Tom, No problem, it can be a little overwhelming.
I guess the first point I want to make is that just because this is an operating system that runs on IBM hardware, doesn't mean that it comes from IBM, or that IBM would be the "natural" place to look for support. True, the Linux architecture maintainers are IBM employees, but that doesn't have to be the case. Early on, IBM made a decision not to have their own Linux/390 distribution, which I think was a smart business and political decision. Instead, they partnered with various established Linux distribution companies. What that means is the people with the most experience and skills supporting Linux/390 are not necessarily IBM employees. You do have a choice of where you buy support. You can get it through IBM, the Linux distribution company that created the distribution, or independent support companies, of which there are some number. (For the amount of money Sandy was quoted, _I'd_ give you 24x7 support!) There are some differences between the distributions as to what all is involved there. The mailing list archives has a fair amount of discussion on those topics. (It might be easier looking through http://linuxvm.org/archives/ instead.) I would imagine that once you get your system installed, most of the problems you are going to run into will _not_ be Linux/390-specific ones, but rather Linux-generic ones. In many cases you can find the answer to your problems with a few searches at http://groups.google.com/, because you probably won't have been the first one to hit a particular problem. >From my perspective, ensuring that you can obtain updated software for your distribution is a much more immediate concern than problem resolution. You will probably be better off having some sort of per-incident contract for problems. I really don't think you're going to need to spend the big bucks for anything more. Mark Post -----Original Message----- From: Tom Rusnak [mailto:tom.rusnak@;cardlink.com.au] Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 12:05 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: linux/390 support Please forgive any ignorance in this question, yet another MVS techie dipping a toe into the linux world. We are looking to create a Linux/390 LPAR on an H30 and we are trying to figure out the "support" arrangements for the base operating system. With (MVS, OS/390, Z/OS) we ring up the IBM support center for all operating system related problems as part of the cost of licensing the operating system. What is IBM's arrangement with Linux/390? IBM (Australia) has told us that we do not order Linux via IBM but must order through another site, presumably Red Hat or SUSE. If we have installation problems I assume that support is presumably given through the vendor with whom we purchased Linux. My concern is what happens once we have a production application running on Linux/390 and we have an operating system failure. *) Is there any option for getting support from the IBM support center or IBM Global Services? *) Is there a 24x7 support arrangement involved? *) What are typical costs involved with support for Linux/390? *) What type of support does IBM provide? Level 1 equivalent or more? *) How many out there are running production work on Linux/390? *) Does anyone have any experience or war stories with using linux support particularly in Sev-1 or Sev-2 situation? kindest regards for any responses, Tom Rusnak Sydney, Aus. (This message cross posted between LINUX-390 and IBM-MAIN)
