Re: Idea: Using SCRT to report on Linux usage; maybe a way to reduce the entry level cost for Linux on Z?

[Timothy Sipples]

IBM already has a sub-capacity accounting tool for Linux on Z and LinuxONE:
the IBM License Metric Tool (ILMT). ILMT is already facilitating
sub-capacity licensing of IBM software products on Linux on Z and LinuxONE.
Details here:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20License%20Metric%20Tool

ILMT is also available for (and common on) Windows, AIX, Linux on X86, etc.
And it's a no charge, supported tool.

I don't know if IMLT allows non-IBM software accounting, but that seems
like a great idea to me if it's not already available. Try here if you
want/need to lodge a Request for Enhancement (RFE):

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/?BRAND_ID=301

Be sure to look for preexisting ILMT RFEs that might be similar before
opening a new one.

IBM also already has sub-capacity licensing for z/VM, also via ILMT.
Details here:

https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/7/897/ENUS217-267/ENUS217-267.PDF


Timothy Sipples
IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE,
Multi-Geography
E-Mail: sipp...@sg.ibm.com

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Reminder: Performance Class for z/VM and Linux on Z - June 26th & 27th, 2018

[Magnelia Necoy]

Dear all,

Once again we are offering the famous Performance Class for z/VM and Linux on Z 
on June 26th & 27th, 2018.

The class will be held prior to the VM Workshop at the North Carolina A State 
University in Greensboro, NC, which will take place on June 28th-30th. 
This is an excellent opportunity for z/VM, Linux on Z and z/VSE training! 
Please forward this to people on your team that might be interested.

For more details please visit: http://velocitysoftware.com/2018NCAT.pdf

To sign up for our Performance Class, simply send me an email with your contact 
details.

To sign up for the VM Workshop please visit: http://vmworkshop.org

Hope to see many of you in NC!

Best, Maggie


Magnelia Necoy
Managing Director 
Global Sales and Marketing

Velocity Software Inc.
196-D Castro St
Mountain View, CA 94041

Office Main: (650) 964 8867
Fax: (650) 964 9012
Cell: (303) 999 7646
EU: +49 172 767 1037
Email: ne...@velocitysoftware.com




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New publication: Linux Channel Bonding Best Practices and Recommendations

[Dorothea Matthaeus]

Linux on Z and LinuxONE

Linux Channel Bonding Best Practices and Recommendations

A new white paper describes channel bonding configurations on different
Linux distributions on IBM Z
and explains the recommended options for the Linux bonding driver.


See:
   IBM Knowledge Center
   
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/linuxonibm/com.ibm.linux.z.l0wlcb00/l0wlcb00_2018.html

   PDF link
   http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/dw/linux390/docu/l0wlcb00.pdf









 Dorothea Matthaeus 
 Linux on Z Information Development 
 IBM Deutschland Research and Development GmbH  



























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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Terri C. Glowaniak]

Thanks for the info Bill


Thanks,
Terri Glowaniak

Mainframe Systems Engineer
terri.glowan...@regions.com
(205) 261-6883 (W)

-Original Message-
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill 
Bitner
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2018 9:54 AM
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[External Content] Please use caution.

Rick, Terri, Greg, and others, apologies I should have given out the PTF 
numbers and a little more background on my earlier append.

APAR VM65396 PTF UM34851 is the one that introduced the prog check problem.
We discovered the problem February 26th, and marked VM65396 in error on March 
1st with VM65414 the PE fix to it. The correction to that error is included in 
APAR VM65414 PTF UM34853, which closed on March 23rd.  For other reasons, both 
of these APARs are Security/Integrity APARs, so see my earlier append on the 
IBM Z Security portal.

However, the functional problem, other than being introduced by VM65396, is not 
connected to the security/integrity aspects of these APARs. The functional 
problem is related to a virtual processor coming out of SIE for a fast path 
operation, as opposed to the typical normal exit from SIE. (For those 
unfamiliar with SIE, think of it as dispatching or running a virtual 
processor). Fast path exits are far more prevalent in a CMS environment than in 
other guest operating systems, but it is possible. In all cases, fast path 
exits are a subset, mostly a very small subset, of all exits.
There is a scenario where taking the fast path exit can erroneously cause z/VM 
to present the 028 program check. The error further involves the upper part of 
a register not being cleared. If this register's upper half contains zeroes, it 
would not trigger the error condition, but over time, it appears the upper half 
changes and the program checks start appearing.
So from that perspective it's a timing/workload dependent problem. This is a 
simplification, but I hope it's enough for you to appreciate the aspects you 
need to be aware.

The real solution is to apply VM65414's PTF which is available. A mitigation 
would be to do a CP TRACE PROG 28 NOTERM NOPRINT RUN for the virtual machines 
through the console or if logged off and on, through a directory command 
statement.

Thank you for understanding the communication challenges in this space. I'm 
sure you'll let us know if you need more info. :-)

Regards,
Bill
___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286 bitn...@us.ibm.com 
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through virtualization 
and its exploitation." - z/VM

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Bill Bitner]

Rick, Terri, Greg, and others, apologies I should have given out the PTF
numbers and a little more background on my earlier append.

APAR VM65396 PTF UM34851 is the one that introduced the prog check problem.
We discovered the problem February 26th, and marked VM65396 in error on
March 1st with VM65414 the PE fix to it. The correction to that error is
included in APAR VM65414 PTF UM34853, which closed on March 23rd.  For
other reasons, both of these APARs are Security/Integrity APARs, so see my
earlier append on the IBM Z Security portal.

However, the functional problem, other than being introduced by VM65396, is
not connected to the security/integrity aspects of these APARs. The
functional problem is related to a virtual processor coming out of SIE for
a fast path operation, as opposed to the typical normal exit from SIE. (For
those unfamiliar with SIE, think of it as dispatching or running a virtual
processor). Fast path exits are far more prevalent in a CMS environment
than in other guest operating systems, but it is possible. In all cases,
fast path exits are a subset, mostly a very small subset, of all exits.
There is a scenario where taking the fast path exit can erroneously cause
z/VM to present the 028 program check. The error further involves the upper
part of a register not being cleared. If this register's upper half
contains zeroes, it would not trigger the error condition, but over time,
it appears the upper half changes and the program checks start appearing.
So from that perspective it's a timing/workload dependent problem. This is
a simplification, but I hope it's enough for you to appreciate the aspects
you need to be aware.

The real solution is to apply VM65414's PTF which is available. A
mitigation would be to do a CP TRACE PROG 28 NOTERM NOPRINT RUN for the
virtual machines through the console or if logged off and on, through a
directory command statement.

Thank you for understanding the communication challenges in this space. I'm
sure you'll let us know if you need more info. :-)

Regards,
Bill
___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286
bitn...@us.ibm.com
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through
virtualization and its exploitation." - z/VM

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Rick Barlow]

Thanks Bill. I was a little suspicious of VM65414. However, VM65396 has
been on these LPARs since March (before I knew about the later PTF) and we
did not see any problems until Linux got patched this week. I guess I will
have to scramble to get another VM IPL. 8-\

Rick Barlow

On Thu, Apr 12, 2018 at 8:26 AM, Bill Bitner  wrote:

> Rick, if you have VM65396 on, but not VM65414, that would be my guess.
> VM65414 corrected a problem introduced by VM65396 where a guest could
> erroneously be given a program check 28.
> 
> ___
>
> Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286
> bitn...@us.ibm.com
> "Making systems practical and profitable for customers through
> virtualization and its exploitation." - z/VM
>
>

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Bill Bitner]

Greg,
For information on vulnerabilities, please see the IBM Z Security Portal.
Information on the portal can be found if you page down slightly on
https://www.ibm.com/it-infrastructure/z/capabilities/system-integrity

Regards,
Bill

___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286
bitn...@us.ibm.com
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through
virtualization and its exploitation." - z/VM

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Martin Schwidefsky]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2018 08:13:43 -0400
Rick Barlow  wrote:

> We have started seeing a rash of errors on some of our Linux virtual
> servers. The message we see on the virtual machine console is "Unknown
> program exception: 0028 [#1] SMP". It appears to only affect servers that
> were recently patched to kernel level "2.6.32-696.23.1.el6.s390x #1 SMP Sat
> Feb 10 11:11:31 EST 2018". It does not affect all of our servers that were
> recently patched. I suspect that it might be related to patches related to
> Spectre. I did a google search and did not get any hits on the message. I
> expect our Linux team will contact Red Hat support.

