On Tuesday, 08/20/2013 at 03:08 EDT, "Stewart, Lee" <[email protected]> wrote: > Secret, undocumented, or sparsely documented function might as well be > non-existent function. Sparse doc produces even sparser usage.
On this we agree. Hence my point about dogging PE for the info. They admit that there isn't enough doc. If you find yourself in need of more info, a PMR or PMH is in order. > One example > from about 18 months ago: The customer just wanted the HMC logs sent to a > central repository. Lots of people affirmed that it should be able to be > done. None could find enough doc to get it to work. I didn't find that part all that difficult. I would really prefer a consolidated discussion of "Managing and maintaining the security of the HMC." If I ever get the information and the time, maybe I'll write one.... > I dealt with lots of different customers in my previous job. In almost every > case the HMCs were the purview of the MVS sysprogs. Most have never gone > beyond SYSPROG, or clones of SYSPROG. And the senior MVS guy(s) aren't going > to take informal doc/advice from their VM counterpart when it comes to "their > HMC".... So if Alan knows, and even posts it to the list here, that doesn't > carry much weight with that senior MVS guy. And months from now who would > think of searching the VM listserv for doc on the "hardware" HMC. Well, it's certainly information that consultants can validate and recommend to their clients. No need to quote a perfect stranger. Customers can validate it for themselves. And having unique IDs for each person isn't rocket science. In fact, it's de rigeur for any IT system. The HMC is a critical component of their IT systems, soooo.... > If the HMC can really do such things easily (well, as easily as other Linux > systems), then it needs to be usably documented in the HMC books. Linux? That's a red herring. The HMC doesn't look like any Linux system I've ever seen, and nothing you learn about Linux will help you operate the HMC. It could be running OS/2 for all I know! ;-) My lack of knowledge about How Things Work has never stopped me from using or breaking them, however! Don't point to the books. They are not now and never have been useful for detailed HMC operation. <grumble> For that you must point your browser to the /help directory of your nearest HMC. (At least you don't have to authenticate to get Help!) > (Don't get me wrong... Alan and most other IBMers are both willing and good > at sharing what they know. But it's not official published doc.) And yet they (or consultants on their behalf) don't call it in and report a problem with the lack of documentation, so it never gets addressed so the client never moves forward. To be sure, they have to WANT to use the HMC in an auditably secure fashion before they bump into these documentation black holes. And finding them, they need to open a PMR or PMH. "No PMR or PMH? No problem. NEXT!" Alan Altmark Senior Managing z/VM and Linux Consultant IBM System Lab Services and Training ibm.com/systems/services/labservices office: 607.429.3323 mobile; 607.321.7556 [email protected] IBM Endicott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
