Hi Connor, Seriously awesome! I want one too!
You might try checking public surplus sales/auctions. You can find the ones in your area by search for public surplus sale. Government shops are usually required to sell there surplus equipment through these sales. Large shops often have private sales and they can be found by online search too. Often the equipment works and is cheaper. Read the fine print - terms can be different. Best, Linda Sent from my iPhone > On Nov 8, 2015, at 11:28 PM, Connor Krukosky <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> On 11/8/2015 9:11 PM, Timothy Sipples wrote: >> So let's explore this possibility. >> >> First of all, many congratulations on your $237 acquisition! You've got an >> interesting machine, a machine that figured prominently in mainframe >> history as the first genuinely "small" 64-bit mainframe -- though it may >> not seem small in your basement. Here are a few details worth checking: > Thanks! >> 1. Do you have any ESCON ports on your z890, or only FICON/FCP? If the >> latter, you would have 2Gbps ports capable of fallback to 1Gbps. The IBM >> DS6800 is a superb match if you're looking for a bit of FICON/ECKD storage, >> though make sure the DS6800 unit you find is actually ECKD. (Somebody on >> this list just might have a DS6800 to donate.) If you have ESCON ports you >> could also look at older ESCON-attached storage units or even possibly an >> ESCON-to-FCP/SCSI converter. > I do have ESCON ports as-well, two 16 port cards installed. ( I have 4 FICON > cards for reference ) > I have looked into the DS6000 and DS6800, on eBay people are asking A LOT I > have made some offers but I doubt I will get anything from there. > The expansion units are worth almost nothing comparatively is the sad thing. > But if someone here happened to have a 1750-511 or 1750-522 laying around and > wouldn't mind letting it disappear I would be more than happy to pay for > shipping. > I have never heard of ESCON-to-FCP/SCSI converters. > I've seen the FCP to SCSI boxes but they hook up via FICON and don't count as > a proper DASD that say z/OS can see or use, they count as a SAN. >> >> 2. The z890 was available with 1000BASE-T, Gigabit, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet >> -- and even Token-Ring. For your purposes having at least a couple >> 1000BASE-T ports (Feature Code 1366) would be best, but the other ports >> could be a bonus. > I think I have the 1000BASE-T cards. I have 5 total cards but two of them > were damaged due to some problems with thermal adhesive failing thus making > the heat-sinks fall off the chips and when they fell to the bottom they got > wedged when being removed and damaged the same chip in two different cards. I > have re-applied thermal adhesive in the 3 cards that seemed ok and just set > the other two aside for now. I currently set up the first port on the first > card for OSA-ICC so I can use that for 3270s in the future when I get them > configured, and setup the rest of the 5 ports for OSD so I can use them for > standard networking. >> >> 3. Is the 4th core on your z890 configured as an IFL, ICF, or zAAP by any >> chance? If not, it's a spare to the three cores that are configured on your >> machine, and that's not bad either. > As far as I know I don't think so, it may be an IFL or ICF, but I know its > not configured as a zAAP as I was hoping it would be. > I will have to check later and get back as to what it is. >> >> 4. The z890 had anywhere from 8GB to 32GB of main memory. Do you know how >> much yours has? Even the 8GB configuration should be fine for a personal >> mainframe, but more might be fun if you want to run some memory intensive >> home workloads. > It only has 8GB, but I will probably keep an eye out on eBay in-case a larger > module pops up. >> >> 5. I suspect CP Assist (CPACF, Feature Code 3863) is installed, though >> that's something to check. You can also check to see if any cryptographic >> adapters are installed. There were three available for the z890: PCICA >> (Feature Code 0862), PCIXCC (Feature Code 0868), and Crypto Express2 >> (Feature Code 0863). The last one would be the best. All operating systems >> can take advantage of these features. > I am pretty sure it is installed as when I double clicked on the CPC I > remember seeing 'Cryptographic Feature: Installed' or the likes. > I do not have any cryptographic adapters installed but I have seem them > floating around so if I want to play with one I can probably find one on eBay > for not too much if I'm lucky. > >> >> 6. Do you have a HMC with DVD drive? If you don't, maybe that's another >> item somebody on this list would know where to get. > No it does not have a DVD drive, but I would assume its just a matter of > finding a DVD drive for the T42, but also would the SE just realize its been > installed? because as of now these options are grayed out when going to 'Boot > from DVD or FTP'. But this isn't much of a problem anyway, I am quite > honestly finding it much easier to be-able to just open the ISO on my desktop > and using an FTP to boot since I can then just point the FTP to any ISO or > directory to try new things out without having to burn a new disk or swap > disks. >> >> OK, now about z/OS. Your capacity model 320 machine is approximately 120 >> PCIs and exactly 20 MSUs according to IBM's LSPR tables. The z890 is >> compatible with z/OS 1.13 but not 2.1 and above. (Version 2.2 is the >> current release.) Last I checked (a couple years ago), if you're willing to >> set a defined capacity of 3 MSUs for a hypothetical z/OS LPAR on your >> machine -- and you should be, especially if the z890 supports softcapping >> that LPAR (can't remember offhand) -- in principle it's possible to license >> z/OS under standard commercial terms for about $125 per month for >> authorized zNALC workloads. That would include the base z/OS operating >> system, DFSMSdss and hsm, XL C/C++ compiler, SDSF, Security Server, and >> RMF. Java 8 is still compatible with z/OS 1.13 and no additional charge, >> and there are some other add-ons that are no additional charge. So maybe >> "not crazy," or at least less crazy than you might have thought. If >> somebody wants to subsidize that particular aspect of your hobby, that'd be >> helpful. (Maybe you want to port some open source software to z/OS 1.13 and >> above?) > Wow I will have to look into if I can soft cap the LPAR, there were quite a > few config options for the LPAR so I may be-able to do so. > I will definitely have to look into this as I didn't know it would start so > cheap! > Thanks for the info! >> By the way, if you want to test z/VM you can, assuming you have a >> DVD-equipped HMC. The z/VM Version 5.3 Evaluation Edition is still >> available: >> >> http://www.vm.ibm.com/eval/ >> >> The documentation says it requires a z10 or higher. In fact the z/VM 5.3 >> Evaluation Edition *probably* works on earlier machines capable of starting >> from DVD, including the z890, though on pre-z10 machines the boot process >> is *much* slower. Because of the slow boot, IBM never claimed that the >> Evaluation Edition worked on models prior to the z10, but as I recall that >> was the only issue. Of course Version 5.3 of z/VM is quite backlevel, but >> Version 5.4 (also backlevel) is the last release of z/VM that works on a >> z890, so you're not far off here. Also bear in mind this is a 90 day >> evaluation license. Once you reach 90 days you're obliged to discontinue >> use. Check the license agreement for details. IBM Redbook SG24-6695 is >> likely to be useful if you head down this path. It's also possible IBM will >> discontinue downloads of the Version 5.3 Evaluation Edition at some point >> in the future. > I have actually already found this and will likely try it out in the future. > Just one question, is this 90 day evaluation from when you install it or when > you download it? >> I like the ZZSA idea as well. > Yea I will likely try this out as well in the near future. >> >> I've placed a brief story about your new personal mainframe at >> http://www.mmainframer.com at least as a placeholder. Please keep us posted >> on your progress. > Awesome, well I will try to provide as much information as possible. I will > likely once I get enough knowledge and feel prepared enough make a nice > Youtube video along the lines of 'I just bought a mainframe, what now?'. > Basicly going from nothing to having an IPLable image installed on some form > of storage. > > -Connor K > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