Program check 28 is ALET-specification exception. It is very unlikely that
Linux causes this exception. The only piece of code that uses the access
register mode is the clock_gettime() function in the vdso code. And then
only for the CPUCLOCK_VIRT clock source with a constant ALET.

--
blue skies,
   Martin.

"Reality continues to ruin my life." - Calvin.

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Terri C. Glowaniak]

VM65414 is PE'd...  can't find anything on it now.  It looks like PTF UM34768  
is the latest out to fix this, and it came out April 4?  

I have VM65396 on, but have different Redhat levels than Rick mentioned.


Thanks,
Terri Glowaniak

Mainframe Systems Engineer
terri.glowan...@regions.com
(205) 261-6883 (W)

-Original Message-
From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill 
Bitner
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2018 7:26 AM
To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[External Content] Please use caution.

Rick, if you have VM65396 on, but not VM65414, that would be my guess.
VM65414 corrected a problem introduced by VM65396 where a guest could 
erroneously be given a program check 28.
___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286 bitn...@us.ibm.com 
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through virtualization 
and its exploitation." - z/VM

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Greg Preddy]

Bill,

Has the dust settled now on the z/VM Spectre fixes?  We put on VM65396
as well on a couple of systems then halted that until further fixes arrive.

On 4/12/2018 7:26 AM, Bill Bitner wrote:

Rick, if you have VM65396 on, but not VM65414, that would be my guess.
VM65414 corrected a problem introduced by VM65396 where a guest could
erroneously be given a program check 28.
___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286
bitn...@us.ibm.com
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through
virtualization and its exploitation." - z/VM

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Re: RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Bill Bitner]

Rick, if you have VM65396 on, but not VM65414, that would be my guess.
VM65414 corrected a problem introduced by VM65396 where a guest could
erroneously be given a program check 28.
___

Bill Bitner - z/VM Customer Focus and Care - 607-429-3286
bitn...@us.ibm.com
"Making systems practical and profitable for customers through
virtualization and its exploitation." - z/VM

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RHEL 6.9 servers getting Unknown program exception: 0028 SMP

[Rick Barlow]

We have started seeing a rash of errors on some of our Linux virtual
servers. The message we see on the virtual machine console is "Unknown
program exception: 0028 [#1] SMP". It appears to only affect servers that
were recently patched to kernel level "2.6.32-696.23.1.el6.s390x #1 SMP Sat
Feb 10 11:11:31 EST 2018". It does not affect all of our servers that were
recently patched. I suspect that it might be related to patches related to
Spectre. I did a google search and did not get any hits on the message. I
expect our Linux team will contact Red Hat support.

Has anyone else seen this?

Thanks,
Rick Barlow

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Re: Idea: Using SCRT to report on Linux usage; maybe a way to reduce the entry level cost for Linux on Z?

[Gregg Levine]

Hello!
If you want an observer's perspective, I'd say this is good news.
-
Gregg C Levine gregg.drw...@gmail.com
"This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."


On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 2:06 PM, David Boyes  wrote:
> Given that IBM is now allowing 3rd party vendors to use the SCRT processing 
> infrastructure to collect usage data, the thought occurred to me: could this 
> be used to do usage-based pricing for Linux and Linux-based applications? 
> Some mapping of Linux features/functions to SMF type 70 and 89 records would 
> have to be done, and the various distributors would need to register 
> application types, but all the other infrastructure is there and the usage 
> data reporting piece already exists for Linux (it's a Java app).
>
> The idea here is that if the distributors could get accurate usage data, they 
> could offer usage-based pricing, which would lower the entry level for 
> getting started with Linux on Z and avoid some of the sticker shock.
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
>
>
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Re: springboot on s390x

[PHILIP TULLY]

Neale,
Thanks that's what i believe they were looking for.  Thank you


On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 11:35 AM, Neale Ferguson wrote:


I have a spring boot build Docker container:
https://hub.docker.com/r/clefos/spring-boot-build/

On 4/11/18, 8:40 AM, "Linux on 390 Port on behalf of PHILIP TULLY"
 wrote:


I am being asked by our dev group if I can find a sample s390x
Springboot application ready to deploy in our Docker engines, does
anyone know where one exists?   I didn't see s390x and springboot in
dockerhub.


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