Re: OT: If you use linkedin.com...

[David Boyes]

> > I don't know about you, but if they want to use my name and face, I expect
> them to rent it by the hour.
> 
> I don't know about you, but I would not give up my sysprog job ... ;-)

"The weirder you're going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works 
in reverse, too. 
When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is 
absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person."

-- P. J. O'Rourke

OT: If you use linkedin.com...

[David Boyes]

You may want to read this. 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/11/linkedin_privacy_stuff_up/

I don't know about you, but if they want to use my name and face, I expect them 
to rent it by the hour. 

Re: z/vm page packs at DR

[David Boyes]

David, CP doesn't need a PAGE pack to start: it can and will page in spool 
packs when PAGE is full or not existent.  Only when spool is full too, then CP 
dies.
Yeah, I was just thinking about that - bad habit, I know. Another reason to get 
SPXTAPE fixed to work with a pipeline stage input/output so the only really 
critical thing is to get some spool built - you probably could even do without 
NSSes for long enough to get the system restored (assume you IPL 190 instead of 
CMS and waste some RAM during the restores). Keep your one pack system in the 
config but inaccessible with Offline_at_IPL in your production SYSTEM CONFIG so 
it doesn't get accidentally used.  Then you could pretty much not care about CP 
areas at all other than the directory. Hmm
I probably should talk to CA about promoting V/SEG more.
I really like Mike's idea about having one id per volume to restore. That's 
cool, and lends itself really nicely to automation. You could rebuild the 1 
pack system completely automatically every night and create a tape to send out 
without human intervention. Hmm. Hmm.

n  Db

n

Re: z/vm page packs at DR

[David Boyes]

> Note that CP FLASHCOPY has a LABEL option to let copy the disk and change
> the label in a single operation.  If the target volumes have been PRE-labeled,
> you can use the SAVELABEL option.

Do you happen to know if that requires a specific level of the flashcopy 
firmware, or is it done in CP? I tried that on 5.4 with an older (don't have 
the release # handy) Shark box, and that option didn't seem to work. 

Re: z/vm page packs at DR

[David Boyes]

> You will need spool space, so you might as well copy it (or keep a small spool
> area available only with the NSS files, JUST for DR).

Time to resubmit that requirement for disk support for SPXTAPE. 

Re: z/vm page packs at DR

[David Boyes]

This method works fine, however, I'm wondering if backing up the page packs is 
necessary?  I was thinking that maybe I could backup only 1 page pack so that I 
can get z/vm up and then just init the remaining packs after coming up.

I've done it both ways. If you have flashcopy in the disk hardware, the "back 
up one, flash the others, clip the labels with DDR" is really, really 
efficient, and trivially easy to automate (at one site, we ran that way 
normally - made it really easy to avoid the "write one page at IPL on a page 
pack and then you can't drain it" problem discussed here recently). Just make 
sure that you have a short delay in your AUTOLOG1 startup (or do the flash/clip 
in AUTOLOG1) so you can stop the whole system from initializing before the page 
packs are online - running out of page space during IPL is kinda icky.

You do need to back up a fully-formatted page pack (processed with CPVOL 
FORMAT) because you'll get paging errors and weird horrible flaming deaths that 
are really hard to find if the pack is not completely CP formatted.

Since the page packs are listed as cpvols in system config, would z/vm even 
come up if it couldn't find all of them?

For PAGE space, z/VM is perfectly happy to come up without them (as long as you 
have lots of RAM or at least one PAGE area available). SPOL packs are the ones 
you REALLY care about having all the pieces.

At DR site, we bring up a z/os "rescue" system in order to run restore jobs for 
both z/os and z/vm volumes.  Afterwards, our z/vm and z/os systems run as 
second level guests.  Maybe I need a "rescue" z/vm system as well?

We do it the other way around - z/VM first, then z/OS and the other guests. A 1 
pack z/VM system is very quick to restore and will let you bring up multiple 
z/OS guest systems and the restore will go much easier.  With a little thought, 
you can automate the whole process with an exec - it leads to lots of amusement 
during DR when you load 1 or 2 tapes, IPL VM and just sit there drinking coffee 
while everyone else does fire-drill. 8-)

Re: Question about Linux shutdown

[David Boyes]

SIGNAL SHUTDOWN (if configured in the Linux guest) will run the equivalent of 
"shutdown -h now", so as long as you provide the Linux guest  time enough to 
execute a normal shutdown, it's safe to do that. 90 seconds may not be enough 
time - do a test shutdown manually to determine a rough idea of how long the 
system takes to shut down normally and add about 30 seconds for safety.

As far as startup, the system will run the normal startup scripts when 
autologged, so as long as the applications are configured to be started by init 
normally, you're fine.

Re: VM Workshop -- Locations

[David Boyes]

> Has the VM Workshop replaced WAVV?
> Jim

That's an open question. WAVV is still going to happen this year, but with 
Bernie Pugh gone, the future of WAVV is kind of uncertain. The WAVV admin list 
has been mucho silent recently. 

-- db

Re: VM Workshop -- was fantastic!

[David Boyes]

I'll also point out that Monsieur Martin hosted another of the better workshops 
Back In The Day. The Bates Mountain Inn in Fayetteville has a niche all its own 
in the Workshop sagas As does getting mooned by the locals while riding on 
a steam train to Rudy, BFE, Arkansas.

You had to be there.


*sigh*  Perhaps next year...  I miss the old workshops.

-dan.

Re: anyone running ILMT?

[David Boyes]

> however there are two files that are
> placed in /etc (tlmagent.ini and tlmlog.properties).

Ditto here -- c'mon, IBM. /etc/tlm, not just dumping them in /etc.

Re: anyone running ILMT?

[David Boyes]

> Yes, it does seem like very odd install location (/var!) and will probably
> require us to add space to every server (grr).   How can something that does
> so little take so much!

I'd apar that. There's no excuse for code in /var. Data maybe, but not code. 

C'mon IBM. There's conventions for this stuff. Don't make stuff up. 

-- db

Re: Time off running z/VM 5.4 1101 on z196 for first time

[David Boyes]

Now *that* is cool. 

> Because I wanted the most accurate clock yet least expensive clock I coul d
> get, I built my own GPS clock and use the pulse-per-second (PPS) signal w ith
> GPSD to build my own NPTD stratum zero time source that gives my system
> super accurate time.

How come Z hardware doesn't come with one of these? 8-)

Re: VM Workshop -- was fantastic!

[David Boyes]

University of Wisconsin would be a good choice for next year... Strong VM ties 
(TCP/IP) there too.
Madison is one of my favorite places in the US, but it tends to be hard to get 
to cheaply (cheap is a big factor for Workshop). Current discussion has 
University of Kentucky as top candidate, Ohio State again, or University of 
Nebraska, but I'd go to Madison in a heartbeat. Nothing fixed in stone yet - we 
gotta go out and check it out -but UK did some awesome Workshops in the past.  
Those folks know how to throw a party - the BBQ at the last one was legendary.
In order not to derail this list, I'd strongly encourage anyone who's 
interested in VM Workshop to sign up for the VMWKSHOP mailing list (at 
vm.marist.edu). Better yet, volunteer! Gets you free shirt, first shot at the 
beer, fame... well, at least for lots of tech dudes. 8-)

VM Workshop -- was fantastic!

[David Boyes]

For those of you who didn't make it you missed a great time. Great food, 
interesting people, a lot of hallway "what if we did this?" conversations, and 
general good fun all around.  Best $100 I've spent all year. 

We're going to do it again next year, site TBD, but definitely gonna happen. 
Put it on your calendars for sometime in June 2012. 

-- db

Re: Orlando SHARE Presentation - Resume Writing

[David Boyes]

> I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in the Board meeting when they
> decided how to reconcile this session with the "no headhunting at SHARE"
> rule they always had.

Probably just put it in PDEV and didn't really sweat it, I'd guess.  Learning 
how to write a useful resume isn't really headhunting -- it's more learning how 
to represent yourself to headhunters that aren't AT Share... 

Re: Time off running z/VM 5.4 1101 on z196 for first time

[David Boyes]

> Starting the z196 GA2 upgrade and the z114:
> o The SE BOC will sync to the CEC TOD once an hour instead of once a day,
> improving CEC TOD accuracy after POR.
> o The SE BOC will be steered the match the CEC TOD instead of making large
> jumps, avoiding a Paradox that could destroy the universe.
> o OK, so there's no Paradox, but there are NTP-using firmware components
> in a zBX environment that benefit from the steering
> 
> You still need STP to have *accurate* time.

Sounds like it would be worth teaching NTP to treat the CEC TOD clock as a 
stratum 2 time source. 

Re: SFTP on z/VM 5.4 and 6.1

[David Boyes]

No. You'd need our sftp client for that. The native client does ftps, not sftp.




On Jul 25, 2011, at 11:32, "Davis, Larry (National VM/VSE Capability)" 
 wrote:

> Does the FTP Client in VM allow you to transfer to a SFTP site and if so is 
> there a redbook on this process possibly?
> 
> 
> Larry Davis

Re: Ficon CTC's between LPAR's in same Box

[David Boyes]

Only on days whose names end in y. 

> >>> On 7/24/2011 at 02:38 AM, David Boyes 
> wrote:
> > I have a rather twisted sense of humor some times.
> SOME times?

Re: Ficon CTC's between LPAR's in same Box

[David Boyes]

> The “Shimon doc”?  Sounds impressive!  I like it.
> But perhaps even  better: "The Shimon Protocol"
> That sounds more formal, and a lot like a Robert Ludlum book title!  ☺
> Or, given the big movie premier recently: “The Shimon Protocol and the
> IODEF of Fire”
> Mike Walter

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is already taken. 

-- db

PS- Yes, I know what that's about. I have a rather twisted sense of humor some 
times. 

Re: Ficon CTC's between LPAR's in same Box

[David Boyes]

You can use only the two chpids to connect all the partitions. Use the Shimon 
doc to design all the conections.
With FICON, no need to define Chpids as CNC/CTC, all must be FC. And the 
Control Units and IODEVICE can be FCTC.

If someone will give me the updates, I’ll reformat the paper and include 
another section for FICON CTCs.

PostScript errors from RSCS output?

[David Boyes]

Thanks, Alan. 

I'm getting some annoying issues with RSCS printing to printers using the CUPS 
PostScript conversion (to non-PS datastreams). The separator page prints OK 
some of the time, and aborts about half-way into the page the rest of the time 
(and the job totally fails). 

>From the CUPS log, I see: 

D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Error: /undefined in a
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Operand stack:
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] c   true
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Execution stack:
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] %interp_exit   .runexec2   
--nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   
--nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push 
  1846   1   3   %oparray_pop   1845   1   3   %oparray_pop   1829   1   3   
%oparray_pop   1723   1   3   %oparray_pop   --nostringval--   %errorexec_pop   
.runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   
%stopped_push   --nostringval--
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Dictionary stack:
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] --dict:1170/1684(ro)(G)--   
--dict:1/20(G)--   --dict:94/200(L)--
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Current allocation mode is local
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] GPL Ghostscript 8.70: Unrecoverable 
error, exit code 1
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Process 3940 ending: 
"foomatic-gswrapper -q -dBATCH -dPARANOIDSAFER -dQUIET -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ijs 
-sIjsServer=hpijs -dDEV..."
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] renderer return value: 1
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] renderer received signal: 1
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Process dying with "Possible error on 
renderer command line or PostScript error. Check options.", exit stat: 3
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] error: Illegal seek (29)
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Cleaning up ...
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Killing process 3939 (KID4) with 
signal 15
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] KID3 exited with status 3
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Renderer exit stat: 3
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Process dying with "Caught 
termination signal: Job canceled", exit stat: 0
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] error: Interrupted system call (4)
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Cleaning up ...
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] 
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Closing foomatic-rip.
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Killing process 3939 (KID4) with 
signal 9
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] 
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Closing foomatic-rip.
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Renderer process finished
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Process dying with "Error closing 
renderer", exit stat: 3
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] error: Bad file descriptor (9)
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Cleaning up ...
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Killing process 3938 (KID3) with 
signal 15
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Killing process 3938 (KID3) with 
signal 9
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Error closing renderer
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] 
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] Closing foomatic-rip.
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] ready to print
D [20/Jul/2011:09:14:27 -0400] [Job 2263] End of messages

Which looks like what would happen if the Postscript code coming from RSCS is 
malformed in some way that's causing a value to be undefined.   Has anyone else 
encountered this? It doesn't seem to be linked to the type of non-PS printer 
(all the HP inkjets I have fail in the same way), but my PostScript is a little 
rusty. 

-- db

Where is PPS EXEC?

[David Boyes]

On a standard RSCS install, where do PPS EXEC and PPS XEDIT land?   

-- db

Re: Ficon CTC's between LPAR's in same Box

[David Boyes]

Replied by (mine, not so good) memory, see the IOCP manuals for details...  ;-)
__
Clovis

Shimon Lebowitz wrote a very nice paper on how to do this with ESCON channels; 
the FICON configuration is less complicated, but Shimon covers that discussion 
too. http://www.sinenomine.net/node/265

Hey! A PC guy who actually did the homework!

[David Boyes]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/14/brief_history_of_virtualisation_part_2/

Somebody who actually gets it that there was a world before the PC. Few minor 
nits, but overall an actually decent article on the role VM played in 
prefiguring  virtualization before VMWare.  Recommended reading for the glossy 
magazine set. 

-- dB

Re: Running RHEL 4.6 guests on z196 under z/VM 5.4

[David Boyes]

On the 196 we have access to, we're running Centos 4.4 through 4.8 guests, 
which is pretty much functionally equivalent, so I think as long as you're not 
running them in LPARs, you should be fine.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Martin, Terry R. (CMS/CTR) (CTR)
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 3:07 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: Running RHEL 4.6 guests on z196 under z/VM 5.4

Hi

Resending this not sure if it got out!

Thank You,

Terry Martin
Lockheed Martin
CMS - CITIC
3300 Lord Baltimore Drive, Suite 200, 21244
Engineering Computing
Mainframe Support
Cell - 443 632-4191


From: Martin, Terry R. (CMS/CTR) (CTR)
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:35 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Running RHEL 4.6 guests on z196 under z/VM 5.4

Hi

I know this was a topic not too long ago so sorry if I am redundant but I just 
want to be sure of something, and that is, can I run RHEL 4.6 under z/VM 5.4 on 
a z196? We have about 5 guests that we need to convert to RHEL 5 but the 
application folks will not have time to convert all of the RHEL 4.6 guests in 
time for the z196.

Thanks for the help it is much appreciated!



Thank You,

Terry Martin
Lockheed Martin
CMS - CITIC
3300 Lord Baltimore Drive, Suite 200, 21244
Engineering Computing
Mainframe Support
Cell - 443 632-4191

Re: Default PROFILE EXEC for DISKACNT?

[David Boyes]

Hum. I'd never noticed that. THANKS.

-- db


DISKACNT profile exec is the same for EREP and OPERSYMP. These 3 machines uses 
the same copy, by default ...
Regards,
__
Clovis

Default PROFILE EXEC for DISKACNT?

[David Boyes]

Fat fingered a ERASE command and nuked the PROFILE EXEC on a brand new system 
(before I had VM:Backup configured). Anywhere I can get a copy of the file? 

Re: TPF and PAX numbers

[David Boyes]

It definitely was at one point. That's why travel agents call it a record 
locator.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Phil Smith III
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 12:46 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: TPF and PAX numbers

A long, long time ago (> 20 years), someone told me that the six-character PAX 
number on an airline reservation was actually a TPF database record locator. 
Can anyone confirm or deny this?

...phsiii

Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/VM Announcement - End of Service - 12/31/2012

[David Boyes]

> > However, the Mayan calendar may be a better model.
> 
> Right, sure.  It hasn't had a chance to be wrong... yet.  Somewhere (the
> 'net?) I happened across an article by a well-respected researcher, stating
> that the Mayan calendar continues on just fine.  We'll see... maybe the
> Mayan guy's chisel just wore down?

No, the calendar resets to baktun 0.0.0.0.0, which is effectively only a new 
cycle. 

(BTW, writing a Maya date conversion routine is a great programming problem for 
new REXX programmers -- involves base 20 math, and if you add the full day god 
and hour of the night specs, it's a great exercise). 

It's 12.19.18.7.17 13 Caban 5 Zotz for those keeping count at home. 8-)

Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/VM Announcement

[David Boyes]

> As I mentioned back in 2009 (what?  you don't remember?), CMS still
> supports the "Alternate VSAM Emulator" added in 1985.  It was specifically
> invented to enable Something Else to get control when VSAM macros were
> used.  SQL/DS exploited it back in the day, if memory serves, but I don't
> know if DB2/VM supports it.  (Maybe we added it for the short-lived
> CICS/VM?)

Oh, *I* remember. I just find it annoying that no one at IBM seems to remember 
(other than you), and the lack of a major prereq seems to be a convenient 
excuse for more and more IBM CMS-based products to go quietly into that good 
night, never to be seen again. 

Re: IBM Sterling Connect:Direct for z/VM Announcement

[David Boyes]

> Don't know if you all saw this.
> I was hoping that when IBM bought them, they might enhance the VM
> product.  Instead, they killed it.  Sigh.

Figures. That VSAM thing is the killer prereq -- everything that started life 
on MVS requires it as a prereq, and thus is doomed to destruction. Convenient 
excuse to kill off more CMS applications. 

Re: Two simple TCPIP / FTPSERVE questions.

[David Boyes]

been wearing your Linux appliance hat too long. Much lighter-weight would be a 
few lines of Rexx with or without Romney's FTP package, running periodically as 
a task in your automation solution or a standalone (CMS) VSM.

Perhaps. OTOH, up and usefully running in less than 10 minutes with no 
development time has it’s appeal. But, I guess I’m getting old enough that 
rolling my own isn’t as much fun any more. I suggested A solution, not THE 
solution. Lots of ways to boil this lobster.

-- db

Re: Two simple TCPIP / FTPSERVE questions.

[David Boyes]

David, I am afraid we are in lock down here (essential maintenance only) so no 
chance of installing a new LINUX server. However, I could use your idea from an 
existing hartbeat server between VM systems.

World work, I'd think. That'd also catch the "socket timeout delay" problem 
if/when you have more than a few thousand connections waiting for the TCP close 
processing to complete.

Re: Two simple TCPIP / FTPSERVE questions.

[David Boyes]

> Depending on how the FTP server fails, you might also see it in your
> performance monitor...

Also true. OTOH, there are failure modes (such as the one Colin mentioned about 
getting unhappy with a minidisk) that won't show up in the console log or will 
show misleading symptoms (large buffer exhaustion, for example). 

> Running a Linux virtual machine with agents just to poll the FTP
> server is only "no cost" when you have too much resources and spare
> time.

So run it on an external system, where the cost on Z is periodically another 
client session. Either way, you get a end-user perspective of the behavior you 
want to test rather than inferring it from secondary sources.

There are also likely to be other services that need similar testing, which 
could benefit from a similar approach, and there is substantial existing code 
that can do the job without writing a bunch of stuff from scratch. It takes a 
lot less time to configure an existing tool than to gather the information to 
second-guess what is happening from the console. 

Re: Two simple TCPIP / FTPSERVE questions.

[David Boyes]

Very simple way: set up a small Linux instance and install Nagios on it. 
Configure a FTP probe in Nagios, and configure a notification to a user on the 
VM system. The Nagios system will test the FTP server by connecting and 
attempting to transfer a small file periodically. If it fails, it sends a 
notification email.  Handle the email with PROP.

That approach tests not only whether the server is logged in, but whether it's 
actually functioning. Works well for lots of things, and is low-cost (no cost 
if you run Debian or Fedora for Z).

Re: SHUTTRAP

[David Boyes]

> What POP are you looking at?  I can't find any reference to LPAR deactivation.
> The only machine-dependent external interrupt I can find is "Service Signal"
> and that covers a lot of ground, notifying the OS of the completion of some
> previously requested machine function.

SA22-7832-08, pg. 11-16, in the section on Warnings. There's about two 
sentences referring to power failure. The rest is in the SHUTTRAP source code.

I said it was tiny. 8-). 

-- db

Re: SHUTTRAP

[David Boyes]

> You will not find any published information on the mechanism.

There is a tiny amount of information in the POP manual in the external 
interrupt section on the original LPAR deactivation signal and what's supposed 
to happen when it triggers, but the end comment is that the effect will be 
"implementation dependent". 

Re: Varsity Inn North & South & University Plaza - VM Workshop Hotels

[David Boyes]

There used to be a VMWKSHP list at Marist.  Dunno if it's still active.

Re: Last Workshop Re: VM Workshop - Session Grid Now Available

[David Boyes]

That is genuinely cool. Can we write your bosses a thank you letter?

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Jonathan Quay
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 7:31 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: Last Workshop Re: VM Workshop - Session Grid Now Available

Two of the largest global hotel companies are VM customers (us and Marriott).  
I am going to try to attend.  Check out the attached link for some of our 
lowest rates, about 25% less than lowest published.  Only a small percentage of 
inventory is held for these rates, so hop on it, and beware, they are 
non-refundable. There is a minor hoop to jump through with the printing of the 
voucher.

Re: RMSMASTR and shutdowns

[David Boyes]

> > Does anyone else think this should be considered a defect?
> I do!  I do!  Sadly, that doesn't mean much.

Me too. No program product should be permitted to interfere with a clean 
shutdown of the system as a whole. 

> As pointed out by Kris on prior occasions, you can use UCOMDIR NAMES to
> redirect RMSMASTER to another server.  That private little SFS server, solely
> to hold the configuration file, would be configured with
> NOSHUTDOWNSIGNAL.  After CA:Operator shuts down RMSMASTER, it can
> then shut down the SFS.  If it doesn't get shutdown normally, no biggie, since
> you would match this with a change to RMSMASTER's PROFILE EXEC to copy
> the REAL config file from a minidisk of your choosing into SFS before
> initializing the server.  Then, if you should have to rebuild Private Little 
> SFS
> from scratch, it doesn't matter - the config file is safe.

Ugh. What a hack. Works, but ... ick.

This does present the seed of an interesting idea, though. What if there was a 
USRCFG: file pool where user and product configurations were put by default, 
and IBM and other ISVs searched it, but were never allowed to update it 
directly? Separating the actual running config from IBM's default config and 
the code would be a really nice thing for migration. Would remove a lot of the 
reasons not to use VMSYS: for software installation. IBM code goes in VMSYS:, 
CA code goes in CASYS:, BMC in BMCSYS: etc. Configuration and customization go 
in USRCFG:.  Easy to implement tools that compare the user's config with the 
new recommended config, identify if there are deprecated or changed statements, 
etc. 

Just a thought. 

-- db

Re: VM Workshop - Session Grid Now Available

[David Boyes]

May a rusty old geezer attend?  I retired 19+ years ago and have not had an 
opportunity to use VM or a mainframe since.  However, during my VM days I had 
the opportunity to attend most VM Workshops as well as most Share meetings and 
I really miss those days.  Are there any VMers from the 1980's planning to 
attend?  It would be wonderful to see you again.

Sure thing. Come on down.  I'll be there.

So, who of you old-timers plans to attend?

Me and Neale Ferguson for sure, plenty of the other "usual suspects".   
There'll be faces you know.

Seriously, folks, the Workshop is probably the best opportunity out there to 
get 1-on-1 with the people that make this technology go.

A personal note: the 1988 VM Workshop marked one of my very first presentations 
in the VM community. I met people there that I've stayed in touch with for 
years, and it set the tone of most of the rest of my career (thanks again, Jeff 
and Melinda!). If you have new people to VM, this is the place to send them to 
get them jumpstarted on just how cool z/VM really is.

See you there.

-- db

Re: Question regarding zVM and CF when running in a LPAR

[David Boyes]

> As a follow-up to this (for those interested), this turned out to be a
> hardware problem. The HMC's hard drive had crashed and communications
> was totally messed up.  The CE promptly got things under control 

Suddenly I had a flash of the scene in Monty Python's "Life of Brian" after 
Brian escapes from the Romans and goes out to the hermit with the juniper 
bushes, followed by the crowd:

"The Message!  Believe in the Message!"

"No, the gourd!"

"The shoe!"

"Heretics!" "Unbelievers!" "Smite them!" 

Seriously, though, glad to see the hardware diags actually worked. 

-- db

Re: Moving on

[David Boyes]

Drat. Now I'll have to go swap my investments somewhere else that has people I 
can trust working for them.
Wish someone had leaked the info early; you deserve a retirement book.

Best wishes - you've always been a great test of an idea at scale. Hope you 
have something fun and interesting planned to do with this strange thing I've 
heard called "free time". I've heard it can be quite addictive; wouldn't know 
from personal experience.

If you need a 3270 fix, let me know. We'll find you a VM session to keep your 
hand in.


n  Db

n

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Schuh, Richard
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 12:51 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Moving on

After 48 years in the industry, involved with VM for the last 38 of them, I 
will be retiring early next month. I don't think it is possible to find a 
better group of people than the VM List. The professionalism, the willingness, 
even eagerness, to help others is outstanding. You have made my job easier. I 
wish you all the best. It has been nice, sometimes even fun, to know and work 
with such an exemplary group of people.

Regards,
Richard Schuh

Re: Problems at DR test

[David Boyes]

> There's no reason why CP could not issue TERM CONMODE 3270, as Linux
> does
> when instructed to use a 3270 console.  Even CMS issues TERM CONMODE
> 3215
> when it IPLs.

I mean, really, mom... all the cool OSes do it

8-)


-- db

PS- it's been one of those days. Laugh it up. 

Re: Problems at DR test

[David Boyes]

1) This is the default value for Operator_Consoles in the SYSTEM CONFIG file 
(and probably most shops do not delete or change the last two entries):
Operator_Consoles 0020 0021 0022 0023 0E20 0E21 1020 ,
  System_3270 System_Console
As I understand it, the Operating System Messages window is always available to 
each LPAR.  So if it is in most "path"s for z/VM to find a console, why should 
we ever see PSWs of 1010?  Shouldn't z/VM always find the Operating System 
Messages window as a last resort? (I must have one of my assumptions wrong, 
because we do see "1010"s).

Related question: given the addresses listed in the default list seem kinda 
random, is there any reason why 009 *isn't* listed?

Re: Backup and Restore Manager V1.2 startup problem

[David Boyes]

*** Received device 0181, a 3590-11 which is empty or not ready. write-enabled,
and positioned at load point.
*** Return code 32 attempting to obtain VOL1 label.
*** "TAPE DVOL1" replied: "DMSP2C431E TAP1(181) VOL1 label missing"



You gave it a unlabeled tape. BRM expects IBM SL tapes. You need to label the 
tape with TAPE WVOL1 before you can use it with BRM.

Re: z/VM page space

[David Boyes]

On 6/14/11 1:45 PM, "Alan Altmark"  wrote:

>
>And now you know why DRAIN MIGRATE doesn't exist.  :-)

Although SNAPDUMP does something awfully similar in concept -- there's
probably some thinking that could be borrowed there. Doing the same kind
of system suspend might be the route to building that table; again, it's
probably not going to be used that often so a few seconds of "freeze while
we figure this stuff out" might be OK. Beats a full IPL, anyway.


>  As Bill Holder, 
>z/VM Memory Master, alludes, there are no data structures in CP that
>index 
>the contents of paging volumes.  You would have to traverse every users'
>memory management data structures to find references to page slots on the
>drained volume.  In short, "Eeeww."

Hmph. You guys let it out the door w/o spaying it properly...8-) Eeew,
indeed. 

-- db

Re: z/VM page space

[David Boyes]

On 6/14/11 1:20 PM, "Schuh, Richard"  wrote:

>An absolute prereq, not just a safety one. If it is not already draining,
>then there would be nothing to prevent new pages from being written on
>the device. 

Yeah. Playing with it on the whiteboard indicated that. Probably the only
safe way to get a CP interlock in place that would prevent new pages being
written. 

>It will still be somewhat tricky because the page may already be in
>storage, in use by a virtual machine. Also,  it may be part of a DCSS, in
>which case, only your private copy (resulting from your changing the
>page) will be paged out by your activity; others will still be
>referencing the original page.

I think that's why you'd have to force CP to dirty the page rather than
doing it inside a virtual machine, especially with CP's own pages
potentially written at startup. Probably only doable from inside CP
itself, or at minimum, via manipulate of real storage rather than virtual
storage. There Be Dragons.

Another project for my Copious Spare Time. Not.

-- db


>> 

Re: z/VM page space

[David Boyes]

On 6/14/11 12:03 PM, "David Boyes"  wrote:

>I suspect that it would be possible to tweak the page device list in real
>storage to remove the volume in question, run the CP page list in real
>core and force a page in/page out sequence for pages on the volume in
>question, but There Lie Big Nasty Dragons. There's a lot of interlocking
>pieces and CP integrity is at stake, so it would not be simple code.

Hmm... 

This might not be as hard as I thought. If the volume is already drained
for new traffic (probably a safety prereq for this to happen), then
determining pages on those volumes and forcing page-in/page-out is
probably safer than previously thought. CP can maintain the appropriate
interlocks if we force CP to fault the page in, touch the page in a way
that forces CP to consider the page as dirty, and then allow the normal
page-out logic to determine the new location. It would cause a fairly
large burst in paging activity while running, but that's probably not an
big issue for the few times this would get activated.

Scratch, scratch, scratch... There's an itch in here somewhere.

-- db

Re: CPU Dedicate

[David Boyes]

On Jun 6, 2011, at 10:53 AM, "Mark Lorenc" 
mailto:mlor...@us.ibm.com>> wrote:

My impression is there is not much use of that function, but I would like
to
find out for sure if there is. Feel free to contact me offline:
mlor...@us.ibm.com

Rarely, as it mostly never made sense to use it for other than zOS or VSE 
guests, and IBM keeps actively discouraging those in various ways.

Re: Dynamic Activation of New IODF

[David Boyes]

CBDIOSP can receive remote IODF files and incorporate it; it does the 
comparison and issues the matching dynamic commands. You put the new IODF on 
the CP config area disks for next IPL.

Again, read the VM HCD manual. There's a chapter on this exact problem. Also 
understand that VM IODF is backlevel compared to z/OS so you can create things 
on z/OS that can't be processed on VM.

Re: Dynamic Activation of New IODF

[David Boyes]

Read the VM HCD guide for a torturous and complete discussion. There's a 
description (in exhausting detail) in there.

Re: EXECIO DISKW Question

[David Boyes]

> > We want write a REXX EXEC , that do a Update in place.
> > Another words, I need, read the record 1 from the file, and then
> rewrite
> the
> > same record.
> > Is possible?

In addition to reading the manuals that Alan suggested, you should look for the 
RXFILEIO package on the VMWorkshop tapes. It provides CMS filesystem I/O 
interfaces that are much more natural REXX function interfaces to the CMS file 
I/O macros. You probably could also use the CMS common I/O routines, but 
they're a lot harder to understand and use. 

Re: HMC security (was: zvm directions)

[David Boyes]

> The Unified Resource Manager's Storage Administrator function includes
> the
> ability exporting the WWPN configuration and importing an access list
> based on it.  (Sorry, I haven't personally used it, yet, so I can't
> comment further.)

Yes, it can. It's pretty much useless. Trouble is, none of IBM's OTHER storage 
management tools can produce a format that the URM SA function wants to read, 
and vice versa. There also aren't much in the way of APIs to create tools that 
can. Seriously, if the URM is supposed to drive and be driven based on the 
ensemble management stuff, wouldn't it be kinda logical to think that *maybe* 
the other tools FROM THE SAME VENDOR might want to be aware of what it needs 
without having to invent the wheel? 
 
> (HW architects cannot
> solve
> SW availability problems.)

No kidding. Been there, done that. 

I guess I'm seeing one useful thing out of this discussion: IBM talking to the 
zBLC for requirements about interfaces and toolsets gets the rest of us 
products that only the zBLC members -- usually the LARGEST Z sites -- can 
afford to deploy. I think it would be helpful for IBM to talk to people that 
can't deploy products that use large amounts of consulting time about Z 
interfaces and toolsets. I think that would do wonders to help the satisfaction 
and comfort level with these new functions. 


-- db
 

Re: HMC security (was: zvm directions)

[David Boyes]

> I will try to find out where this is coming from and see if there are
> some
> adjustments that can be made.  I note that the checklist in 4.6.5 of
> the
> SAPR Guide only says
>   Requirements for passwords and userids
>   for the Hardware Management Console
>   and Support Element of the 2817 Server
>   have been determined.

Simple suggestion: ship the default ids defined, but disabled after one use 
(where you create a customer specific id with admin privs -- SELinux is capable 
of this level of access management w/o a lot of special coding). Provide a 
customer procedure executable from an authorized id to enable the IBM standard 
ids for a defined period (number of hours) and schedule a task to fire after 
the defined period to disable them again. 

DEC/HP does this for the predefined FIELD id on VMS, and it's worked pretty 
well over time. @SYS$MANAGER:FIELD ENABLE /HOURS=nn. Enables the FIELD id and 
produces a new password valid for nn hours which you give to the CE. After nn 
hours, the id is automatically disabled again. It's a nice compromise between a 
known set of ids and passwords, and a secure environment. Could also be done 
via the RSF link to IBM -- in most cases, the reason the CE is there is because 
of the phone-home link, and would provide a good audit trail. 

> This isn't a z-specific issue.  Further, Microsoft says that AD
> Lightweight Directory Service (AD LDS) can be used in such a way that
> it
> isn't necessary to extend the AD schema.
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/ad-main.aspx
> 
> Not being an AD admin, I can admit that the subtleties escape me.

LDS bypasses some of the AD auditing process by using a privileged proxy id to 
bind to the directory (thus masking the actual query source), so many sites do 
not allow its use. But, you're right, it's not just about Z. It's just more 
visible in that the risk is substantially higher than your random PC server -- 
this is where the paychecks get printed. 


> Stay your sword, good man!  The good news is that the z196 introduced a
> way for you to do that.  It is no longer required to pre-define HMC
> users
> to the HMC.
> 
> 1. Create one or more "User Templates".  These are "model" user IDs
> that
> can be associated with an HMC user for whom no User Profile exists.
> Except
> for the fact you can't use them for authentication purposes, they are
> conceptually the same as user profiles.
> 
> 2. Create one or more "User Patterns".  This is a pattern that, when
> matched against a login ID (for example, u...@company.com) for which no
> user profile exists, identifies how to decide if the user can log in
> and,
> if so, what user template should be associated with them.
> 
> Hopefully that will take a big bite out of the problem.

Better, but then the problem becomes to provably associate a user with an 
action on a consistent basis. If the user is dynamically bound at execution 
time to a profile, then there is no way to provably assert that the same 
actions would take place if the same user attempts the same action a second 
time w/o change control on the profiles, which leads us back to the original 
problem -- no integration with existing tools to do that proof in an auditable 
way. 

A certain amount of this is individual risk tolerance and how trainable your 
auditors are to understand what is really going on, but on the ground at the 
moment, most of them DON'T get it yet. 

It'd be really useful if there was a required professional certification for IT 
auditors where they had to update their skills periodically to stay certified 
(hmm I'll patent that). Unfortunately, not yet. 

-- db

Re: HMC security (was: zvm directions)

[David Boyes]

> The bogosity index is extremeloy high on this one.  

But it's certainly a common one. I can think of at least a dozen sites that 
have heard this "requirement" from IBMers. I've always thought the proper 
solution to this was to add a badge reader to the HMC to allow IBMers to enable 
these ids only when they are physically present (and responsible for them). 

> Each person who
> accesses the HMC should be given their own ID.  No sharing.  Multiple
> CEs?
>  Multiple IDs.  Best Practice is to change all of the passwords to the
> default user IDs or delete them.  Kind of like when you install RACF,
> the
> instructions tell you to remove authority from IBMUSER and REVOKE it.

And herein lies some of the resistance. Agreed, this is the Right and Proper 
Way. If I am to operate in this way, I need to engineer Yet Another identity 
management system (at best a plugin to an existing one, at worst an entire new 
system). There is not a single commercially available identity management 
system (including Tivoli products) that would know what a HMC is if it bit them 
in the rear. None of them understand any of the roles you describe, and none of 
the IT security weenies who run this stuff day to day have any grasp of this. 
It doesn't show up in their point-to-click-to-manage world -- you're dealing 
with people who think AD is the be-all, end-all, not RACF. After all, it's just 
a PC, right? (*snort*) -- doesn't work with *their* tool, doesn't happen. 

I concede the point that that will change over time, since this is more likely 
to impact z/OS sites and thus actually cause money to be spent, but you're 
moving too fast for the real world here. 

(I made this point in the design discussions about ensembles in Research; 
clearly I didn't have a big enough tantrum to crack the light of reality over 
this horizon). 

> Local password management?  I'm not following you on this.  My client
> has
> all 'normal' HMC IDs authenticated with the corporate directory server
> (Active Directory).

See above. AD integration for an HMC requires modifying the default AD schema 
to allow somewhere to store all those nifty new attributes, which is a one-way 
street. You can't go back. Windows admins (unless they are very very good) flee 
screaming from this, as it's an irrevocable step and it changes the support 
posture for a lot of other products, including some ones that have nothing to 
do with System Z (try calling Microsoft with a Exchange problem if you have a 
modified AD schema. You won't like it. Trust me.)

> Leave the HMC behind the RSA gear.  It's not like general users of the
> operating systems are going to need HMC IDs.

They may not need them, but setting up a separate provisioning process with all 
the attendant auditing, etc to manage them in a responsible way (let alone 
letting a non-human agent do anything to configurations without having exits 
for MY change management system (whatever that may be), as some of the ensemble 
code proposes to require in the near future) is pretty much a non-starter. 
Separation of powers, if nothing else -- if I can change the hardware 
configuration, I'm not allowed to change the user authorizations, and 
otherwise, WYSIWG wrt HMC management, and that doesn't include letting 
automation tinker with it. 

I guess the message we're trying to convey is that if this thing is to become 
the "management endpoint" for the System Z, a lot more thought needs to be put 
into deployment integration with other parts of the environment before people 
are going to be comfortable with the level of power that this thing has over 
the crown jewels. If it's treated as the control point, it's got to play nice 
with OUR control points. IBM can't revoke support for it when we install the 
stuff that makes it work for our businesses. The current message from IBM is a 
little too blue-centric for that to be realistic. 

-- db

PS - jfrye: I *told* you so. dude. Nyah. 8-)

Re: Short circuit SMTP

[David Boyes]

Another option: if you normally use a IPMAILERADDRESS ALL line that points to 
your enterprise mail gateway system, change it to point to some host that 
doesn't run SMTP. If the IBM SMTP can't connect to port 25 on the 
IPMAILERADDRESS host, it will queue the mail until it can (or you put it back 
the way it was).

3rd option:  if on VM, use the homebrew "SMTP Lite" In Melinda Varian's Piping 
the Internet paper.  That will get you either spool files that you can transfer 
back to SMTP later, or disk files if you so choose (which can be punched to 
SMTP later if you are one of the authorized users in the SMTP config for such 
things).



From: David Boyes
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 10:57 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: RE: Short circuit SMTP

Change the DNS servers in the stack pointed to by VM SMTP (the NSINTERADDR 
lines)  to some IP address that does not have a DNS server running. SMTP will 
receive the messages, queue them, but not deliver anything because nothing can 
be resolved.

This assumes you don't have a DNS lookup enabled for incoming traffic, but is 
very effective.

Re: Short circuit SMTP

[David Boyes]

Change the DNS servers in the stack pointed to by VM SMTP (the NSINTERADDR 
lines)  to some IP address that does not have a DNS server running. SMTP will 
receive the messages, queue them, but not deliver anything because nothing can 
be resolved.

This assumes you don't have a DNS lookup enabled for incoming traffic, but is 
very effective.

Re: uploading C code to VM

[David Boyes]

> As you can imagine, the 72 characters per line restriction is a
> problem.
> Has anybody else found a way to automate the conversion that they can
> share? As mentioned in another thread, I do have THE and REXX on my
> Linux which could be used.

If you have Emacs installed on your Linux, look at the chapter in the Emacs 
manual (M-x info) on C mode. You can specify the desired line length, and then:

M-x set-mark
M->
M-x reformat-region

And you should end up with 72 column-friendly C code. You can tinker with the 
coding style as variables for C-mode. 

Re: Using EMC Clariion SCSI disk with Linux

[David Boyes]

> So with that being said, it appears the optics are the problem?  

That's certainly the first problem to kill. 

> Do you
> agr=
> ee that there is no such thing as long wave on open system switches?

It's rare for open systems (mostly appears in geo-plex-like situations), but it 
certainly does exist. They probably have never ordered any for their switch, 
but Brocade certainly makes LW interfaces. 

Re: How do I assemble a CP EXIT ?

[David Boyes]

You need the High Level Assembler product (extra cost) or the Dignus assembler 
(also extra cost) to build the module. The MACLIB statements are documented in 
the discussion of the exit. The old F-level ASSEMBLE command cannot build 
current CP modules correctly. 

Re: Duplicate IPs on VSWITCHes - Feature or Defect

[David Boyes]

The situation is that the IPs were registered on one VSWITCH, and passed on to 
real switches in the external network. Later, another host registered the same 
IPs on a different VSWITCH, which failed to pass them on to the external 
network (rejected because they were dups). The 2nd VSWITCH detected this error, 
but retained the IPs (for itself) anyway. The question is whether the 2nd 
VSWITCH should have retained them given it knew they were dups.

I'd argue yes, because the VSWITCH has no way to determine that they are 
already registered in another switch. There's no existing network protocol to 
communicate that information between the two switches (nothing like ISL or 
802.1q for layer 3).  The two VSWITCHes are two separate entities that can't 
know that the address is already registered elsewhere.

Switch to layer 2 if/when you can. It simplifies a lot of things.

Re: Duplicate IPs on VSWITCHes - Feature or Defect

[David Boyes]

Are these layer 2 or layer 3? If layer 2, then they are (and should be) paying 
zero attention to the IP address. Layer 2 cares only about MAC addresses.
Layer 3 is more subtle. Technically a real switch should attempt only to insert 
the address in the forwarding table and then the latest entry wins (eg it 
should eject the previously registered host as ARP entries expire in the 
communicating guests with cached info about IP to MAC mappings).

So, I'd say that if you are using layer 2 switches, it is neither a bug nor a 
feature. It's working correctly, and it's your problem to avoid this situation. 
In the layer 3 case, it's arguably doing the right thing, but there is a case 
for it dropping the first registration when a new host registers the same 
address.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Mark Wheeler
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2011 3:49 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Duplicate IPs on VSWITCHes - Feature or Defect

Greetings all,

We've been pulling our hair out for several days trying to figure out a 
networking issue involving VSWITCHes. A server (LNXA1) attached to VSWITCHA on 
VMSYSA can connect  to a server (LNXB1) attached to VSWITCHB on VMSYSB but a 
server (LNXC1) attached to VSWITCHC on VMSYSC cannot. We moved LNXC1 to 
VSWITCHA on VMSYSA and it worked. All on the same subnet, BTW.

Unbeknownst to us, a server (LNXC2) had an interface on VSWITCHC that used the 
same IP as LNXA1. It couldn't be registered to the outside network because it 
was already being used, yet it was still registered to VSWITCHC. Hence, anyone 
else on VSWITCHC would try to connect to LNXC2 when it in fact was trying to 
connect to LNXA1.

Q VSWITCH VSWITCHC DETAILS shows the duplicate IP, identifiable by the "Local" 
designation under the list of unicast IP address(es). The VSWITCH is able to 
detect the fact that this is a duplicate IP.

Is this a feature or a defect? Should VSWITCHC drop the IP address when it 
identifies the duplicate situation? What would a real switch do?

Best regards,

Mark Wheeler
UnitedHealth Group


--

"Excellence. Always. If Not Excellence, What? If Not Excellence Now, When?"
Tom Peters, author of "The Little BIG Things"

Re: Tapeless segment tranfser between LPARs?

[David Boyes]

Speaking of which, IBM: 

Any progress on getting the PIPE-friendly DDR shipped as the default DDR? That 
would be *WAY* cool for 6.2

-- db


> -Original Message-
> From: David Boyes
> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 1:43 PM
> To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
> Subject: RE: Tapeless segment tranfser between LPARs?
> 
> There's also adding your support to the outstanding requirement for
> SPXTAPE to support disk transfer (or better yet, a PIPE-friendly
> input/output stream so we can connect it with anything we want). Your
> local IBMer can get your organization on the list as supporting the
> requirement. Doesn't mean that IBM will get around to it any time soon,
> but at least it might up the priority a bit.
> 
> > There's DCSSBKUP and DCSSRSAV on the MAINT 193 disk...
> >
> > Rob

Re: DB2 running in a Linux enviornment

[David Boyes]

Optimal use of personnel
Efficient overcommitment of resources
Conservation of limited LPAR resource (even on the biggest boxes, you can only 
have so many)
Network efficiency and redundancy
Built in automation function (PROP)
Rapid recovery using standard tools (ADRDSSU lets you put the whole environment 
back with the same tools you use for z/OS if you have it - cuts recovery time 
substantially)
Simple production of security zones

Need I continue?

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of clifford jackson
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2011 11:13 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: DB2 running in a Linux enviornment

what are the PROS and CONS of running DB2 under Linux with the Linux running 
under z/VM as to running DB2 under z/VM without Linux..



Cliff Jackson
Senior Systems Programmer
703-607-1393

Re: Tapeless segment tranfser between LPARs?

[David Boyes]

There's also adding your support to the outstanding requirement for SPXTAPE to 
support disk transfer (or better yet, a PIPE-friendly input/output stream so we 
can connect it with anything we want). Your local IBMer can get your 
organization on the list as supporting the requirement. Doesn't mean that IBM 
will get around to it any time soon, but at least it might up the priority a 
bit. 

> There's DCSSBKUP and DCSSRSAV on the MAINT 193 disk...
> 
> Rob

Re: z/VM RedHat Virtual Machine Memory abend

[David Boyes]

Check the amount of paging space you have defined for the VM system.

Is this a brand new VM install right out of the box? If so, then this is most 
likely to be the problem. 48G of real, plus the default paging areas in a brand 
new VM install add up to just about 52G or so, depending on whether you used 
mod 3 or mod 9s.

It works for MAINT because CMS is extremely memory efficient; it doesn't 
require that every page in the virtual machine definition be actually present 
when it IPLs, and it touches only what it actually needs. Linux touches every 
page at some point, so you need enough paging space to support the total size 
of all the virtual machines you define, plus a little bit of insurance.

Add at least 3-4 mod 9 or mod 27s as paging space and see if the problem goes 
away.

Re: z/VM RedHat Virtual Machine Memory abend

[David Boyes]

Check the amount of paging space you have defined for the VM system. You can 
define a virtual machine far bigger than you can actually use if you have 
insufficient paging space.  The guest will work for a while, until it tries to 
access a page that can't be supported with backing store, and you get weird 
memory problems like that.

Also, seriously ask why the virtual machine needs to be so large. If it's 
because "that's the way it is on the distributed platform", that's going to do 
more harm than good - I/O avoidance is not as important on this platform as it 
is elsewhere (the biggest reason for huge memory sizes).  Start with 1 or 2G, 
reduce the size of SGA, and make sure you use VDISK for swap. Also make sure 
you have some XSTORE defined if you're going to have virtual machines that big 
- you're going to need it for setting up a paging hierarchy that can sustain 
moving

Re: Detaching A disk from z/Linux guest dynamically

[David Boyes]

>Ok I got it. Before I contacted the list I had tried doing the '#CP REL A 
>(DET' from the guest. 
> It did not take saying it was unknown command sort of what you get when you 
> are issuing a command
> that the user's class does not allow. So I thought that the user did not have 
> authority to do 
> even the DEATCH. So now I know!

DETACH is a class G command, so everyone can do it. The problem was that 
RELEASE (and the whole concept of file modes) is a *CMS* command. If Linux is 
running, the only thing that's available to change the virtual machine 
configuration is CP commands, eg DETACH in this case. When you IPLed Linux, CMS 
goes away, so RELEASE A ( DET can't work. 
 

Re: Detaching A disk from z/Linux guest dynamically

[David Boyes]

If the 191 is only used at Linux boot, you can change the directory entry and 
then login to the VM userid running the Linux system and:

BEGIN (if you get a CP READ)
#CP DET 191
#CP LINK * 191 191 MR
#CP DISC

(assuming your LINEND char is #)

If you are actually using the disk during runtime, then it's a lot safer to 
bounce the guest.

-- db


From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Martin, Terry R. (CMS/CTR) (CTR)
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 10:22 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Detaching A disk from z/Linux guest dynamically

Hi

I have a copy of the DASD volume where the A (191) disk resides for a specific 
z/Linux guest. I want to point the guest to the new copied volume from the one 
it is currently using without bringing the guest down. Is there a way to do 
this?

Thank You,

Terry Martin
Lockheed Martin
CMS - CITIC
3300 Lord Baltimore Drive, Suite 200, 21244
Engineering Computing
Mainframe Support
Cell - 443 632-4191

Re: Backout PTF(s) applied

[David Boyes]

> However, I don't think my question(s) were answered in that RED alert
> unless it describes to me how best to backout ptfs applied.  
 
Call the support center is the best answer. Those folks actually understand SES 
well enough to tell you how to do it without screwing things up. If you don't 
know what all the options to VMFREM actually do, you stand an excellent chance 
of making your system unserviceable. 

That's why the support center gets the big bucks. They live for this stuff. 

-- db

PS - yes, I would like some more koolaid, Mr. Leary. 

Re: sclp_config: cpu capability changed.

[David Boyes]

Based on your later message about simultaneous hardware maintenance happening 
around the same time as the capability change happened, that's more likely to 
be the cause (and would explain why you saw it on IFLs - that's one of the few 
things that would affect both CPs and IFLs similarly). If they finished the 
maintenance, it's probably back to normal now (although you should have seen 
another "capability change" message when the maintenance was finished and 
everything was back to full speed ahead).

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Bhemidhi, Ashwin
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 3:38 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: sclp_config: cpu capability changed.

It is a 2097-503 z10.

Regards,
Ashwin

Re: sclp_config: cpu capability changed.

[David Boyes]

What model of CEC? If it's a z10 or a z196, it might be some of the 
power-saving features kicking in. That message can also occur if 
capacity-on-demand has modified the system capability (although it's usually 
rare to see it on a IFL).

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Bhemidhi, Ashwin
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 2:56 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: sclp_config: cpu capability changed.

Hello all ,

I have noticed kernel message "Apr 19 12:35:07  kernel: sclp_config: 
cpu capability changed" on all of our Linux guest on multiple LPARs. Does this 
indicate a hardware issue with the IFL processor? I have asked our hardware 
support to check for any error on the machine.

Thank you,
Ashwin Bhemidhi

Re: Departing

[David Boyes]

I will miss all the friends I made over the last 45 years.

"Good night, sweet prince,
and angels sing thee to thy rest." - Hamlet.

Keep in touch.

-- db

Re: z/VM user group in RTP, NC?

[David Boyes]

Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.

*grin*
-- db


From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Bill Munson
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 11:14 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: z/VM user group in RTP, NC?

The closest one I know of is in Virginia , the HillGang

http://www.vm.ibm.com/events/usergrps.html

Re: Running REXX compiled in z/OS in CMS

[David Boyes]

For C/C++, COBOL, and PL/I that is true on z/VM also. We ship the LE runtime 
libraries for these as part of the z/VM base. The ancient FORTRAN product for 
z/VM is not LE-enabled.


