Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Timothy Sipples]

John Campbell wrote:
>The zSeries is AT LEAST 5 9's hardware.

Philipp Kern wrote:
>Does that matter in today's world? Would you avoid building for failure
>when a lot of the failure comes from software anyway? Do you then host
>multiple Linux VMs on the same iron to account for that? If so, why
>can't that scale horizontally?

That's a great question. I'll attempt an answer, and then if you have some
follow-up questions, great.

First of all, I hope we can agree that execution and data integrity are
frequently important. If the processor occasionally reports "5" as the
answer to 2+2, or if a bit gets flipped within one field in a fund transfer
record, that glitch could be catastrophic. There's more technology in IBM Z
and LinuxONE systems to prevent integrity errors than in any other
computing platform (so far as I'm aware). Keeping electrons properly
channeled is getting more difficult with process shrinks, so integrity
considerations are likely more relevant now than at any time since
transitor technology matured.

Second, there's a huge amount of availability data gathered from real-world
failure analysis, and it stretches back decades. There are some clear
lessons learned, and the lessons sometimes apply in other contexts beyond
computing, such as in aviation safety, military campaigns, nuclear power
plant operations, and so on. One lesson that is widely understood and
recognized is a "defense in depth" strategy.

You said it yourself: "a lot of the failure comes from software." "High
Availability" clustering software, for example, is also software. There is
indeed some excellent clustering software, but it isn't always perfect. If
the system availability is well defended, in depth, then the clustering
software is not the only line of defense, and vice versa. It's simply wise
practice to push as much of the availability engineering across and down as
deep as possible into the computing infrastructure, so it "just works" if
called upon. And if one level fails to do its job, there's at least one
other layer of protection.

In aviation safety the experts talk about "failure chains" (or "error
chains"), the concept that an aviation failure resulting in loss of life or
injury usually only happens when there are multiple failures combined. If
only one error or failure results in a catastrophe, then aeronautical
safety engineers figure out ways to lengthen that too-short chain. And if
those multiple errors/failures do occur, they look for ways to break the
chains, to reduce or eliminate correlation between errors/failures -- to
make them as independent and rare as possible. The same philosophy applies
to mission critical computing, fundamentally.

Third, it's often not acceptable to schedule service downtime. Especially
(but not only) for application services that are stateful, and that must be
truly continuous (or as near continuous as possible), there's tremendous
value in being able to add capacity, upgrade firmware, replace parts, and
otherwise change system components while the applications keep running,
with point-in-time data consistency, respecting ACID properties, and so on.
Even if you cluster, often you cannot afford to bring down the whole
cluster in order to upgrade or service it. (IBM Z clustering options are
unique in many ways, including the fact they are not solely or
predominantly software-based.)

Fourth, no, it's not always possible to scale horizontally, although you
certainly can with IBM Z and LinuxONE machines if the workloads allow it.
Programmers and others keep trying to improve parallel processing
efficiencies, but there are some programs that can never split well across
multiple servers. A somewhat popular analogy here is human gestation. Human
pregnancies currently last about 40 weeks. It's not currently possible for
four women to reduce that gestation time to 10 weeks or even to 25 weeks.
Adding gestational resources doesn't help reduce that elapsed time. Human
gestation is inherently single threaded. And, extending the analogy, if you
want to give birth to a baby elephant, you need one bigger mother (an
elephant).

Anyway, there are such problems in computing, "big server" problems.
Solving many of those computing problems quickly, correctly, reliably, and
securely is often extremely valuable to businesses and governments. If
anything, there seem to be more such computing problems emerging lately.
Many of these problems match up terrifically with IBM Z and LinuxONE
platform capabilities, and some don't.

Fifth, securely encrypting everything, at multiple levels, and at scale is
an unavoidable requirement if we're ever going to protect civilization from
data breaches, privacy invasions, and associated bad outcomes. IBM z14 and
LinuxONE Emperor II machines are unique in that respect, too. (Predecessor
models allow you to move closer to that ideal.)

