RE: Disk configuration -- MIDRANGE-L

The pre-POWER 4 720s and 620s were fairly large machines primarily due to
the internal storage capacity in them, particularly if they had the
expansion chassis attached.

I asked one of the engineers in Rochester why there were so many screws (I
forget the exact count but it was > 25) on the side panel. That panel had to
come off to get after any of the cards installed on the system. His
response was electromagnetic emissions. The system was putting out too
much. So they started putting in screws until it got low enough to be
legal. It was a very unscientific way of solving a potentially serious
issue.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John
McKee
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 5:56 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Disk configuration

He had forgotten them in his car. Not sure how one can forget to bring
tools in. Maybe changed so many cache batteries that he didn't believe
tools would be needed. I have no idea. Likely would have been a different
outcome if battery had been dead instead of a couple of days into warning
period.

Which brings up a trivia question: We had a 620 many years ago. I remember
seeing a different CE getting into the thing. Definitely had tools,
including a rather essential power screwdriver. Don't recall why he had to
open chassis, but man did it have a LOT of screws. Did the beast also have
a cache battery that also involved removing all the screws?

John McKee

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 5:44 PM, Paul Nelson <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

No tools? That's weird. Back in the day, the CE's even carried
soldering irons. I once watched a CE solder a piece of a paper clip
across some contacts on a bad circuit board on a S/38 as a temporary fix.

Rochester had had some quality control issues with a batch of boards,
and that was the published fix. Sounds like something Dr. Franken would

try.

:-)

Paul Nelson
Cell 708-670-6978
Office 409-267-4027
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
John McKee
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 5:19 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Disk configuration

When CE arrived, he brought no tools. Tried different ideas to get
battery clip off the card. Finally just pushed old battery out. No ESD

strap.

Guess we were lucky.

Remote site does have pc people. That, of course, is not stating they
actually work on pc hardware. What I have seen for pc techs is
install software, maybe replace hard drive or network card. Didn't

look< hard to do, but not something I would have wanted to do sight

unseen - no spirit of adventure.

John McKee

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 4:30 PM, Jim Oberholtzer <
midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wrote:

That machine only showed one RAID card which I'll bet was the 5709.
That is not hot swappable. You'll very likely blow up the backplane
along

with

any cards that are attached to the backplane If you remove that card

while

the machine has power attached to it. (I've seen it done twice by
3rd party maintenance companies) When that happens it's very
expensive to replace all the parts, and it's most likely reload time.

With that controller, power down, unplug power supplies, open front

cover,

pull it from the front. Remember your ESD strap while you're at it.
Change the batteries (not cheap batteries either) and replace the card.
Plug in, wait for FSP to finish booting and then start the partition
with an HMC, or wait for the partition to come up with LAN console.

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of John.BresinaJr
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 3:31 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Disk configuration

System
Name

Processor
Feature
QPRCFEAT

Software
Tier

Processor
n-way

Total
Processor
CPW

Contracted
5250 CPW
Interactive

520_0902_7459

7459

P10

1

1000

1000

If all the drives are running in a degraded status then the raid
cache battery is dead. I have seen this on older machines I used to
have and performance went in the tank when we were in that state.
On the 520's I think they had hot swappable batteries on the raid
cards. However you would need access to SST to change them out.

John

John Bresina Jr | Sr Engineer | TTS Server Tech - Tandem/System
i/Mainframe | Target | Mailstop: NCE-0706 | 7000 Target Parkway
North | Brooklyn Park, MN 55445| 612 304 3665 (ph)

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of John McKee
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 2:56 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Disk configuration

That was simple. Thanks.

Remote QPRCFEAT is 7459

Local is 7735

Does that have any significance? Or, can that explain some system
slowness beyond cache battery dead?

John

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 2:50 PM, Luis Rodriguez <luisro58@xxxxxxxxx

<mailto:

luisro58@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

John,

DPY= Raid / MIRR=Mirrored

There is no Save Spool under V5R3.

HTH,

Luis

Luis Rodriguez

IBM Certified Systems Expert - eServer i5 iSeries

--

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 4:14 PM, John McKee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<mailto:jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

I have been asked, by somebody who is also being leaned on, for

information

on this remote 520.

I can answer OS level.

But, without SST access (also no Q SECOFR access), how can I

determine

how disks are organized? Specific question was whether disks
are

Raided

or

Mirrored.

WRKDSKSTS shows this (manally keyed):

Unit Type % Used

1 4326 87.3

2 4326 92.0

3 4326 92.2

4 4327 87.2

5 4327 87.2

6 4326 92.0

7 4327 87.2

8 4327 87.2

F11 shows all drives are in ASP 1, DPY, and DEGRADED

System is v5r3

No maintenance contract.

And, just a bonus - one output queue has, (ready for this):
171203

files, some dating back to 2007.

No idea how they have Robot set up. I looked tis morning, as I
did

backup

of local system, and GO SAVE 21, by default, does not save spool

files.

I thought there was a command that showed more about disk

configuration that did not require either SST or QSECOFR. Maybe
I am

dreaming.

I had the opportunity to listen on to a phone conference about

"master plans" for decommissioning of these and other systems.

Everybody on the call was in the same boat - uppers applying

pressure. Not fun even to listen to.

Thoughts appreciated.

John McKee

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