Re: First time buying System i5

[rob@xxxxxxxxx]

Aaron,

I am not really a hardware guru but I'd keep a few things in mind.

1 - Give up the twinax.  For a number of reasons.  You'll already be 
getting an HMC.  That will already be your system console(s) for your 
multiple lpars.  If you just were nuts for twinax and had to have it on 
all lpars you are talking about taking up a precious slot for each lpar. 
You don't want to go there.

2 - I'd check into a tape drive.  Perhaps even a lowly built in cartridge. 
 You "might" be able to share that between lpars.  Don't know if the built 
in ones are different than LTO models but we bought a new 520+ for a 
division we split off.  New hire to manage it.  His first day on the job 
(and his first day to see an HMC) he swapped the tape drive between lpars 
and performed backups.  Granted he came from a 8xx background and had to 
do the same sort of thing pre-HMC using a controlling partition.  (He did 
run into an issue and opened up multiple PMR's on his first day.  I really 
ran him through the paces.)
A strictly development machine is a different animal than a production 
machine and some people alter their backup methodology accordingly.  Now, 
if you really wanted an automated method to flip the drive between lpars 
you could go nuts via some intense API's or purchase APRM from Barsa.
You can do some backups to the internal DVD drive.  Speed is comparable to 
8" diskette drives and about as much fun.  Never tried SAVSYS to OPT01 
though.  They hold precious little data compared to the smallest of tape 
drives.  Using that was a minor discussion at our last LUG meeting.  You 
don't want to use it for your primary backup.

3 - I suspect that the comm adapter is often used for dial up.  Some 
people still do that.  Mainly for backup connection to IBM to report 
problems.
With multiple lpars you may want a separate ethernet connection for each. 
You could play with Virtual Lan, in which you route one lpar through 
another and then out.  Haven't used vlan for that, though.

Search InfoCenter for "System Handbook".  You'll need this.  Good 
reference for feature codes.

Rob Berendt