Finally, since workloads vary in their needs and characteristics, sometimes
a lot, *thank goodness* there are a few different 

Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Philipp Kern]

On 07.11.2017 23:04, John Campbell wrote:
> 1) On the kind of workload (compute vs I/O)
> 2) Requirements for reliability (look at Appendix A? from "Linux for the
> S/390")
> 
> There is no simple answer to this.  I suspect there are some benchmarking
> tools that will help.
> 
> The zSeries is AT LEAST 5 9's hardware.

Does that matter in today's world? Would you avoid building for failure
when a lot of the failure comes from software anyway? Do you then host
multiple Linux VMs on the same iron to account for that? If so, why
can't that scale horizontally?

> Because Windows runs on Intels, seldom do they need to consider much better
> than 9 5's reliability.  (smirks)

That's not how reliability works.

> A mainframe CPU provides:
> 
> a) Maximum reliable single-thread compute performance;

Fair. Although I suppose POWER8 comes close?

> b) Maximum I/O connectivity; and
> c) Maximum I/O throughput.

Depends on your storage rack and connectivity, doesn't it?

> On an I/O intensive workload I do not see an intel as being competitive.

If you look at, say, Google Compute Engine with Local SSD[1] it has some
pretty impressive IOPS numbers. Yes, it's not replicated.

> IIRC most of the folks doing heavy computing-- like Bitcoin mining-- use
> the display adapter's GPU for the heavy lifting, which leaves the zSeries
> at a disadvantage.

I wonder what all these newfangled blockchain technologies use in the
backgrounds. (The ones that aren't currencies but "just" ledgers.)

> So, like I said above, "it depends".
> 
> What's the workload?
> 
> What do you need the most "heavy lifting" for?
> 
> Mind you, if you need to run multiple instances on the same IFL, well,
> you're going to have to minimize CPU overcommitment.

I idly wonder how actual utilization of IFLs looks like in the field.
It's clear to me that CPs run hot because otherwise you're wasting
moneys. I.e. if overcommitment is just a fact of life like it is in the
cloud.

Kind regards
Philipp Kern

ObNote: Although I work for Google as a reliability engineer I speak as
a private person who is curious about mainframes.

[1] https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/performance

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Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[John Campbell]

GHz is GHz primarily when comparing CISC vs CISC.  While you can try to use
this, a lot depends upon how well the microcode can make a CPU process the
"usual" machine code.

CISC vs RISC-- zSeries vs pSeries, for instance, the GHz (I remember when
it was 2MHz for mainstream microcomputer CPUs) more closely maps to
instruction issue rates rather then microcode steps.

All right, I'm going to age myself.

A long long time ago I wrote microcode for the Sperry UNIVAC Array
Processor supporting geophysical processing;  At the time it was
implemented in TTL logic and had an instruction fetch rate of 100ns.
Maximum theoretical compute capability was approximately 120 MFloPS (you
can laugh, now, but this was in 1981) though, in "sustained" rate, could
almost get up to 80MFloPS which, frankly, was pretty cool.  We were doing
3D FFT processes... and, so, I had to doink with I/O subroutines (on the
1100 CPU end) to allow the I/O system to handle the trace shuffling.  Yeah,
there were multiple steps in the instruction processing--  IF, OD, CD, etc,
etc, etc-- and use of graph paper to get them to all be coded in the
"right" order was pretty much de rigeur.

CISCs are hard to compare.  zSeries "SS" instructions don't exist in the
Intel CPUs (all right, so I've written BAL for 360s and 370s as well as
Intel CPUs) so the instruction mix, as executed makes comparisons difficult.

RISC processors are more comparable w/r/t clock rates;  DEC Alpha, PowerPC,
MC88K, etc, etc, etc, because, with the low impact instructions, the
fetch/execute is pretty predictable.

With CISC CPUs there have been all kinds of efforts to optimize them.  Some
CPUs "internally" re-order instruction processing in order to get the best
performance.  I've also seen indications that compilers can be a lot more
clever in terms of optimizing the generated code.

-soup

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 5:31 PM, Barton  wrote:

> Yes.  Gigahertz is gigahertz.  If you can measure ghz consumed on x, you
> can guestimate requirements on z.   The only way to understand requirements
> is to know current use.
>
> Barton
>
>
> > On Nov 7, 2017, at 8:28 PM, Victor Echavarry Diaz <
> vechava...@evertecinc.com> wrote:
> >
> > We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12.
> The specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does
> anyone know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Victor Echavarry
> >
> > System Programmer
> >
> > Operating Systems
> >
> > EVERTEC, LLC
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > WARNING: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential
> and
> > intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
> > addressed. If you have received this email in error please delete it
> immediately.
> > Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are
> solely those
> > of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EVERTEC, Inc. or
> its
> > affiliates. Finally, the integrity and security of this message cannot be
> > guaranteed on the Internet, and as such EVERTEC, Inc. and its affiliates
> accept
> > no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this
> email.
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--
John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines  souperb at gmail dot
com
MacOS X proved it was easier to make Unix user-friendly than to fix Windows
"It doesn't matter how well-crafted a system is to eliminate errors;
Regardless
 of any and all checks and balances in place, all systems will fail because,
 somewhere, there is meat in the loop." - me

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Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Eduardo Oliveira]

Hi Victor,

IBM provides specific methodology to help a client figure out this
equivalency.

It depends on many factors, including core generation, GHz, type of
workload, utilization, etc.

I am the IBM z Client Specialist for Evertec and I will be glad to help you
with that.

Thanks.

Best Regards / Abraços / Abrazos,

Eduardo C. Oliveira, M. Math.
Executive Client IT Specialist
Communications/CSI Market - (LinuxONE, Linux on Z, IBM Wave, RACEv TCO, Fit
for Purpose, zChampion)









From:   Victor Echavarry Diaz 
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Date:   11/07/2017 03:29 PM
Subject:How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate
Sent by:Linux on 390 Port 



We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12. The
specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does
anyone know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?

Regards,

Victor Echavarry

System Programmer

Operating Systems

EVERTEC, LLC










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Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Bfishing]

Zero might be the best quick real answer to the question in the subject.

If the workload is known to run on the platform, folks might be willing to
share their experiences.  No matter what, consider running test that can be
scaled while measuring true impact to set real expectations.

IBM offers studies that may help as well.  Ask your BP.  Good luck,
Kurt



On Nov 7, 2017 3:29 PM, "Victor Echavarry Diaz" 
wrote:

We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12. The
specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does
anyone know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?

Regards,

Victor Echavarry

System Programmer

Operating Systems

EVERTEC, LLC










WARNING: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you have received this email in error please delete it
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Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely
those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EVERTEC, Inc. or its
affiliates. Finally, the integrity and security of this message cannot be
guaranteed on the Internet, and as such EVERTEC, Inc. and its affiliates
accept
no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.

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Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Barton]

Yes.  Gigahertz is gigahertz.  If you can measure ghz consumed on x, you can 
guestimate requirements on z.   The only way to understand requirements is to 
know current use.  

Barton


> On Nov 7, 2017, at 8:28 PM, Victor Echavarry Diaz  
> wrote:
> 
> We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12. The 
> specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does anyone 
> know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Victor Echavarry
> 
> System Programmer
> 
> Operating Systems
> 
> EVERTEC, LLC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> WARNING: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
> intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
> addressed. If you have received this email in error please delete it 
> immediately.
> Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely 
> those
> of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EVERTEC, Inc. or its
> affiliates. Finally, the integrity and security of this message cannot be
> guaranteed on the Internet, and as such EVERTEC, Inc. and its affiliates 
> accept
> no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.
> 
> --
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Re: How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[John Campbell]

(sighs)

"It depends"...

1) On the kind of workload (compute vs I/O)
2) Requirements for reliability (look at Appendix A? from "Linux for the
S/390")

There is no simple answer to this.  I suspect there are some benchmarking
tools that will help.

The zSeries is AT LEAST 5 9's hardware.

Because Windows runs on Intels, seldom do they need to consider much better
than 9 5's reliability.  (smirks)

(All right, so I got the 9 5's from a Tandem guy while he sneered at the
big Solaris boxes I dealt with.  There are reasons the Intel version of
Solaris (now defunct) was jokingly referred to as "SloLaris".)

A mainframe CPU provides:

a) Maximum reliable single-thread compute performance;
b) Maximum I/O connectivity; and
c) Maximum I/O throughput.

On an I/O intensive workload I do not see an intel as being competitive.
(Back in the early 1980s I saw an attempt to use a sort of 1M records
comparing a top-end Tandem 32bit system (48 cpus) against an overloaded
Sperry 1100/82 (as a 1x1) and, even with one arm tied behind its back, the
1100 smoked the Tandems...  but, then, while an 1100 is better at compute
workloads, the I/O system was designed to be more than merely "competent".)

The channel architecture, after the S/360, became surprisingly common;  I
saw it in Xerox Sigma series systems as well as the Sperry UNIVAC 1100
series;  This came as a shock to someone comfortable with the DECsystem-10
and related systems.  And, yeah, I have hand-assembled and toggled programs
into an idle Sigma 9.

For a compute workload?  The Intel, at least, can compete pretty well.
While a zSeries is no slouch at numerical processing, I'm not sure, but I'm
partial to pSeries (I supported AIX for over 10 years) so...

(chuckles)

IIRC most of the folks doing heavy computing-- like Bitcoin mining-- use
the display adapter's GPU for the heavy lifting, which leaves the zSeries
at a disadvantage.

So, like I said above, "it depends".

What's the workload?

What do you need the most "heavy lifting" for?

Mind you, if you need to run multiple instances on the same IFL, well,
you're going to have to minimize CPU overcommitment.

There is a reason why, inside IBM, if you use the WHATIS bot to ask "what
is bfi" it wiill return, with other answers:

Big "Fast" Iron

If you're an IBMer, look up A2C2E and P2C2E.  I even provided a "polite"
definition for RTFM.

So a lot "depends".

-soup

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 3:28 PM, Victor Echavarry Diaz <
vechava...@evertecinc.com> wrote:

> We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12.
> The specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does
> anyone know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?
>
> Regards,
>
> Victor Echavarry
>
> System Programmer
>
> Operating Systems
>
> EVERTEC, LLC
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> WARNING: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
> intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
> addressed. If you have received this email in error please delete it
> immediately.
> Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely
> those
> of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EVERTEC, Inc. or
> its
> affiliates. Finally, the integrity and security of this message cannot be
> guaranteed on the Internet, and as such EVERTEC, Inc. and its affiliates
> accept
> no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.
>
> --
> For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
> send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or
> visit
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> For more information on Linux on System z, visit
> http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
>



--
John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines  souperb at gmail dot
com
MacOS X proved it was easier to make Unix user-friendly than to fix Windows
"It doesn't matter how well-crafted a system is to eliminate errors;
Regardless
 of any and all checks and balances in place, all systems will fail because,
 somewhere, there is meat in the loop." - me

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How many Intel cores does an IFL emulate

[Victor Echavarry Diaz]

We receive a request from a new customer for a z/Linux guest on a BC12. The 
specification that the vendor supplied is for an intel platform. Does anyone 
know is there a formula to convert intel cpu cores to IFL?

Regards,

Victor Echavarry

System Programmer

Operating Systems

EVERTEC, LLC










WARNING: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you have received this email in error please delete it 
immediately.
Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily represent those of EVERTEC, Inc. or its
affiliates. Finally, the integrity and security of this message cannot be
guaranteed on the Internet, and as such EVERTEC, Inc. and its affiliates accept
no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.

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Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[R P Herrold]

On Tue, 7 Nov 2017, Mark Post wrote:

> >>> On 11/7/2017 at 12:36 PM, R P Herrold  wrote:
> > I don't understand what you are seeking as a change from Red
> > Hat here, Mark
>
> I'm not seeking any change from Red Hat, just telling the OP
> that unless that change happens (and I'm pretty sure it will
> not), he's going to have to keep doing this (or whatever
> might be preferable) as long as he wants to keep the
> "old/traditional" interface names of eth?.

* nod *  Okay

I was unsure if you felt that there was some approach on your
$EMPLOYER's side that RHT was 'missing a bet' in not
documenting how to address, and was planning to file with them
any RFE, if that were the case

Thank you

-- Russ herrold

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Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[Christian Borntraeger]

On 11/06/2017 10:24 PM, Mark Post wrote:
 On 11/6/2017 at 03:16 PM,  wrote:
>> Hi,
>> Thank you for the response.  Umm... I'm not sure about this but I
>> circumvented with
>>
>>
>>
>>  echo 'GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=net.ifnames=0' >>/etc/default/grub
>>
>>
>> I would appreciate, you or anybody can bring more light into this.
>
> That's not a circumvention, that's the solution to your problem.  Unless Red 
> Hat decides to modify their kernels to use the old naming convention, this 
> will continue to be needed until you modify all your scripts to handle the 
> "predictable names."
>

An alternative (if you do not like to touch the kernel command line) seems to be
to run

ln -s /dev/null /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot.rules

once.

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Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[Mark Post]

>>> On 11/7/2017 at 12:36 PM, R P Herrold  wrote: 
> I don't understand what you are seeking as a change from Red
> Hat here, Mark

I'm not seeking any change from Red Hat, just telling the OP that unless that 
change happens (and I'm pretty sure it will not), he's going to have to keep 
doing this (or whatever might be preferable) as long as he wants to keep the 
"old/traditional" interface names of eth?.


Mark Post

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Re: Red Hat 6 fails to boot after zVM 6.4 upgrade

[Vitale, Joseph]

Hello,

Each guest now failing came up before zVM upgrade.  Our Unix Security 
group is contacting CA.



Thanks
 Joe

Technology Services Group
Mainframe Operating Systems

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-Original Message-
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Karl 
Kingston
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2017 12:50 PM
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: Red Hat 6 fails to boot after zVM 6.4 upgrade

I would not think that the z/VM upgrade would have caused this.  Has the linux 
guest worked OK in the past before the upgrade?

Have you reached out to CA?


On Mon, 2017-11-06 at 18:54 +, Vitale, Joseph wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Running a  CA  zLinux  Product called  "PIM"  aka eTrust or 
> Control Minder.  A Linux security product managing ID's,  su  access, etc..   
> Product fails during boot causing core dumps.
> 
> Did I miss some compatibility setting upgrading from 
> zVM 6.3 to 6.4
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks
>  Joe
> 
> 
> 
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The information contained in this e-mail, and any attachment, is confidential 
and is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. Access, copying 
or re-use of the e-mail or any attachment, or any information contained 
therein, by any other person is not authorized. If you are not the intended 
recipient please return the e-mail to the sender and delete it from your 
computer. Although we attempt to sweep e-mail and attachments for viruses, we 
do not guarantee that either are virus-free and accept no liability for any 
damage sustained as a result of viruses. 

Please refer to http://disclaimer.bnymellon.com/eu.htm for certain disclosures 
relating to European legal entities.

Re: Red Hat 6 fails to boot after zVM 6.4 upgrade

[Karl Kingston]

I would not think that the z/VM upgrade would have caused this.  Has the linux 
guest
worked OK in the past before the upgrade?

Have you reached out to CA?


On Mon, 2017-11-06 at 18:54 +, Vitale, Joseph wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Running a  CA  zLinux  Product called  "PIM"  aka eTrust or 
> Control Minder.  A Linux security product managing ID's,  su  access, etc..   
> Product fails during boot causing core dumps.
> 
> Did I miss some compatibility setting upgrading from zVM 6.3 
> to 6.4
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks
>  Joe
> 
> 
> 
> The information contained in this e-mail, and any attachment, is confidential 
> and is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient. Access, copying 
> or re-use of the e-mail or any attachment, or any information contained 
> therein, by any other person is not authorized. If you are not the intended 
> recipient please return the e-mail to the sender and delete it from your 
> computer. Although we attempt to sweep e-mail and attachments for viruses, we 
> do not guarantee that either are virus-free and accept no liability for any 
> damage sustained as a result of viruses. 
> 
> Please refer to http://disclaimer.bnymellon.com/eu.htm for certain 
> disclosures relating to European legal entities.
> 
> --
> For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
> send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
> http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
> --
> For more information on Linux on System z, visit
> http://wiki.linuxvm.org/

Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[R P Herrold]

I guess I 'lost the thread' here.   There is no
/etc/sysconfig/grub in s390x in a RHEL 7 sources rebuild
default install (as with our ClefOS).

Here is a long 'point by point' summation, and file and
contents dump, for a checklist.  As noted, I have not had to
trace out how dracut / grubby is 'massaging things, but most
of the rest is from a dead plain simple RHEL 7.4 sources
rebuild install (ClefOS 7)

1. Editing kernel boot time parameters is done in grubby /
dracut , and as it is s390x. the zipl settings in the 'conf'
files contained in: s390utils-base

[root@lclef01 network-scripts]# grubby --info=` grubby \
--default-kernel `
index=0
kernel=/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x
args="crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev \
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
initrd=/boot/initramfs-3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x.img
title=3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x
[root@lclef01 network-scripts]#

[I added the  '\" continuation in the prior paste to show
that is all one line.]


2. One amends what 'grubby' uses thus:
grubby --update-kernel=ALL --remove-args=quiet

or:
 grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args=quiet


3. I _believe_ but cannot demonstrate that 'grubby' is parsing
kernel 'parameter' lines not from a SPOT -- single point of
truth', but rather merging several sources, in the collection
of:
- reading and parsing prior state

- in the case of x86, from parsing:
/etc/sysconfig/grub
[NOT in play on s390x]

- in the case of s390x, from parsing:
/etc/zipl.conf

---

4. Then running an architecture specific command:

for x86: grub2-mkconfig -o /etc/grub2.cfg

for s390s, using helper scripts such as: znetconf
(which detects, and 'properly' sets up network devices)
and 'mkinitrd', to get to a valid 'initrd.

5. That initrd may be inspected thus:
/usr/bin/lsinitrd | less

where one finds scripts, modules, udevd rules, and binaries
specific to 'Z', including:
zfcp
znet
/usr/lib/dracut/hooks/cmdline/30-parse-zfcp.sh
/usr/lib/dracut/hooks/cmdline/30-parse-dasd.sh
/usr/lib/dracut/hooks/cmdline/31-parse-dasd-mod.sh

/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x/kernel/drivers/s390/block/dasd_eckd_mod.ko

/usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x/kernel/drivers/s390/block/dasd_mod.ko
/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/56-dasd.rules
/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/59-dasd.rules
/usr/sbin/dasd_cio_free
/usr/sbin/dasdconf.sh
/usr/sbin/dasdinfo
/usr/sbin/normalize_dasd_arg
/usr/sbin/zfcp_cio_free
/usr/sbin/zfcpconf.sh
/usr/sbin/znet_cio_free

6. That is, this is not a black art in play, but a customary
RHT approach to Linux boot matter, with the needed extensions
for the architecture. One can 'trace through' when there is a
problem, and see what is happening


[root@lclef01 etc]# uname -a
Linux lclef01.lf-dev.marist.edu 3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x #1
SMP Sat Sep 16 05:14:53 EDT 2017 s390x s390x s390x GNU/Linux
[root@lclef01 etc]# rpm -qa | grep grub
grubby-8.28-23.el7.s390x
[root@lclef01 etc]# rpm -ql grubby | grep "grub$"
[root@lclef01 etc]#

[root@lclef01 etc]# rpm -ql s390utils-base | grep "conf$"
/etc/dasd.conf
/etc/rc.d/init.d/dumpconf
/etc/sysconfig/dumpconf
/etc/zfcp.conf
/etc/zipl.conf
/sbin/qethconf
/sbin/znetconf

