Connor Krukosky writes: >I bought a SCSI SAN box, which should be fine over FCP for linux which I >plan to run since z/OS requires FICON storage which is expensive and >getting a z/OS license going to be impossible.
So let's explore this possibility. First of all, many congratulations on your $237 acquisition! You've got an interesting machine, a machine that figured prominently in mainframe history as the first genuinely "small" 64-bit mainframe -- though it may not seem small in your basement. Here are a few details worth checking: 1. Do you have any ESCON ports on your z890, or only FICON/FCP? If the latter, you would have 2Gbps ports capable of fallback to 1Gbps. The IBM DS6800 is a superb match if you're looking for a bit of FICON/ECKD storage, though make sure the DS6800 unit you find is actually ECKD. (Somebody on this list just might have a DS6800 to donate.) If you have ESCON ports you could also look at older ESCON-attached storage units or even possibly an ESCON-to-FCP/SCSI converter. 2. The z890 was available with 1000BASE-T, Gigabit, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet -- and even Token-Ring. For your purposes having at least a couple 1000BASE-T ports (Feature Code 1366) would be best, but the other ports could be a bonus. 3. Is the 4th core on your z890 configured as an IFL, ICF, or zAAP by any chance? If not, it's a spare to the three cores that are configured on your machine, and that's not bad either. 4. The z890 had anywhere from 8GB to 32GB of main memory. Do you know how much yours has? Even the 8GB configuration should be fine for a personal mainframe, but more might be fun if you want to run some memory intensive home workloads. 5. I suspect CP Assist (CPACF, Feature Code 3863) is installed, though that's something to check. You can also check to see if any cryptographic adapters are installed. There were three available for the z890: PCICA (Feature Code 0862), PCIXCC (Feature Code 0868), and Crypto Express2 (Feature Code 0863). The last one would be the best. All operating systems can take advantage of these features. 6. Do you have a HMC with DVD drive? If you don't, maybe that's another item somebody on this list would know where to get. OK, now about z/OS. Your capacity model 320 machine is approximately 120 PCIs and exactly 20 MSUs according to IBM's LSPR tables. The z890 is compatible with z/OS 1.13 but not 2.1 and above. (Version 2.2 is the current release.) Last I checked (a couple years ago), if you're willing to set a defined capacity of 3 MSUs for a hypothetical z/OS LPAR on your machine -- and you should be, especially if the z890 supports softcapping that LPAR (can't remember offhand) -- in principle it's possible to license z/OS under standard commercial terms for about $125 per month for authorized zNALC workloads. That would include the base z/OS operating system, DFSMSdss and hsm, XL C/C++ compiler, SDSF, Security Server, and RMF. Java 8 is still compatible with z/OS 1.13 and no additional charge, and there are some other add-ons that are no additional charge. So maybe "not crazy," or at least less crazy than you might have thought. If somebody wants to subsidize that particular aspect of your hobby, that'd be helpful. (Maybe you want to port some open source software to z/OS 1.13 and above?) By the way, if you want to test z/VM you can, assuming you have a DVD-equipped HMC. The z/VM Version 5.3 Evaluation Edition is still available: http://www.vm.ibm.com/eval/ The documentation says it requires a z10 or higher. In fact the z/VM 5.3 Evaluation Edition *probably* works on earlier machines capable of starting from DVD, including the z890, though on pre-z10 machines the boot process is *much* slower. Because of the slow boot, IBM never claimed that the Evaluation Edition worked on models prior to the z10, but as I recall that was the only issue. Of course Version 5.3 of z/VM is quite backlevel, but Version 5.4 (also backlevel) is the last release of z/VM that works on a z890, so you're not far off here. Also bear in mind this is a 90 day evaluation license. Once you reach 90 days you're obliged to discontinue use. Check the license agreement for details. IBM Redbook SG24-6695 is likely to be useful if you head down this path. It's also possible IBM will discontinue downloads of the Version 5.3 Evaluation Edition at some point in the future. I like the ZZSA idea as well. I've placed a brief story about your new personal mainframe at http://www.mmainframer.com at least as a placeholder. Please keep us posted on your progress. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM z Systems, AP/GCG/MEA E-Mail: sipp...@sg.ibm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
