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

On Thu, 2017-02-16 at 11:55 -0500, DrFranken wrote:

Sue really covers this well here but a couple other notes.

First there are features in the disk units that IBM i exploits and that
is IBM owned code. If those features are not there that's a problem,
hence the support for only specific VPD as Sue indicated.

Second, when is the last time you updated the firmware of the drives,
RAID cards, SAS back-planes, etc on your IBM i Partitions? What's that,
you say "Never?" That is incorrect. Potentially you do this with every
PTF! You do PTFs you IPL your machine sees a drive with down level
firmware, it updates said firmware, you sip your coffee. It's a great
deal!

To be honest, working with my PC/server (with PC, not server, parts such
as dumb 4 port jobd/raid cards) I can honestly say I've never updated
any firmware (and I didn't even consider that drives had up-datable
firmware). But I did know that the "400"/i handled firmware updates via
PTF's... and if I have read 'Inside the AS/400' correctly potentially
updates/loads some "firmware" for some devices at each boot? (Because
they use the powerPC so are, to a limited degree, computers in their own
right.)

(Side note: This is why 5887 drawers are supported only in Mode 1
with IBM i. See if you can figure out why... :-) )

Well I assumed it had something to do with single level store... but
then had to find out what the 5887 was, what was in it, and then finally
find out what the different modes were! I still think its to do with the
single level store ;-) (mode 1 is all disks are viewed as part of one
logical set, mode 2 is 2 sets, etc; so I eventually found what it meant)
but am still none the wiser at to what is actually in the device bar
some "black box" part, the rack part, and where the disks get fitted.

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER8/p8ecs/5887parts.htm

I would love to know what's in this bit:
50B1 45W7653 2 Enclosure Services Manager (ESM)

Now having read 'Inside the as/400' (I have it) and speed read 'Fortress
Rochester' (it was an inter library loan from the US to the UK, at Xmas
time so I only had week to read it due to postal delays) my guess its
its not a simple expander/breakout box but is a clever expander that
drives the disk individually/independently and passes the data along to
the "i" and/or other power/ systems. Its some kind of raid controller
that then talks to the i "controller". I'm also guessing it uses the
ubiquitous powerPC processor somewhere inside.

All in all I find this stuff fascinating and keep forgetting that there
is a whole different level to hardware at even the "PC" server level of
kit (LSI PC raid cards with powerPC doing the grunt work) never mind the
kit that goes into power/ midrange and mainframes.

Years ago there we some vendors selling 'plug compatible drives' for
then 'AS/400' machines. Customer upgrades to newest release (seem to
recall V4R4) and craters the machine. Why? The new release updated the
firmware on those drives. Since they were not IBM Drives the new
firmware destroyed them. The vendor merely said: "We never said we were
compatible with the NEXT release, only the one you were running when you
purchased them!"

All the shops I have worked at were of the firm belief that "no one ever
got fired for buying IBM..." well at least when it came to buying bits
for the "400"/i ;-)

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
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