Larry & Vern,
Thanks. This guy wasn't my usual CE. I will say the one who usually
supports us is very good at what he does.
This guy did force the one to a failed state to force all the cache data to
disk. And luckily I had read up on enough of the previous battery
situations to follow along with what was going on & what should be going on.
I could tell the batteries were a tight fit and that's why I offered the
screw driver to help get them out of the slot, but the use of a car key
really wasn't right. I probably should make a call about that. IBM does
usually give me a call after any service contact but I think I should go out
of my way to contact them in this case.
Thanks for the advice.
Debbie
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[
mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Larry Bolhuis
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 7:47 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: CACHE BATT EXP 90 DAYS???
Vern/Debbie
Vern is correct there are videos and such and it's really not hard
to find the cards. If you are at all skilled with service tools the
location of the card is detailed right to the tower and slot even on the
largest multi-rack systems. Depending on the cards they do need to be
removed from the system in order to swap the battery, this is true.
Vern's comment about the vice grip to get the battery free though is a
slight exaggeration, you only need a good pair of 10" Channel Locks.
:-) Seriously though the plastic clip that holds the battery onto the
RAID cards is seriously tight. Scary tight even, and while I've never
broken either the clip or the card getting one on or off, I seriously
have wondered why that they need to be so tight. Fortunately it's a mute
point because all the new cards from the FC #2780 forward have access to
the battery from the rear and NO tools are required! (No downtime either!)
While I wish we could all get superbly trained System i specialized
CEs in our shops for every little issue, this simply cannot happen all
the time. There aren't enough of them around and the primary reason for
this is that the System i is So reliable that IBM simply can't keep
enough System i specialized CEs trained and available. As a result it
sounds like your CE was likely not used to working on this system. In
this case he should have called for help sooner. Use of the car key is
something I would be shocked to see ANY IBM CE try though and that is
more than a little scary.
Just this morning I responded to a post in iSociety.common.org about
a similar situation and my comments there fit here as well. It is in
nobodies best interest for the CE to simply 'get out', rather their goal
should be (and 99% of the time it is) to 'get done'. Getting done in the
most efficient manner is also in everyone's best interest. He should
have known where the card was before you had to take down the system. He
should have reviewed documentation on how to swap the battery and how to
flag it as failed (it it wasn't already) to force all cache data to
disk. If he didn't know those things then he should have contacted his
next level of support for that help BEFORE your system was made
unavailable. And, if at any time you are not comfortable with what is
happening with your system, PLEASE contact IBM service and speak to the
duty manager. I don't want to get anyone in trouble but if there are
technicians out their putting customer systems in danger they need to
get training, get support, or get out.
- Larry
Vernon Hamberg wrote:
Hi Debbie
WOW - I printed all that information from InfoCenter - it's not
rocket science. Card locations, everything. I've done both a 270 and
an i5 - anyone want a CE cheap? NOT
For the i5 there are even nice videos at infoCenter - FOR the service
personnel, as well as civilians such as I - and one does not have to
take the whole blasted machine apart to get at these things.
If I can do it, anyone from IBM with a little instruction should be
able to do it. Sheesh!!
As to popping the battery out - they don't just pop - unless there is
a secret - the paperwork says to squeeze the bracket - yeah, sure -
with a vicegrip, thank you very much. Fortunately these reinforced
circuit boards are tough!!
Next time, call LarryB - he probably knows more than most CE's ever
will these days!!
Later
Vern
At 12:21 PM 6/5/2007, you wrote:
We just had to replace our batteries Friday night. The CE who came out
to
do this wasn't even quite sure where the cards were located. He pulled
just
about every panel off of both of our towers to locate the cards. He
called
our usual CE, who was working at another customer & IBM to determine
exactly
how to swap the batteries. One of the set of batteries had to be hot
swapped
to get them recognized & one had to be cold swapped. He pulled both
cards
all the way out. When he started using his car key to pop the batteries
out
of the first card it made me nervous & I offered him our set of
screwdrivers
to use instead. I was so glad that I had done a full save before he got
there!! The man had my nerves on edge. What should have been a 5 minute
job took over an hour and a half.
- Debbie Kelemen
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Chefs Catalog
5070 Centennial Blvd
Colorado Springs, CO 80919
Work: (719) 272-2617
Fax: (719) 272-2627
Larry Bolhuis IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert
- System i Solutions
Vice President IBM Certified Systems Expert:
Arbor Solutions, Inc. System i Technical Design and
Implementation V5R4
1345 Monroe NW Suite 259 eServer i5 iSeries LPAR Technical
Solutions, V5R3
Grand Rapids, MI 49505 IBM Certified Specialist
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and System x V1
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Technical V5R4
(616) 451-2571 - Fax iSeries System Administrator for
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