RE: Hardware support: VIOS service vs IBM i Service

I saw this happen as well before I retired. I then had the customer modify his IBM service contract to state that only actual IBM employees could provide service, either by phone or on-site. We also were supplied with the area duty manager's home and cell numbers.

😊

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2021 7:17 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Hardware support: VIOS service vs IBM i Service

Turns out he had reached end of shift and just put us on hold and went

home.

Are you freaking kidding me?!?!?


On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 9:20 AM Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis < midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have one customer who lost their entire system years ago due to IBM
#FAIL with a system that had VIOS for hosting (Internal disk) of three
IBM i partitions. Improper understanding of the configuration meant
IBM couldn't find the failed disk that the HMC had reported and thus
left without repairing it. When drive two failed some time later, bye bye.
They had gone into all three IBM i partitions and Service Tools
reported all disks were good!

Some months later that SAME customer lost their entire system once
again when a failed drive replacement procedure took out the RAID set
containing the hosting storage. After this failure we rebuilt with IBM
i hosting replacing VIOS. To them VIOS is indeed a 'four letter word.'
At one point before throwing all the VIOS disks into the dumpster and
making the call to host with IBM i, we were waiting on the phone with
a tech and couldn't get him to respond. Turns out he had reached end
of shift and just put us on hold and went home. Once we discovered he
was gone, and national duty manager struggled to find someone to help
us, that was the instant the IBM i tape came out of my bag and we
began reconfiguring the system.

Your absolute best friend when you run VIOS is to 'know a guy' who who
runs strong with the AIX. No joke here.

- L

On 3/24/2021 9:02 AM, Rob Berendt wrote:

I'm so used to when a disk drive needs replaced in IBM i you log on
to

the system, get into STRSST, step back and let the hardware repairman
do his thing.

It's a whole different animal in VIOS.

First of all when you open the ticket with IBM they ask you the

stupidest question: What operating systems are running under this?

Why is this a stupid question? Well if you tell them IBM i then
they

send someone out who knows IBM i and doesn't have a clue about VIOS.
So when you start a putty session and get them into the vios console
and they type in STRSST and get command not found you already know you
can tack hours on to the call.

The next thing is that they assume the customer is all knowing and

comfortable with VIOS and/or AIX and know how to unmirror disk drives
and all sorts of stuff that were all set up for me. Since you are not
you will have to open a software ticket also.

And Heaven help you if you are not at a version 3 of VIOS. You get
a

reply like, your choices are:

- Upgrade to a supported version of VIOS

- Contract with IBM Lab Services for a minimum of 40 hours at

several hundred dollars an hour

- Sign an extended support contract for the expired version of

VIOS

It doesn't help that you drove hours to a remote data center on
Monday

for an appointment you scheduled with the IBM hardware guy the week
before. AND HE NEVER SHOWS NOR CALLS! The national duty manager had
a tough time finding anyone in Indy and had to get back to me.
Service man claims he was at a customer site with his phone in the car
and doesn't know when he'll ever get out of there. Who leaves their phone in the car?!?
The only time I can think of this is my son has to because the Navy
really frowns upon anyone taking a phone into a secure area. He lost
it for a few days while they scanned it to see if he took any pictures, etc.

So you drive back down on Tuesday.
I wonder if the NCAA having their tournaments in town had anything
to do

with this. Like did the serviceman score tickets?

Oh well, driving out of town allowed me to check out some shops on
the

way home and I scored a little powder to reload some rounds...

Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600
Mail to: 7310 Innovation Blvd, Suite 104
Ft. Wayne, IN 46818
Ship to: 7310 Innovation Blvd, Dock 9C
Ft. Wayne, IN 46818
http://www.dekko.com

--
IBM Champion for Power Systems

www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i and Power System Hosting
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal IBM i Hosting www.Frankeni.com - IBM i
and Power Systems Consulting.
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