On Fri, Nov 08, 2002 at 09:12:32AM -0600, Nix, Robert P. wrote: > 9672, so no hiper-sockets. In trial mode, so no money to buy a > distribution or support, but with the potential to do so if / when it > goes into production. Potentially running DB2 and WebSphere, so SuSE > instead of RedHat, as IBM supports SuSE more so than RedHat, in our > experience. > > I'd like to work within the confines I have.
Virtual HiperSockets work fine on a 9672 if you have z/VM 4.2 (or even heavily-patched 4.1, I think) or later. You do not need hardware HiperSocket support to emulate HiperSockets under z/VM. You *really* don't want to build a penguin colony on CTCs. Fork over $500 (am I right about the price?) to SuSE for *their* trial so you can get access to their patches (for 30? 90? days, which should be enough to build a network), and configure guest LANs. Find that $500 somewhere. You'll make up the difference in labor costs pretty much immediately. If you insist on using multiple point-to-point connections, I'd still say six boxes per router, but be aware that it's going to be much more fragile and difficult to configure and manage, and the performance will probably be worse. Adam
