I respectfully disagree (... until two sentences down). (Prepare for a run-on sentence!) Life is much easier installing z/VM products into SFS spaces, because future maintenance simply uses the additional shared free SFS space without all that nasty "VM sysprog stuff" about running DISKMAP/DIRMAP/whatever to find more free cylinders, XEDITing the USER DIRECT to add the new/larger MDISK, re-running DISKMAP/DIRMAP/whatever to ensure that there were no errors/overlays (and perhaps fixing them and re-running DISKMAP/DISKMAP/whatever until it's "right"), running DIRECTXA, linking the new/larger MDISK read-write, formatting the new/larger MDISK, ACCESSing both, COPYFILEing the old/smaller MDISK files to the new/larger MDISK, DETACHng the old/smaller MDISK, XEDITing USER DIRECT to delete the old/smaller MDISK and change the address of the new/larger MDISK to the old address, DETACHING the old/larger MDISK and re-LINKing/ACCESSing it at the new address, running DIRECTXA, and then restarting VMSES/E maintenance process. OK, DIRMAINT or another ESM can help with all that.
BUT... as Ross Perot said (although not directly about SFS), the devil's in the details: when the space limit for the product being maintained is exceeded one starts digging through very large manuals to find out how to extend the limit, and when the filepool fills up one starts digging deeper into how to add a new disk to the filepool (not hard, but not trivial and involves a lot of reading with potential errors), and then there's the matter of learning how to reliably backup and restore SFS filepools, and last but not least, there are those odd (very powerful, but very unintuitive) SFS AUTHORIZE commands. Backup and authorization difficulties can be handled pretty nicely with the proper program products (with added cost and time to set them up and become familiar with them). But there's a steep learning curve for SFS, one that IMHO is just too steep for newbie VM sysprogs already busy trying to learn z/VM and Linux for System z. Moral: Keep It Simple, Stupid. All that scary "VM sysprog stuff" in the first run-on-and-on sentence is a lot simpler to understand than SFS when you're just trying to quickly build a reliable platform upon which to host Linux servers. There isn't all that much z/VM maintenance between z/VM releases. One can be selective about installing specific fixes for experienced or HIPER problems while waiting for the next z/VM release. Fewer fixes provides higher percentage odds that they will fit on the original MDISKs anyway. Mike Walter Hewitt Associates Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Hewitt Associates. "Michael MacIsaac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <[email protected]> 11/30/2007 03:14 PM Please respond to "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject Re: z/VM Installation from DVD > life is much simpler if you choose minidisk(s) I concur :)) "Mike MacIsaac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (845) 433-7061 The information contained in this e-mail and any accompanying documents may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message, including any attachments. Any dissemination, distribution or other use of the contents of this message by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. All messages sent to and from this e-mail address may be monitored as permitted by applicable law and regulations to ensure compliance with our internal policies and to protect our business. Emails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free as they can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. You are deemed to have accepted these risks if you communicate with us by email.
