOT have jumbo frames enabled on
the line description used by the HOST partition to share the images via

NSF.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 12/26/2013 2:39 PM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:

The code in DST always assumes you want to set up a LAN console, you
can ignore that message. It is in fact true since you would not put
the LAN console there if you had one, but nonetheless, it's a false
message for

your

purposes.

The device that's used for the Service LAN is usually a virtual
Ethernet device you've created in the HMC. I ordinarily use VLAN 1
for any user based communications on the virtual Ethernet, VLAN2 for
all system level communications and VLAN3 for the service LAN.

It is best when used with an HMC.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Essinger
Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2013 12:53 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Setting up a Service Tools Server - to use for sharing PTF
image catalog between partitions

I have been meaning to follow up on Larry's post from a few months
ago,

and

get my partitions to use one PTF image catalog to upgrade all 5 of
my

active

partitions. His post copied below.

As I have been going through the directions, both his and the IBM
documentation on the Information Center for V7.1, I have run into a
snag

in

setting up the Service Tools Server.

We have an HMC to serve as the console for all our partitions, so
LAN Console is not setup. I try going into SST to configure a
service tools

LAN

adapter, and It tells me "No valid LAN Console adapter available".

Is this something that can only be done if you have a LAN Console
adapter installed? What about those of us with HMC controlled systems?

I will keep researching, but this seems to be a limitation to older??
technology and excludes HMC console configured partitions.

Any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks!

Jim Essinger
Western Power Sports
Boise Id

...

Welcome to the 21st Century where we don't even move the PTF images
any longer, we just share them!

This is all documented in the Infocenter but the essentials are this:

Put them on one server. Create image catalog there. When you do the
VFYIMGCLG indicate *YES for the NFS Share parameter. Importantly
this creates the file VOLUME_LIST in the image catalog director.

Start the NFS Servers on this server.
STRNFSSVR *ALL

Change the authority for the directory tree containing the images

(starting

at the top) to PUBLIC *READ and *EXECUTE. e.g.
CHGAUT OBJ('/ibmi') USER(*PUBLIC) DTAAUT(*RX) SUBTREE(*ALL)

Export the Directory with CHGNFSEXP. e.g.
CHGNFSEXP OPTIONS('-i -o ro') DIR('/ibmi/v7r1/ptf')

Done on the 'server' side.

Now on the 'client' or 'guest' side, which can be on ANY machine
same or

not

LPARed or not, just needs to be IBM i 6.1 or 7.1.

Configure the Service Tools interface, also known as the Lan Console
interface. It must be on a network that is available from the 'server'
system. It can be a virtual LAN or a physical LAN and it CANNOT have

Jumbo

Frames enabled. You MUST be able to PING the service tools interface
from the server. Until you can do that do not go further!

Now create a new virtual optical drive. For the local address
specify *SRVLAN and for the server address enter that of the
'server'. Enter the directory name EXACTLY as exported in the EXPORTFS.

e.g.

CRTDEVOPT DEVD(OPTNET01)
RSRCNAME(*VRT)
LCLINTNETA(*SRVLAN)
RMTINTNETA('172.29.2.41')
NETIMGDIR('/ibmi/v7r1/ptf')
TEXT('Virtual Optical drive across network.')

Vary it on. Now check /QOPT to see if there is a directory in there
that matches the first entry in the image catalog on the server.

GO PTF option 8 and watch them fly.

Coolest thing in sysadmin ever.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com <http://www.idevcloud.com/> www.iInTheCloud.com
<http://www.iinthecloud.com/>
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