Patrik,
I think you're right on this:
Maybe a (perceived) ease of recovery or less external dependencies for
IPLing VIOS?
With an emphasis on "perceived".
But anyone who has ever lost a VIOS disk and had to replace one (been there
multiple times) knows that it is a major pain. It is a long drawn out
process. And IBM clearly states that the CE's job is limited to solely
physically removing the drive and putting the new one in. If you failed to
follow the process and data is lost, that is all on you. This is why I'd
rather it all be on SAN.
"Note: It is a customer responsibility to perform these tasks, when an IBM
service representative is replacing the disk unit then they are only
responsible for the physical replacement of the disk unit."
Client Tasks to be performed in order to prepare an IBM Power System for a
concurrent SAS or SSD disk replacement in AIX or VIOS
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6616709
IBM CE's are no longer trained to perform these tasks. The last time they
did this for me they sent someone who tried to type in STRSST on the vios
command prompt. Actually this happened the last two times with different
CE's. They ended up calling an expert at the office. And be prepared for
some serious hazing if you are behind on VIOS. Serious hazing.
midrange.com
