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  3. September 2016

Re: AS/400e 170 IPL failure

Rob

That statement was in response to Roberto's comment which I took to
mean making a copy of the OS from the "working" machine.

I'm familiar with burning ISOs to optical media, though admittedly
I've mostly only done so to make install disks for Windows and various
flavours of Linux - I don't see this being much different. Windows 7
even has a built in utility for ripping the ISO to a bootable disc.

The reason that I'm holding off doing so is concern that, if I just
burn an I_Base disc and blindly D from it on the "toast" machine, I
might risk inadvertently wiping the keys that I'm trying to recover.
Previous comments that the drives are read-only when you do a D IPL
argue against that, but I still feel like I should do some more
reading before attempting it, so that I at least have some kind of a
roadmap for what I'm proposing to do and what I should expect to see
while doing it.

WRKOPTVOL is new to me, but you can rest assured that I'll read up on
it. At this stage, though, it seems more relevant to the "working"
machine than the "toast" machine.

Thanks
Robert

On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 6:47 AM, Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
On making my own media, it turns out that the 170s only have CD-ROM
drives, not CD-RWs. So, at best, I could only create tapes - if I had
some tapes. Unless there's a way of doing it remotely, from a PC over
TCP/IP - but that would be a separate discussion.
</snip>

Download the ISO file to a PC with a burner attached.
Burn a CD on the PC.
Be careful not to think of it like burning a bunch of files to a disc so
that you can play them in your car. Think of it more like taking a CD and
burning it to another CD.
When you're done your PC should be able to read that CD and not see the
.iso file but instead see the contents of the .iso file.
The 170 should be able to read that. The 170 will not see the .iso file.
It will, instead, see the contents of that .iso file.

For example, when using virtual optical you may see files like this
Directory . . . . : /fixes/cume
Object link Type
CUME_1.bin STMF
CUME_2.bin STMF
CUME_3.bin STMF
CUME_4.bin STMF
And they could be .bin or .iso

But when you look at them with WRKOPTVOL you see the contents of each
'disc'.
Perhaps comparable to seeing a .zip file vs seeing the contents of the
.zip file.

Maybe the whole concept of virtual optical is a little past where you're
ready yet though.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: Robert <robert626001@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 09/27/2016 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: AS/400e 170 IPL failure
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



Roberto

Thanks for that background. It led me to a couple of documents (links
below) from which I learned the following:

My disk system is either RAID 5 or mirrored.
I have either one array or two.
I have either one ASP or two.
A RAID 5 array requires a minimum of four drives.

From memory (it's not in front of me right now) the drive in the
expansion chassis of "toast" box is a different type to those in the
main chassis. It seems unlikely to me that IBM would mix drive types
in a single array.

Given that the "working" box has four drives in the main chassis and
three in the expansion chassis, I'm inclined to suspect that what I
have in there is one complete RAID 5 array and one degraded RAID 5
array. Naturally, I'll need to fire it up to see if I can figure out
how confirm that, but I think that QSRV has the necessary privileges.
I'll also need to do some more reading - I'm not clear on how ASPs map
to arrays(or vice versa) and what redundancy arrangements are in
place.

In summary, my main hope for retrieving the keys from the "toast"
machine is that ASP1 may be found, complete, on the four drive array
in the primary chassis. I'm not ready to give up on that, yet, though
I'll concede the possibility that the reading mentioned above might
require me to.

Does that sound plausible?

On making my own media, it turns out that the 170s only have CD-ROM
drives, not CD-RWs. So, at best, I could only create tapes - if I had
some tapes. Unless there's a way of doing it remotely, from a PC over
TCP/IP - but that would be a separate discussion.

Robert

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 6:38 PM, Roberto José Etcheverry Romero
<yggdrasil.raiker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Robert,

Some background on how IBM i stores things, it uses an ASP (Auxiliary
Storage Pool), and within that (and technically, within the main storage
(RAM) as well) you have a one level storage. There are no volumes, no
partitions, no nothing. That means that unfortunately, if you have dead
or
missing drives, the ASP is gone for good (unless you have a LOT of time
and
expertise on your hands, i recall someone on this list reading the
QSECOFR
password from the load source drive on a linux machine after a lot of
tinkering).
The second 170 i think will be a source of spares for the one that
works.
If you can't find the media you might be able to create your own media,
look into that, if you have enough access to the system you might be
able
to create iso images to reinstall the machine...

Best luck with that.


On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Robert <robert626001@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks for the links, Rob.

It sounds like I need to bump into one of those people, in the pub
(physical or virtual). I guess I'd need to find the PTFs, too.

I'm now wondering (re the "toast" machine) whether it would be safe to
D from the LIC CD, get to DST, stop the array with missing drives and
power off. If I could do that without harming the current
installation, that might let me IPL and photographically recover the
keys for that machine too.

I'm a little hesitant, though as the last thing I want to do is
inadvertently erase the keys!

Robert

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 5:02 PM, Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I know people who keep old copies of the OS on CD. Let's say for
quick
upgrades in the event of mergers and acquisitions.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: Roberto José Etcheverry Romero <yggdrasil.raiker@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 09/27/2016 05:53 PM
Subject: Re: AS/400e 170 IPL failure
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



If you have the keys photographed but you don't have any other access
to
the system. Try to find some v5r2 installation media and just break
the
entire machine. Install from 0 and you'll have a v5r2 machine up and
running. It's a nice learning experience, but if you don't have the
media
it'll be difficult.

Best Regards,

Roberto

On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 6:42 PM, James H. H. Lampert <
jamesl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Sounds to me like what you really have is one functioning 170, and
one
source of spare 170 parts.

Which, if you think about it, is not a bad combination.

--
JHHL

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