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Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

  • 1.  Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Tue February 07, 2023 03:27 PM
    Recently I upgraded from:
    - 8286-41A
    - Internal spinning drives hosted by IBM i to other partitions of IBM i.
    - - 280G 19B1 15k
    - - 1.7T 5933 10k
    - VTL tape drive
    - 8GB Fiber channel ports for VTL on a switch doing other additional work.

    The 10k drives were all hosted to one partition. We'll call it the 10k partition.

    I upgraded it to:
    - 9105-41B
    - NVMe on FlashSystem 7300 SAN
    - Kept the same VTL
    - 16GB Fiber channel switch dedicated for SAN and VTL.

    There's a report BRMS has which shows you a summary of save durations and the tapes they used.
    PRTRPTBRM TYPE(*CTLGRPSTAT) CTLGRP(DTFULL)
    It looks like this on the formerly 10k partition:

    So basically a save that used to take 10 hours and 33 minutes at 421GB/Hr now runs in one hour and 26 minutes at 3,222GB/hr.

    #IBMChampion

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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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  • 2.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Wed February 08, 2023 07:16 AM
    We found a significant decrease in BRMS backups after migrating from internal spinning disk to FS5100 Flash NVMe .  Our 7+ hour backups are now completing in less than an hour.

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    Michael Garczynski
    Director - SAP Architecture
    DAP Products
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Wed February 08, 2023 07:33 AM
    Edited by Satid Singkorapoom Wed February 08, 2023 07:34 AM
    Dear Michael

    Do you still use the same Power server? Do you also use VTL for the backup operation like Robert does? If not, what type of tape device and media do you use?

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    Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think. -- Albert Einstein.
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    Satid S.
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Thu December 07, 2023 04:11 PM

    Hello this my first time here and I'm hoping you with Power 8 system 822 model can help me.

    I have a P8 that the HMC's see up and running but we still cannot connect to it. We have 2 of these which 1 of them is NOT working.

    I think the NIC interfaces are the problem. I see the P8 has a system console on there. I assume this is a serial connection. Should I be able to take a serial to serial cable as long the cable is cross connect or can I take a USB to Serial and connect it from Serial port of affected system to USB system. 

    Will the above work or what do you recommend?

    Phillip



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    Phillip Bruce
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Thu December 07, 2023 04:33 PM

    Your assumption is likely wrong.  There were only a few models which supported an "ASCII workstation controller" for a serial connection.  That has long been obsolete.

    If the HMC is seeing them as up then the HMC is likely the system console.  There should be a system or systems.  Each system supports one or more "partitions".  What you need to look for is a "partition".  Once you select that the HMC should have an option for system console.

    An alternative to the HMC was a "lan console".  Often more popular in shops without a HMC but there was a few shops which still selected lan console when they had an HMC.  Not the way I would go if I had an HMC but to each their own.

    Try the HMC console option first.  If that fails then there are ways to determine if your system is configured for HMC console or lan console.



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Wed December 13, 2023 02:48 PM

    How are you trying to "connect to it"?

    What is the goal of connecting to it?  IOW, are you trying to get a system console for use by IBM i?  Are you trying to get an aix/linux console session?  Are you trying to get into ASMI?



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Mon December 18, 2023 08:43 AM

    The goal here is to troubleshoot a issue with server who network interfaces are not working.

     

    Working Server ------ Serial Connection-- Non-Working System.

     

    The HMC cannot connect to it. This is a LINUX system not AIX.

     

    Cables from Non-Working System has already been replaced as well SFP's to the switches and tested to be working on that end.

    I'm not asking for anyone help to trouble the issue were having. Just trying another way to connect to a NON-WORKING system that we can trouble shoot.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Phillip

     




    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Mon December 18, 2023 09:22 AM

    Ok, now I'm confused.  Earlier you said "I have a P8 that the HMC's see up and running " but now you say "The HMC cannot connect to it. "

    If the HMC sees it as up and running we have a backdoor.  By any chance can you connect a ssh or putty client to your HMC?  If you can there's an HMC command called vtmenu.  This will allow you to get a command screen to aix and vios lpars.  I assume it also works for linux lpars.  Once you get there you should be able to log into your linux lpar and do any linux command you want and analyze your communication issues.

    Let us know.



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Wed December 20, 2023 02:34 PM

    I have not tried the VTMENU method.

     

    Yes your correct. The HMC can see that it is up and running but could not ssh into the node at all.


    Thus this is the reason I was wanting to try and connect from a working node via serial / system port to see if that would work.

    The cable would have to be a cross over connection.

     

    Phillip

     




    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Power 8 to Power 10 upgrade

    Posted Wed December 20, 2023 02:40 PM

    Have you since tried the VTMENU?



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    Robert Berendt IBMChampion
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    Original Message