Re: SWMA, HWMA and Update Access Keys....

["Larry \"DrFranken\" Bolhuis" <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IBM Has made many levels of Firmware available even without hardware 
support. I have yet to run into a situation where PTFs won't go on 
without the current firmware but HAVE seen where they don't  work as 
intended without that.

As to the lack of IBM personnel and parts in the hardware maintenance 
area that is a real thing. This is a consequence of them keeping parts 
in kentucky, not training folks, and working the remaining ones on 
excessive overtime.

It's also a consequence of good competition such as Service Express. :-)

	- DrF


On 7/11/2022 11:25 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:
> You will not be able to update the firmware, and eventually not be able to
> apply PTFs due to incompatibility, but the system will keep running.
>
> You will need to request a PRPQ for the firmware support only, IBM will
> only sell one year at a time on that.  It's a royal, class A, major PITA to
> get done.
>
> IBM does not seem to realize that the dwindling support personnel in the
> field and the awful lack of experience and education/training of these
> folks are driving customers away from IBM Hardware support.  Last week I
> had to instruct the SSR how to replace a disk unit since "he had never done
> it before on an IBM i system".  Did not even know how to sign in to SST.
> He was trying to get SMIT to come up (AIX utility).
>
> That said, hardware support on a single system is not too awful in price.
>
>
>
> --
> Jim Oberholtzer
> Chief Technical Architect
> Agile Technology Architects
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 11, 2022 at 9:52 AM Pete Helgren <pete@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: