Re: Feuding with IBM over HMC console disconnects

We use vHMC and like it a lot. The issue isn't the HMC itself in this case.

Why do they drop? Because the HMC doesn't have any keepalive between the PC running ACS and itself. So nothing crosses the wire for a while and the firewalls drop the NAT translation. This is the most common issue. This is why we want a console local to the HMC so we can simply reconnect to that. Within the same subnet there isn't anything in the middle to wreak havoc with the connection!

Yes between my own office and my data centers I can tell my firewalls NOT to drop any connection using port 2300 or 2301 and that helps a lot. But any shenanigans on the internet and the VPN reconnects. Fine for stateless things but notsomuch for consoles. And my internet comes in on a 120 ft tall tower with a dish connected to another tower 17 miles away. While it's darn good it's not infallible. Option "B" for me is cell internet (less reliable still) and plan "C" is a modem... oops sorry no land lines left. No "C" for me.

Yes the takeover works IF a) You have a user ID and password for service tools and b) Your password is not expired. My #1bitch with it is that it can TELL you your password is expired but it cannot let you change it.

THIS needs to be fixed. If you are stuck in that situation you are toast.

And believe me next to nobody knows the QSECOFR password for DST at very small shops it's flatly incredible.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 5/15/2019 10:58 AM, friedkiwi@xxxxxxxx wrote:

A vHMC could be a solution?

We've successfully used those on our existing vSphere environment, and
accessing the console is trivial.

Wrt dropping, do you have any idea why it happens? You could try
reproducing it with e.g. Wireshark running to capture the network traffic
and see what happens around the time the connection is lost. I've seen
e.g. the Cisco Umbrella enterprise security products interfere with
long-running TCP connections.

/y



From: "Jim Oberholtzer" <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 15/05/2019 15:26
Subject: RE: Feuding with IBM over HMC console disconnects
Sent by: "MIDRANGE-L" <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>



I've been fighting that same problem for quite some time as well. Maybe
someone will be at POWERUp19 to gang up on? Wait, we run IBM i and don't
count for the folks in Austin.... Snide comments aside, the correct thing
to do is to stop the console from dropping in the first place.

As to the V7R4, only someone with pre-release would be able to answer the
question. Nothing in the MTU or other documentation I've found.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
DrFranken
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 8:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Feuding with IBM over HMC console disconnects

Opened a PMR with IBM about the way the console works on the HMC. 'Back in
the day' there was a session on the HMC somewhere in the background and if
you got disconnected from the HMC that stayed alive. You could then
reconnect. It was awesome. That went away (I think) with version 7.
(Loooong ago.)

This is of course important for long running tasks like system restores,
full saves from the consoles, PTFs perhaps, things like that.

The 'work around' is to keep a shared console open 'somewhere else'
preferably 'very close' to the HMC so that disconnects are unlikely.
You could do so at the HMC itself of course but that requires the ability
to
put the old Mark I eyeball on the HMC. Yes the BMC connection on the 7063
HMC being supported allows this to be done remotely but most customers
don't
configure that and even if they do they don't know the user/password for
the
thing.

IBM say: "But we gave you console takeover, you're good if you remember to
turn that on!"

*I* say: "But if I get that screen and my password is expired I'm toast."

IBM say: "Correct."

Anyone know if i 7.4 lets you change your password at the takeover screen?

Any other ideas?