Hi,
I went to an exhibit called Linux World in Tokyo today.
Aside from seeing linux on S/390 run in front of my eyes, I
learned a few things.
I have been wondering how VA Linux can sell high-end servers
if the SCSI adapters/chips can have some flakey behavior
depending on chip-revision, etc.. as reported here and
if the storage system may not work well when
SCSI subsystem error handler got stuck when
hardware error(s) with long timeout occur, etc..
Since VA Linux is making headline news in trade journals,
they must be doing something right.
Today, at the show, I had a chat with someone at VA linux booth
and learned the following.
- VA has chosen the SCSI boards they use very, very carefully
based on the stability of software drivers, and
then keep the driver in good condition by applying known
patches, etc..
(I forgot to ask, but presumably with a big purchasing power,
they may be able to get a deal with the distributor of the
SCSI host adaptor to obtain specific revision of chips/boards
instead of random assortments small shops can manage to buy.)
- for really large high-end servers (meaning RAID, I think), VA
has written a special driver for such controller cards that
bypasses the SCSI subsystem totally, and the resulting
driver makes the RAID looks as if it were a block device(!).
Now back at home, I have a few unanswered questions about
this, but at least I can see that VA has a known entity
to work with if the storage system produces hard errors.
It is now up to their driver to handle it in any way they choose.
- I was told that the above driver was written by no other than
their CTO (Chief Technical or Technology Officer?). I thought
having a hacker in a management type position is interesting.
- Then, it turns out from my watching their promotional video
at the booth that the said CTO is Leonald Zubkoff whose
BusLogic SCSI driver surely have powered many linux PCs.
Mine also has BusLogic card.
I was pretty impressed with the way VA linux handles the
high-end SCSI storage systems.
When I mumbled about LUN problems, the man suggested that
maybe I could be the one to solve the LUN problems
because LUN devices are relatively untried and I have the
access to such changer device. Oh well...
Happy Hacking,
Chiaki Ishikawa
PS: Linux on S/390 certainly looked COOL.
Many youngsters don't know that VMware-like multiple-OS environment
has been supported on IBM mainframes for a long, long time.
And I was thrilled to see Linux console on the console of S/390.
The IBM representative admitted that it is much easier to compile
apache and other free software tools on Linux S/390 than trying to
compile it on the POSIX-emulation environment (Open-something)
on their native OS. They had about 3000 downloads of the
S/390 drivers available from IBM web site and the rep thought
some are tinkering with linux on the partitioned environment on the
office
IBM computers.
I visited a few booths where technical staff from North America flew in
and was told that this show had more suits than they expected.
Some got bored since techies weren't visiting in droves (rain was not
helpful today), and were seen hacking programs on IBM portables
supplied at the booth by the show organizer.
Japanese big companies like Fujitsu is now dead serious about Linux and
Fujitsu held a rather large booth for this young trade show.
All in all, I was very impressed that business people finally
met linux and are looking at the pros and cons seriously.
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