All,
First off, my apologies if this is slightly OT, but I'm looking for some
help in the way(s) that Linux on z differs from Linux on open systems.
I've been scouring the IBM redbooks and whitepapers to find tid-bits of
information and presenting to the powers that be.
Due to recent changes in our organization there has been a shift in the
"who architects/engineers/administers" the Linux on z environment. The
current momentum is to have the *NIX group essentially do all of it from
the provisioning to administration. Bottom line is, they want to set it
up like it is on the distributed systems (autoinstall vs, cloning, overuse
of lvm, r/o binaries, etc..) some which I know fails to leverage the
benefits of mainframe.
1. Some of the things the open systems *NIX guys like to do is LVM
everything, including root. From the Set up Linux on IBM System z for
Production redbook
I found the following statement:
"Do not include the root file system in the LVM structure
because, if for any reason the LVM
fails, the operating system will not boot. " - Set up
Linux on IBM System z for Production
Are there other reasoning's to not do so? These are the types of things
that would really be helpful.
2. No root access for z/VM system programmers to z/Linux servers.
To my knowledge the s390-tools modules require root to invoke
them. These tools are the essential interfaces between z/Linux and z/VM
platform.
3. Sharing of Read/Only binaries.
Install once / share many -- This idea of this is mainframe
centric and is foreign idea to open systems.
I guess these are the "big" ones, at least in my mind. At the end of the
day, I realize that the best intentions and reasons often result in poor
decisions by those that are in the position to make them.
Thx,
Jason
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