RE: Ops Console: LAN vs. Direct Attach

When we got our 520 3 years ago, I went with ops con direct attach ("DA")
instead of LAN attach ("LA"). My reasoning at the time was I wanted as
close to hardwired (1) as I could get. There have been issues with DA, and
I'm thinking if I had to do it over I would go LA. OTOH since I have no
experience with LA, there might have been (and be) issues there.

We got a Thinkpad (XP Pro) to serve as the DA console. DA requires a serial
port on the PC which the laptop did not have, so the BP got a Belkin
serial-to-USB adapter. After getting it working, all was well for many many
months.

Then, once upon a time, IBM issued This Really Big Update to ops con DA. DA
just flat quit working with that laptop. It took over a month of work with
Supportline, but the bottom line is after that update, DA no longer worked
with a serial-to-USB adapter. Tried 2 different Belkin models on multiple
laptops as well as my desktop. Nothing. It had to be directly attached to
a COMx port on the PC. A laptop with a COM port would work when attached to
the COM port, but not via serial-to-USB on the same laptop. Ditto for my
desktop. Today my desktop is the console.

Then, once upon a time (mid 2006), Mickeysoft issued it's weekly security
updates. KB911280 flat out breaks ops con DA. I do not know how it may
have affected LA. I removed that update and it started working again. I
still have not applied that update. That cost me more time.


(1) I've had 2 issues in the last _week_ with DA. An IPL last week to apply
PTFs resulted in the console not coming back. I did a Sev1 issue with IBM
that night. They had me go into the bowels of STRSST to places I don't want
to see again and do a restart on ops con. 5 minutes later it popped up.
Yesterday morning I came in to work to be told no one could sign on. An SRC
indicated an ops con problem. Supportline had me, via the panel, force DST
to the console. Since it worked fine, they decided it was not an ops con
problem. (The actual problem was the system never reached a restricted
state for backup and no one knows why. I could not do a STRSBS QCTL because
it said the system was still ending. Ended up being told to do a PWRDWNSYS
*IMMED RESTART(*YES). Everything fine since, no recurrence last night.
Still no reason why and I don't think one will be forthcoming.) I say all
this just to be able to say: there's nothing like a hardwired console. It
still galls me that it takes another computer(PC, HMC, etc) to be able to
run my System i. I still have a brick and a 3180 twinax that refuses to
die, just in case. Every Supportline person I have ever talked to in
regards to ops con has lamented not having a hardwired console. And _they_
bring it up, not me. They also lament the demise/lack of a hardwired
console as inevitable. All that being said, the ability to control my
System i from home via PCAnywhere to my work desktop (where ops con DA
lives) is the coolest thing to come along, for me, in many years. Gotta
take the bad with the good.

HTH