Re: IBM Power Systems enhances its server and I/O options

Software wise I do not believe there is anything inherent to the amount of
disk space involved in the pricing of base OS. I believe it is only
processor, and tier, based. Granted, different tiers typically support
different amount of disks (at least back in the internal days) but tiers
are solely based on processor type.

Now there are ancillary products often purchased by those shops running
increased levels of disk storage. Technically those are more based on the
issues such a shop may face and not directly tied to the amount of disk.
For examples: Power HA, DB2 Multisystem and so on.

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com





From: Jonathan Wilson <piercing_male@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 02/16/2017 08:22 AM
Subject: Re: IBM Power Systems enhances its server and I/O options
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx>



On Wed, 2017-02-15 at 21:58 +0000, Sue Baker wrote:

DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote on Wed, 15 Feb 2017 21:13:10 GMT:

IBM also announced some new EXP12 drawers that hold these
guys. Not sure if they are supported for i though. Have to
look.

The new EXP12SX drawers are not supported with i at this time.
None of the new LFF disks are supported either.

This raises a question in my mind. Does the I have "hardcoded" (for want
of a better term) acceptable disks? Or can it accept any disk that can
be connected to it just as long as the interface/protocol matches?

To expand. Are the cables/protocols/connectors/backplane industry
standard in that they use the SAS interface and the SAS command set?
Following that, if SAS, does the SAS also include the sata tunnelling
protocol so that it can accept sata disks?
That then leads on to the question, if the cables/interfaces are
industry standard... is it possible to "build your own" expansion box by
running the cables into an external drive draw and shoving a load of
larger IBM LFF's or commodity "near line" SAS's in there?

Obviously if the drives/interfaces are fibre channel then thats a whole
different ballgame (interposer cards ;-).

Now I realise that a person buying an I is likely to want all the
advantages that come with the box, such as reliability and the ability
of the disk system to keep the processor busy and a host of other "it
just does" features... but as a nerd with a home built multi-TiB media
server running linux who loves the technicalities, and nitty-gritty, of
both hardware and software the details and "I wonder if I could just..."
questions and answers fascinate me.

I guess the above also raises another question... pricing! Now I know
vaguely that I pricing (excluding hardware) is based on a number of
factors such as users, "OS" software stack, processor power, and so on;
but does disk storage also come into play in the "OS" pricing? If you
can buy an I for a given, but small, "workload" but have a massive data
data storage requirement does that affect the price? Could you buy/build
a multi TiB backend with an external fibre channel interface/card;
linux; gluster; a bunch of cheap satas; and attach to a lowly P05 (or
whatever a small(ish) I is called) and use all that lovely diskspace for
no extra cost?

Jon

--
Sue
IBM Washington Systems Center - Power Systems
Rochester, MN

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