Ed Jaffe wrote: >Yes, that's helpful as it suggests it can be done. But, I want to >create the stand-alone IPL utilities myself. > >Essentially, I want to copy the latest stand-alone DSF and >stand-alone DSS (and perhaps even z/VM DDR) -- with the latest >APAR/PTFs applied -- from my system to one of these "alternate" >IPL locations, but so far I've been unable to find instructions >for doing so...
To my knowledge IBM doesn't supply or support these utilities in this way, but you can always ask (RFE: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe ). That said, if you're willing to go "off label" (but within license), Dave Gibney makes a good suggestion: see if Jan Jaeger's ZZSA offers some inspiration. Another "wild idea" that comes to mind is that Linux has offered "raw-track access mode" for quite some time, and conceivably you could use that. Specifically, it may be possible to create IPL'able instances on DASD (ECKD FICON-attached storage) of the particular stand-alone tools you're interested in, use a DVD/USB-booted Linux instance to back up the whole volume (to something network-attached, for example), then reverse the process but with the backed up volume available on the DVD/USB flash drive itself. Then as long as you have some sort of ECKD storage available you should be able to "bootstrap" the particular stand-alone utilities you want to run. I haven't tried this, but it seems technically viable and not too far "off label." A variation on what I just described substitutes tape or virtual tape for the ECKD storage, as long as the Linux "bootstrap" instance understands how to read/write to/from such a device. This would apply to stand-alone utilities available in tape IPLable form. (ZZSA can also IPL from tape/virtual tape, so it's a reasonable test candidate if/when you're trying to build a Linux "bootstrap" image.) z/VM and z/VSE supply their own DVD/USB IPL'able "bootstrap" images, so if you're licensed for either or both of those products they might offer something useful. I should also mention that you don't necessarily need physical access to the HMC/HMA. With authorized remote HMC/HMA access you can upload an IPLable .iso image (with .ins) to the HMC/HMA and IPL a partition from that. And/or instruct the HMC/HMA to IPL from a network reachable .iso/.ins. - - - - - - - - - - Timothy Sipples I.T. Architect Executive Digital Asset & Other Industry Solutions IBM Z & LinuxONE - - - - - - - - - - E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
