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

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