Let me say I am not disagreeing with anything that has been said as it relates to letting someone walk into your shop and attaching a vHMC.
The following is purely based upon my own field experience in my former life, I put forth the effort to load multiple versions of HMC code on my laptop.
A laptop as your HMC is very workable, consider IBMs own example with the DS8K:
IBM ThinkPad with a couple of USB to Ethernet adapters, remember this is a dedicated laptop secured to the DS.
As for using VirtualBox on generic PC hardware, to stay legal you must license the vHMC code and IBM does not support the underling hardware or virtual environment just the HMC code itself.
I would not do it just to save a few pennies, the potential to have HUGE issues in your production environment is very high.
date: Wed, 8 Mar 2017 14:31:05 +0000
from: Pete Massiello - ML <pmassiello-ml@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: RE: Power 8 vHMC versus HMC Stand-alone Pros and Cons
That is the last thing you want is some guy showing up with a level of HMC code that might not be compatible with what you have on your FSP, or even worse is not the same release as the last HMC you had connected. The FSP and HMC exchange some data when they connect, so you need to be careful to the level of that that gets updated on the FSP.
When you have multiple HMCs attached to the same FSP, the correct upgrade procedure is to disconnect one and then upgrade the connected one. Then upgrade the disconnected one to the same release, and reconnect that one.
Don't let anyone just come into your data center with a vHMC and connect to your machine. I certainly wouldn't.
Pete
Pete Massiello
iTech Solutions
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-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Aaron Bartell
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2017 9:16 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Power 8 vHMC versus HMC Stand-alone Pros and Cons
Thanks for the feedback, Larry. Awhile back I learned of an IBM'er that used their laptop for vHMC purposes when on-site with customers that had a self-managed IBM i. Couple the vHMC-on-laptop with the multiple HMC
support(n1) and it could make for some interesting opportunities.
n1 -
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_multiple-2Dhmc-2Dsupport&d=DwICAg&c=AY-yVZ-DdqDeX_Emj_gQCkuxsL_QuG_4YQ-FxcTYVkY&r=3HmdsZESHvzaTBSHTdB6CStwTAVF1kiyCWu3SC-2oh0&m=Ox0ojrpwv5_qU5F_75CILtPmGq8m38iSPYDNjeGYG6E&s=d41Yg8edV6Vdomj2wvc8hZl14AITBdZsLrcK-yYeY7M&e=
Aaron Bartell
IBM i hosting, starting at $157/month. litmis.com/spaces
On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 8:06 AM, DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(face plant)
Because your laptop is not where it needs to be when the system fails.
Oh and it's not supported so if it doesn't work and you need to do
something with the server such as a repair action you are hosed.
Plus your consoles will not be available to anyone but you.
AND you are hoping the Power System will be OK with the HMC coming and
going all the time. Sometimes it's cool with that. Other times it
doesn't feel like connecting.
HMC is notatoy. It really does need to be there 24x7. And it needs to
be within 30 ft of your Power System too or, like one of my customers,
you get to waste a fabulous amount of time walking in and out of the
datacenter to your laptop because the HMC is 100+ Miles away near
Detroit. They have really 'saved money' by not purchasing a second
HMC. :-)
For screwing around sure. Had a Thinkpad HMC a decade ago. It was
pretty cool. :-) But for production. No. Just NO.
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.
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