RE: Dedicated console

I think we'll have to disagree on this statement: IBM has thrown out a connectivity technology as bulletproof as Twinax.

I had to replace numerous terminals.

Early on there were issues with trying to limit autocreate. It would just run CRTDEVDSP under the covers and that was allowed so we kept getting terminals on the wrong system. So I renamed CRTDEVDSP. When the twinax console died and needed replaced they tried a different model. Well, that has to run DLTDEV.. and then CRTDEVDSP and since CRTDEVDSP was renamed we had no console. Some might say I shot myself in the foot. If the console hadn't of died and if autocreate had worked right this problem never would have occurred.

Twinax wiring was often shaky. The pins were easy to get pushed in.

Someone replacing a terminal on the same line and forgetting to change the port number from 0 caused issues.

Baluns stretched between multiple buildings was an issue.

However I am sure that all of my issues will be blamed as self inflicted injuries so as not to disparage twinax.

Either way, it is dead and gone and time to move on.

When in these days of virtual machines not even vm based pc clients and servers have their own keyboards and displays it's time to accept it.

Oh, and the vm server? The closest thing it has to a physically attached keyboard and monitor is a KVM shared between numerous devices. And even if we are in the same room we'll often hook up to the KVM remotely due to ergonomics and strange keyboard behavior. Back when we had a physical HMC (we've since moved to vHMC) it too was hooked up to the KVM.



Rob Berendt