[root@lclef01 etc]# cat /etc/zipl.conf
[defaultboot]
defaultauto
prompt=1
timeout=5
default=3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x
target=/boot
[3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x]
image=/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
ramdisk=/boot/initramfs-3.10.0-693.2.2.el7.s390x.img
[linux]
image=/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-693.el7.s390x
ramdisk=/boot/initramfs-3.10.0-693.el7.s390x.img
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
[linux-0-rescue-cc310857ab8f44e8b0853bd600c93306]

image=/boot/vmlinuz-0-rescue-cc310857ab8f44e8b0853bd600c93306

ramdisk=/boot/initramfs-0-rescue-cc310857ab8f44e8b0853bd600c93306.img
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev"
[root@lclef01 etc]#


7. Focusing in more closely, the mentioned 'condev' entries
are present by default:

[root@lclef01 etc]# cat /etc/zipl.conf | grep "condev"
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
parameters="root=/dev/disk/by-path/ccw-0.0.01b0-part3
crashkernel=auto rd.dasd=0.0.01b0 cio_ignore=all,!condev"
[root@lclef01 

Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[canzonet1]

Thank you, David and Mark.



 Appreciate the information.


Warm Regards,
Tom



-Original Message-
From: Diep, David (OCTO) (OCTO) 
To: LINUX-390 
Sent: Tue, Nov 7, 2017 9:17 am
Subject: Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

Mark Post is right. RHEL 7 restricts use of ethN.

Pre-RHEL7, I think by listing the subchannels in the network scripts, RHEL will 
remove device numbers by issuing cio_ignore at boot for you.  For RHEL7 you 
have to take an extra step of removing it in zipl.conf, as it is included after 
the installation:

cio_ignore=all,!condev 
rd.znet=qeth,0.0.0f00,0.0.0f01,0.0.0f02,layer2=0,portno=0,portname=foo 
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"

This has nothing to do with the predictable names rule, but it can prevent your 
network script from starting.


David Diep

-Original Message-
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark Post
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 4:25 PM
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

>>> On 11/6/2017 at 03:16 PM,  wrote:
> Hi,
> Thank you for the response.  Umm... I'm not sure about this but I
> circumvented with
>
>
>
>  echo 'GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=net.ifnames=0' >>/etc/default/grub
>
>
> I would appreciate, you or anybody can bring more light into this.

That's not a circumvention, that's the solution to your problem.  Unless Red 
Hat decides to modify their kernels to use the old naming convention, this will 
continue to be needed until you modify all your scripts to handle the 
"predictable names."


Mark Post

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Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

[Diep, David (OCTO)]

Mark Post is right. RHEL 7 restricts use of ethN. 

Pre-RHEL7, I think by listing the subchannels in the network scripts, RHEL will 
remove device numbers by issuing cio_ignore at boot for you.  For RHEL7 you 
have to take an extra step of removing it in zipl.conf, as it is included after 
the installation:

cio_ignore=all,!condev 
rd.znet=qeth,0.0.0f00,0.0.0f01,0.0.0f02,layer2=0,portno=0,portname=foo 
LANG=en_US.UTF-8"

This has nothing to do with the predictable names rule, but it can prevent your 
network script from starting.


David Diep 

-Original Message-
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Mark Post
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 4:25 PM
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: RHEL 7.4 - Difficulties

>>> On 11/6/2017 at 03:16 PM,  wrote: 
> Hi,
> Thank you for the response.  Umm... I'm not sure about this but I 
> circumvented with
> 
> 
> 
>  echo 'GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=net.ifnames=0' >>/etc/default/grub
> 
> 
> I would appreciate, you or anybody can bring more light into this.

That's not a circumvention, that's the solution to your problem.  Unless Red 
Hat decides to modify their kernels to use the old naming convention, this will 
continue to be needed until you modify all your scripts to handle the 
"predictable names."


Mark Post

--
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to 
lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
--
For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/

--
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
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