(multi-posted from thread started on IBM-MAIN) An interesting idea in the last paragraphs? "Tooting own horn"
On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 9:18 PM, Rob Schramm <[email protected]> wrote: > Cloud? > > Rob > > For installation? Why not. I can do a "PXE net boot" using an ethernet card on my Intel PC. On my newest Raspberry Pi3, it came with a micro SD card. The Pi3 boots from it. The supplied boot image simply puts up a splash screen asking what you want to install from the menu, you select, it downloads and installs it. You then reboot the new image and go. I can, vaguely, imagine PR/SM being able to have a special LPAR type (conceptually like a CF LPAR) which could have a smart enough system on it to be bootable (like CF) and has "utilities" on it to initialize DASD, then install the base version _any_ IBM OS over the Internet. I.e. select z/VM & this thing will download the equivalent of a single pack "installation" z/VM which you can then IPL in a different LPAR. That "installation" z/VM could then be used by the sysprog to create (and test?) the production z/VM environment. Which could then run 2nd level, or be IPL'd into that "installation" z/VM's LPAR (or another one). Same with z/OS. Get a basic z/OS going. Use SMP/E to download your "server pak" or CBPDO, build & customize your z/OS, then IPL that one. And so on for z/VSE, z/TPF, and z/Linux. Pros: (1) no media costs; (2) no need to purchase tape drives for installation; (3) no tape disposal cost for user; (4) IBM can verify the CPUID during installation - I.e. the user gets a "digital download" key which only works with a specific CPUID for a specific product, acting like a "password phrase" for a digital certificate. Minuses: (1) requires a high speed, _reliable_, Internet link - OK in most of the "developed" world, but iffy in some places. The above is how I maintain Linux. Or course, I _do_ need something like a "live installation CD" to get the process started. That's were the "special LPAR type" comes in above. IBM could put this "live installation" code on the HMC or SEs to be loaded "on demand" into the special LPAR, much like the millicode. -- The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude. Maranatha! <>< John McKown ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
