RE: Guest Partitions

Rob,

I forgot about twinax going bye bye with 7.1. We do not have a big
operation by any stretch of the imagination, but we do have six [6] twinax
devices attached: three [3] dumb terminals (one of which is the system
console), and three [3] printers. The terminals can easily be replaced; the
printers are a different issue. All of these are connected to the twinax
controller through a TIEX device. I think I saw a thread last year about
how to retain the devices, but I did not search for it; I will just run this
by the BP.

The HMC requirement for the guest partition came across in the instructions
of how to set it up; at least it did not mention any alternative. I have
never used an HMC, just sat through the good Doctor's borrowing session (all
day loooong) on it at COMMON once. I have heard you talk about connecting
to the HMC remotely, which is nice, but does the HMC have to be a separate,
dedicated device? That is, can the HMC "stuff" just be loaded to my PC? Or
any PC (we have a small boatload of them sitting in the warehouse)?

I admit that I had not thought much (if at all) about the single disk arm
issue. While the System i is critical to our business goals, it is not
heavily used by any measure. Our heaviest user (next to me) may use it four
[4] hours a day; the other two [2] from 1-2 hours each. On the other hand,
if I can deliver on half of my outlandish promises, the owners might
actually start using the system. I remembered that you once said that a
three [3] RAID set was a dog, but I thought you amended that later when the
faster drives came out.

I am still puzzled by the statement, "You will occasionally bring down the
host. Well, I hope you do to perform full system saves on it, apply ptf's
and other maintenance." The *host* to me is the System i itself running the
initial instance of IBM i. During the examples you mentioned, I suppose the
system (or most of it) comes down for full system saves, and I usually apply
PTFs delayed requiring an IPL. Is that what you and Vern are talking about
or is there something, similar to a server program or some subsystem?

So many questions, so little time...

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
Baseball stuck. Sunday school didn't. -George Will
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 2:52 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Guest Partitions

As Charles said, I save both my guests and my hosts independently. Being
able to restore individual objects on the guest is a big bonus.

Now, if you think saving both the guests virtual disk as part of
/QFPNWSSTG on the host and doing the GO SAVE 21 on the guest is a waste of
time and tape you could decide to omit '/QFPNWSSTG' as part of the full
system save on the host. I wouldn't omit it but I won't tell you you're a
scumbag if you do.

Jerry, You will occasionally bring down the host. Well, I hope you do to
perform full system saves on it, apply ptf's and other maintenance. I am
not talking about a "legends of iseries" situation here.


Rob Berendt