Wonder what it would take to get the REXX compiler so enabled? I guess we have 
to be careful what we wish for, but it would plug an annoying hole in the 
compiled code support area. Oh, well, another requirement….

Re: Dirmaint : cards ordre

[David Boyes]

I've used a variation of this technique for many years as well. It works well 
for both DIRMAINT and VM:Secure/VM:Direct.  This also makes sure that the user 
management product is internally consistent and at current release data formats 
at all times.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of gclo...@br.ibm.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 5:16 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: Dirmaint : cards ordre

Alain,
Normally, this kind off migration is done on few hours.
My technique (resumed):
1- Install a new VM and enable DIRMAINT, with the supplied directory.
2- Split the old direct to a TEMP disk, using one homemade EXEC (DIRSPLIT).
The exec reads the old USER DIRECT, and create a new -userid- DIRECT, for each 
machine. Based on the "USER " card. Each "USER " finish the previous.
Also test if each -userid- exist (CP QUERY USER -userid-). If exist then rename 
the file to -userid- EXIST.
3- DIRM ADD for all the -userid- DIRECT created.
4- Manually inspect the "EXIST" files and create a batch file for the 
divergences: ACCOUNT, ACIGROUP, new MDISK, etc. A "DIRM GET" followed by 
"COMPARE" can help.
5- Make the adjusts: DIRM BATCH batch file
6- If needed, move the old machines to new dasds: DIRM CMD (depending on the 
number of machines to move, eventually I create additional DATAMOVs...)
7- Fine adjust (less than 2%) for not covered situations.
I worked this way for years...
__

Re: Running REXX compiled in z/OS in CMS

[David Boyes]

One thing that HP does for VMS is ship all the runtime libraries for all their 
compilers (even the weird ones like BLISS and PROLOG) as part of the base OS. 
That way ISV vendors (or the base OS vendor) don't have this kind of problem.  
Paying to create, free to use always seemed like a good compromise to me.

-- db

(PS - at least one required system utility is written in each language to force 
the marketroids to continue this policy. Score one to the Visigoths.)

Re: IBM Announcements Today

[David Boyes]

> My point was that the pricing model
> should
> not be *different*.  

Other parts of IBM clearly did NOT get that memo. But, I see your point. 

> Simple.  :-)

As Pain in Hercules would put it: "If. If is good."

--d b

Re: IBM Announcements Today

[David Boyes]

> On Tuesday, 04/12/2011 at 12:17 EDT, "David L. Craig" 
> wrote:
> > Now we get to wait for the announcements of licensing and support
> fees
> > for all the various software available for this platform.  That has
> > the potential to take the bloom off the rose.
> 
> IBM is forthright in saying that the virtual servers running in the
> zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX) run on PowerVM or KVM
> hypervisors.

Ding ding ding! Unsupported virtualization detected. Arm pricing specialists, 
Mr. Sulu!

>  It's not another "platform" that the vendors will need to certify, and
> so
> you should expect the same licensing model as if these were standalone
> BladeCenters.

Assuming they do not have language in their licenses that prohibit running the 
software in any environment that they do not explicitly have pricing models 
published, eg Microsoft. SAP. Peoplesoft. Oracle. Etc. 

Dave Craig is right: read that fine print. IBM has just triggered the next wave 
of pricing wars. 

-- db

Re: IBM Announcements Today

[David Boyes]

> I'm sure it's an improvement in blade server
> management but it's not like they announced an "IFW"...

Which is already available. 8-)

-- db

Re: Sevice level

[David Boyes]

On 4/11/11 11:54 AM, "Schuh, Richard"  wrote:

>That would be nice. It ought to also have a way to answer Marcy's
>question, "Has PTF xxx been applied to the system (or, perhaps, to a
>specified module)?" without having to wade through a list of the universe
>of PTFs. 

PIPE COMMAND SERVICE LIST CP | LOCATE 'xx' | CONSOLE

Maybe have a optional module argument to SERVICE LIST, eg SERVICE LIST CP
HCPRIO

Adding a option of ONLINE vs ONDISK to SERVICE LIST might serve the "is it
in the running code" question. You'd have to modify the code to maintain a
service ID table somewhere in storage, though to efficiently process a
ONLINE option. Probably not a bad idea, but would take up some space.


>As long as we are dreaming, it would be nice to have a defined interface
>so that we could interrogate cooperative ISV modifications to CP (VSSI,
>CA, et. al.) via the same command.

Amen to that -- libvmses or a CSL routine, here we come! But shouldn't
those show up in normal SES, ie as local mods?

-- db



>> 

Re: Service level

[David Boyes]

On 4/11/11 9:29 AM, "Bob Bates"  wrote:

>If one gets the PSP buckets and put them on at the same time as the RSU,
>as one should, wouldn't it always show the ++?

Yes, but that's as it should. RSU is the basic level set of "service
level", and if you add the PSP bucket on top of it, then you are not
running service level X, but service level X++. Thus it's providing the
correct indication.

I guess I'm thinking that the number of PTFs between RSUs is small enough
now that you're more likely to see a RSU come out sooner than you would
apply COR between RSUs. Not like the VM/SP days...8-) I know a lot of
shops that never apply COR unless it's totally critical to keeping the
machine up -- they'd rather wait for the RSUs because of the amount of
testing required to get stuff into prod.

>I do like the idea of something that lists all the fixes easily,
>preferably by CP so logging on to MAINT isn't necessary (ok, I guess I
>could link the necessary disks, etc to do it from my id). But CP Q PTF
>ALL? Or CP Q PTF VM64123? Wouldn't that be nice. SERVICE STAT shows
>everything except if the current active nuc has the fix, this could
>bridge that gap.

The reason I want it as part of SERVICE is that that way, it would work
for *all* SES maintained components in the same way. With some of the
non-IBM vendors starting to use SES maintenance, that would make
everybody's life easier. A CP command would be nice too, but I think it's
in addition to the extra function in SERVICE.

Also, SERVICE is what the newbies are trained to use, so that's kinda
where it has to go IMHO. Most of them don't even know that VMFSIM exists,
let alone the way to construct the insane number of arguments to get it to
report anything useful.

-- db

Re: Sevice level

[David Boyes]

What I would like:

1) a flag for the output of Q CPLEVEL that indicates that additional service 
beyond the displayed level has been applied. Something like 8801++.

Applying the next RSU would reset the flag until the next PTF outside the RSU 
is applied.

2) a new option to SERVICE that does the VMFSIM magic to list all PTFS applied 
to a component. Example: 

SERVICE LIST CP

Resulting in something like:

RSU 8801
PTF c
PTF yyygyygyy
Etc

I think that would help non-SES wizards to understand without breaking  the 
older method.




On Apr 9, 2011, at 20:06, "Alan Altmark"  wrote:

> Following up on Nick Harris' expectation to see a change to QUERY CPLEVEL 
> after applying COR service to CP, I'd like to open a discussion on how 
> folks perceive service levels.  That is, is there some way that you feel 
> IBM should express the concept of 'service level'?
> 
> For the sake of discussion, let us assert that:
> - We are talking about the running entity, not the copy of the entity on 
> the build disk.
> - Unless there are specific pre-reqs or co-reqs, PTFs can be applied in 
> any order or combination.
> - Each component (CP, CMS, DIRMAINT, RACF, SES, etc.) has its own service 
> stream
> 
> Regards,
>  Alan
> 
> z/VM and Linux on System z Consultant
> IBM System Lab Services and Training 
> ibm.com/systems/services/labservices
> office: 607.429.3323
> alan_altm...@us.ibm.com

Re: FTP Problem

[David Boyes]

Did they check firewall configuration on the Windows boxes? The default
settings for the Windows firewalls don't permit FTP.

Re: XEDIT question

[David Boyes]

Have a look at XCOL from the vm download library. You could probably use that 
as a starting place.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Tom Huegel
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 9:50 AM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: XEDIT question

Yes I have toyed with IOS3270 in the past. This application just isn't worth 
the effort. There will never be more than 16 records to display/update and only 
2 or 3 occasional users.

Re: z/VM and Linux

[David Boyes]

> Right, but unless I'm mistaken, z/VM workload
> is GP only. The Linux workload is IFL only (or should be).

There's nothing in the code that cares what kind of processor it runs on.
There are licensing issues with CMS workload (and running VSE and z/OS
guests) in that it's really expensive to run Linux workload on CPs, but
neither VM or Linux or OpenSolaris care about CP vs IFL.

Note that it is almost impossible to license the remaining CMS-hosted
products on IFLs (note the almost) due to licensing restrictions, so if
you have any measurable CMS usage, you're likely to be stuck on CPs simply
because you can't get any of the tools at a reasonable price (or in some
cases, ANY price) on IFLs.

