RE: Spec for New V7R1 Development Machine/Remotely Racked

Bryan,

You've yet to address my repeated concern. The OP is not going to be able
to physically touch his HMC. It will be stored in an offsite location.
Yes, the remote web rocks in 7.1. Yes, the ability to take over a shared
console session is good. However, if you IPL the entire rack (like for a
firmware upgrade, massive power failure, hardware upgrade) then all shared
sessions drop. Or, like the OP, you will be creating new lpars in the
future and those will need a new console session. And it really sucks to
be in the middle of an OS install or a RCLSTG, or a full system save, and
have the comm drop and kill your session. If, however, you started the
shared session first (by using the KVM) then if the comm drops using the
traditional shared session you can get right back in.

I did some on the side work for a company. They just had a single lpar
with Lan Console. But when they got it up and running it was all going to
an offsite hardened location ran by a third party. A room that other
people use. Building with armed guards and customers are just not
allowed to enter the building. The fact that it is your computer is
irrelevant. Situations like this may call for drastic measures. Like, do
you get a power strip with remote capability so that you can physically
power off and on a device?

I have an HMC controlling 3 racks: 9117, 9408, 8203. Each rack has
multiple lpars. 10 total of i and 2 of linux between all three racks. If
I drop all lpars on the 9117, and then IPL the 9117 to put on a firmware
upgrade, I've lost my console sessions to each lpar. When I start a new
shared session remotely my big clue is that I have to enter the shared
console session password twice. That reminds me that I better hope and
pray that my comm doesn't drop, or I'd be better off driving the four
miles and starting the shared console session there before beginning the
long running job.

Rob Berendt