RE: HMC - FSP Upgrade

[rob@xxxxxxxxx]

What possible good is an alternate system console in this case?  This is 
my concern.  You have a box with three lpars.  Two running i and one 
running Linux.  Box goes down.  You plug it back in.  Push the white 
button on front.  Box comes up.  No lpar is set to start automatically 
when the box fires up.  In this scenario what possible good would a piece 
of twinax, or a lan console do you?  Another scenario.  You rarely use a 
tape drive on the one lpar.  It's an HA backup.  Now it's time for your 
annual save to tape.  You jump on your HMC and try to transfer a card from 
the primary lpar to the HA lpar to do a backup.  Nope, can't do it.  HMC 
no longer matches the firmware level and won't perform the move.  Scenario 
three.  Lan card in your Linux partition has gone dead.  Miraculously 
enough a vital application is still running on it doing some minor task 
like running a heart/lung machine via a comm port.  You want to replace 
that lan card but now you can't because the HMC won't talk to the FSP. And 
there's a wife in the other room who rathers you didn't power down the 
machine to replace the lan card.  (Think blue screen of death - 
literally.)


Rob Berendt