Given that access to the HMC DVD is highly restricted in most places, I'd say that the tape option has to stay if you want to support bare metal LPARs. Security issues aside, a lot of places the HMC might be thousands of miles away, even from the operators -- they can't physically put the disc in the drive. HTTP access to the HMC can still let you IPL a LPAR from tape, but it won't let you insert the disk.
Given that POWER machines can also boot from tape with similar HMC issues, I'd think it's not just a Z issue. Perhaps the compromise would be to generate a "PXEboot" tape image that can be used to get the initial image into memory from tftp and then go from there. Use that for DVD and VM installs too. Provide an exec to save a pxeboot NSS on VM, and then you'd have the same install approach across all the platforms. >There's a SUSE internal discussion going on at the moment about > whether the ability to initiate an install from tape (as opposed to > z/VM reader or HMC DVD, etc.) should be removed from the installer > or not. I've been asked to solicit opinions on this idea from the > community, so here I am. > > Do you see a reason to keep "IPL from tape" as a feature for non- > z/VM shops? Do see a reason to not keep it? This mailing list has > fairly low traffic, so I think sending replies to the list should be OK. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
