IBM z890

Mike Ross tmfdmike at gmail.com
Mon Nov 2 21:15:21 CST 2015


On Tue, Nov 3, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Connor Krukosky
<connork at connorsdomain.com> wrote:
> I recently won an IBM z890 via auction for $237.

Congratulations! Mainframes are fun!

> It was a very interesting adventure to retrieve this machine since it weighs
> 1500LBS on a good day, and well myself only clocking in around 115LBS I
> needed the help of a few friends and family to get this thing into the
> basement...

So I see. I thought I was mad. Shoehorning that thing under that deck
is about the silliest bit of computer preservation nonsense I've ever
seen! Well done! Exactly the kind of thing I might do :-)

> I plan to pickup an SAN based SCSI box to install Linux and play with. As
> far as I know I can't install any IBM OS' this way, I would need FICON or
> ESCON type storage to boot

One does not boot a mainframe; one IPLs it. :)

> anything like z/OS. (Read EXPENSIVE!)

I can't advise you as to the other boxes. From my Linux experience on
mainframe I can say it doesn't seem to boo... IPL any differently to
any other mainframe OS. If you can define the device to the mainframe
and issue an IPL command, you *should* be able to IPL anything I
think?

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'


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