zLinux: RHEL on IBM mainframe

[Kenneth Holter]

Thank you for your useful reply. I'm pleased to hear that we can reuse our
existing infrastructure/solutions such as Satellite server and EPEL-like
repository.

As of now we're merely on the planning stage of the process, so details on
consolidation ratio and so forth have not been finalized. For the system
administration (linux) part of it I need to prepare our infrastructure for
testing such a solution, and read up on the technology itself. Thanks to
your reply I have a better understanding of what needs to be done, and I'm
sure I'll be back with more questions later on. In the mean time I'll read
up on the literature you linked to.


Regards,
Kenneth

On 1/9/09, Shawn Wells <swells at redhat.com> wrote:
>
> Kenneth Holter wrote:
>
>> Hi.
>>
>>
>> Does anyone have experience with running RHEL on IBM mainframe? In
>> particular, I'm curious about what implications this has for the linux
>> system administration part of it, such as these:
>>
>>
> Hi Kenneth,
>
>   I'm the lead solutions architect for Linux on System z at Red Hat -- feel
> free to ping me offline.
>
>
>   - Whick package repositories are available?
>>
>>
> Pretty much all of them.  The largest difference is that there is not GFS
> or RHCS at this time.
>
>   - Are there any EPEL-like repos for zLinux?
>>
>>
> Yes.
>
>   - Can we use our Red Hat Satellite Server to manage packages for zLinux?
>>
>>
> Yes.  The largest catch is when you do provisioning -- you'll need to
> assign the virtual machine resources through z/VM, then upon your first IPL
> you can connect into satellite.
>
>   - Are there many tweak and issues I need to be aware of?
>>
>>
> Slight command differences, fdasd versus fdisk kind of things.  Memory
> management is also completely different -- a 64mb allocation of memory
> suites many peoples needs.
>
> We currently have quite a few RHEL servers based on x86 hardware, so I'm
>> basically interested in what kind of changes/adjustments I must implement
>> to add IBM mainframe to our list of hardware platforms. Please let me know
>> if there are other mailing lists that are more suitable for this topic.
>>
>>
>>
> If you have an option, run the RHN Satellite off the Mainframe.  When it's
> on the Z it can utilize hipersockets -- a network stack in memory -- for
> high throughput.  15-30 second provisioning can be achieved.  It will still
> manage distributed boxes in the same way.
>
> If looking at this from an economical standpoint, your consolidation ratio
> makes or breaks the business case.  RHEL for System z is offered on a
> per-IFL subscription basis with unlimited virtual machines.  At one customer
> they run ~55 virtual machines per IFL on a z9, but do note they're low-end
> web servers, DNS, ftp, etc.
>
> You'll need to decide how you want to virtualize your system -- z/VM or
> LPAR.  LPAR+RHEL is common criteria'd, sponsored by IBM.  I've found it
> easier to train a Linux staff member on z/VM than a z/VM person on Linux --
> but that's my own perception, talent of your team matters most.  IBM has a
> few training classes out there, but the one's I've seen are mostly
> install-lab type activities (versus detailed storage management, memory
> management, etc).
>
> Read into CMM1 -- it may yield you significant performance boosts.
> http://www.vm.ibm.com/perf/reports/zvm/html/530cmm.htm
>
> For a manual, you'll find the RHEL5 RedBook handy.
> linuxvm.org/Present/misc/virt-cookbook-RH5.pdf
>
> Linuxvm.org is a great resource for presentations,
> http://linuxvm.org/Present/index.html
>
> -Shawn
>
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