IFLs are more a licensing trick than any real technology difference.

-- db

Re: MONWRITE

[David Boyes]

There's two kinds of monitors: things that happen all the time that you 
periodically want to take a sample to get a sense of what's going on (like CPU 
usage), and things that don't happen all the time but post specific events when 
they DO happen. These events are usually things you'd want to know about (like 
I/O errors), but can be things like "I allocated a block of storage" or "I 
released a block of storage" that you probably don't want to know about unless 
you're chasing a storage allocation bug.

Monitors come in different classes so you can turn on just what you need to 
avoid bringing the system to it's knees logging stuff that you don't care about.

So what you're doing here is:

You start with no monitors enabled, and you aren't collecting any data.

CP MONITOR SAMPLE ENABLE ALL

Tell CP to enable all the sampling measurements.

CP MONITOR EVENT ENABLE STORAGE

Tell CP you are interested in storage management events.

CP MONITOR EVENT ENABLE PROCESSOR

Tell CP you are interested in processor-related events. Usually not all that 
interesting, but no harm.

CP MONITOR EVENT ENABLE I/O ALL

Tell CP you are interested in I/O related events.

CP MONITOR EVENT ENABLE APPLDATA ALL

Tell CP you are interested in APPLDATA events. APPLDATA is kind of free-form in 
that it's basically whatever a specific app decides to put into the record. SFS 
uses it a lot, and Linux can use if configured to produce APPLDATA.

CP MONITOR START

Actually start collecting data. The MON SAMPLE and MON EVENTs told CP *WHAT* to 
collect, MON START says start doing it. Anything connected to the CP IUCV 
*MONITOR service starts getting data at this moment.

I'm sure someone else will jump in with another recommended set of commands, 
but that's what those do.

-- db

Re: RSCS Problem - return code=- 1 error number=54 (Connection reset by peer)

[David Boyes]

Here's a known working one with TA0:

LINKDEF WKSTN14 TYPE TCPNJE QUEUE SIZE RET SLOW 9000 8100 NODE WKSTN14
PARM WKSTN14 HOST=x.x.x.x KEEPALIV=YES STREAMS=1 TA=0 BUFF=3976

And one with TA=1:
LINKDEF WKSTN15 TYPE TCPNJE QUEUE SIZE RET SLOW 9000 8100 NODE WKSTN15
PARM WKSTN15 HOST=y.y.y.y KEEPALIV=YES STREAMS=7 TA=1 BUFF=3976



From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of David Boyes
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:20 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: RSCS Problem - return code=- 1 error number=54 (Connection reset 
by peer)

Explicitly code it. If you are using TA=0, then streams MUST be 1. If you are 
using TA=1, you have to spell out all 7 streams.

Re: RSCS Problem - return code=- 1 error number=54 (Connection reset by peer)

[David Boyes]

Explicitly code it. If you are using TA=0, then streams MUST be 1. If you are 
using TA=1, you have to spell out all 7 streams.

Re: RSCS Problem - return code=- 1 error number=54 (Connection reset by peer)

[David Boyes]

Make sure the number of streams match. That's the usual cause for this.

Re: Supporting Dot.1q trunk in z/Linux

[David Boyes]

If you are using a VSWITCH with a trunk port on the physical switch, you are 
already doing 802.1q trunking between VM and the network. CP is doing it for 
you.

Why in heaven's name do they want the Linux guests doing .1q trunking? That's a 
recipie for VLAN jumping, which they will have fits about.

Dale's VERPASS exit and other goodies

[David Boyes]

Dale's VERPASS code is available for download from 
http://download.sinenomine.net/community/zvm/dale-smith/

Tom Huegel's Japan pictures have moved to 
http://download.sinenomine.net/community/zvm/tom-huegel/

If anyone has useful VM-related goodies, please let me know and we'd be happy 
to provide a place for them.


n  Db

n

Re: SMTP authentication?

[David Boyes]

> This appliance can connect to a VSWITCH? 

Yes. It will tolerate both layer 2 and layer 3 VSWITCHes. 

> And how will my 
> SMTP talk to it? Over CTC? HS? 

What we suggest for front-ending these older VM TCP services is that you get 
another IP address from your networking folks (just one is fine), attach that 
to our firewall appliance (I'll also put that up), and define two  private 
VSWITCHes or GLANs as internal bus networks. You attach a interface from the VM 
TCPIP stack to the 2nd VSWITCH. You attach the SMTP appliance to the "outside" 
VSWITCH put an additional interface on the same VSWITCH as the VM TCPIP stack. 
Use 192.xxx or 172.xxx addresses for the internal VSWITCHes. 

You log into the appliance and edit /etc/exim/config and insert your SMTP auth 
credentials in the appropriate places (comments in the file tell you where), 
and then /etc/init.d/exim restart. You can test it by punching a BSMTP file to 
the RDR of the Linux appliance; if it's delivered, you win. 

Once you're happy with it, you configure the IPMAILERADDRESS in the VM SMTP 
configuration to point to the IP of the Linux appliance on the internal VSWITCH 
(so no unprotected traffic ever leaves your machine), and you're off to the 
races. 

It sounds complicated, but once this is all in place, you can start 
front-ending FTP, NFS, etc, etc with modern versions that are directly what the 
networking guys are used to (and they can help you configure them to work Just 
Like Everyone Else).

Takes away any complaining about the VM system being "weird" or "not 
compatible", and gets the job done while we all wait for IBM to have spare 
cycles to update the basic TCP services. 

Re: A Data Center near Tokyo Japan

[David Boyes]

Tom's pictures are available at

http://download.sinenomine.net/thugel-japan-pics/

I put both his original PPT file and a PDF version up.

All I can say is: wow. You guys got REALLY lucky.

--db

Re: Temp SFS environment

[David Boyes]

> Wasn't the original poster trying to do this with virtual disk(s)?  And
> if that's the case it has a high potential of being in memory anyway?
> Or did I miss something.
> Steve

In this case, it probably doesn't matter at all, but that's the reason the XC 
mode setting is in the VMSERVx directory entries. 

There's probably some coding advantages to be able to just flip over to another 
address space and directly read or write a page, but I doubt it matters nearly 
as much as it used to. 

Re: A Data Center near Tokyo Japan

[David Boyes]

Tom, if you'll send them to me, I'll put them out on the WWW download site here.

From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU] On Behalf 
Of Carroll, William D
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 3:20 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: A Data Center near Tokyo Japan

Anyway to post to a website so we can see them?

Re: Temp SFS environment

[David Boyes]

> All that brings a subsidiary question : is it important to preserve the 
> machine xc 
> in the VMSERVx directories (I should read the doc I think...) ?

You need the XC mode setting if you want SFS to use VM dataspaces to map parts 
of the data into memory (which would be consistent with the errors you saw) for 
performance reasons. It works fine without it (as you've seen), but performance 
will be impaired with very heavily loaded SFS servers. 

Re: "Social Security Confronts IT Obsolescence"

[David Boyes]

Knowing a fair amount about that facility, the infrastructure issues are quite 
real, particularly the cooling issues during the summer. There were several 
incidents last summer when a fair number of the discrete and blade chassis went 
into thermal shutdown due to heat zones exceeding 95-110 degrees.

 Its interesting that the z10s that actually hold the SSA data are the least 
demanding on that front of any of the systems in that facility. 

I'd also wonder whether anyone at CA has visited them and showed the their VSAM 
to DB2 adapter widget. Would definitely make sombody's sales quota value much 
happier.

Re: RSU, PSP - which do I choose?

[David Boyes]

Order PTF UV97540 and you will got lastest RSU for z/VM 5.4. (1008)


This is good advice and gets you most of the way. Since RSUs are collections of 
recommended service made at a specific point in time, make sure you also order 
the PSP bucket for that RSU to catch anything after the RSU date that wasn't 
included on the RSU.

Background: What you're doing is three things: installing the base code, using 
the RSU to jump forward in time and apply all the service from the base up to 
the RSU date in one operation, and then layer any fixes that have been made 
after the RSU was closed.
You've gotten the base code installed, and (if you want) you can use the RSU 
that you have to practice installing the RSU (when you get the new stacked RSU 
and PSP tapes, the SERVICE tool will figure out what you have already applied 
and just add the new stuff.

Mother's Rules of Thumb:


1)  Never mix IBM stuff and your stuff.

2)  Always take a backup of your entire MAINT id BEFORE you THINK about 
applying service

3)  Cupcakes get you faster responses to your service problems. 8-)

I'd strongly encourage you to just do a SERVICE ALL with the RSU and let the 
automated stuff process the service. If you aren't using CMS for anything 
except maintaining the system, it does a pretty good job, and anything it can't 
handle, you're going to need to call IBM for help anyway.  The VM service tools 
are heap big magic even for us oldtimers.