RE: Cache battery replacement -- MIDRANGE-L

John,

Thanks. I have had to get disk drives replaced on a RAID-5 system, and I
sweated bullets until the maintenance was completed.

I came across an article (about a year old) that pointed out that the energy
savings of a Power7 machine were significant (don't have it in front of me
now). Reminded me that, when the S/36 Risc model came out, the treasurer
justified the purchase on utility bill savings alone; that'll teach me to
base justifications upon mumbo jumbo such as productivity!

We are looking at acquiring a Power5 machine though. It gets more
complicated than I expected, though. When the Power5's first came out, the
company I was with bought two [2]. A Power4 batch job that took >1 hour
went to <10 minutes. I do not think that would be an incentive here,
though. Just not that much stuff going on. There are only four display
stations (including mine - and I'm probably the heaviest user) running
pretty standard jobs in short bursts.

I did ask a BP to quote me a new system. He returned one for a Power6
machine running V5R4M5. Maybe the Power6 hardware was cheaper, but the
V5R4M5 kinda ticked me off, especially since I had asked for 7.1.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
That s.o.b. is so mean he'd (expletive) knock you down in the dugout.
-Mickey Mantle on Early Wynn
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Jones
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 9:41 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cache battery replacement

Well, you have two mirrored 8.5GB disks. Expansion options:

1. Add two more and mirror them. Final capacity: 17GB.
2. Add two more and convert from mirrored to RAID5. Final capacity:
25.5GB. Also need a new controller. $$$
3. Add two 17.5GB and mirror them. Final capacity: 26GB.

Options 1 and 3 let you potentially withstand two drives failing (one in
each mirror) while leaving the system running; option 2 can withstand one
drive failure while a second failure would lead to a crash.

Option 3 gives you the future option of replacing the existing 8.5GB units
with 17.5GB units and staying mirrored (35GB available) or going RAID5
(52.5GB).

Your quoted price, given the cost includes installation, doesn't sound bad.
Adding disk to empty slots is easy enough but I can certainly understand not
wanting to do it yourself. Not many midrange guys like to play in the
hardware. Also, consider the opportunity cost of upgrading v. spending
hours doing cleanup. Not that the cleanup is bad, of course, but it takes
man-hours away from you being otherwise productive.

Given the CPU in a 250, interactive & batch job performance will probably be
your leverage towards getting an overall system upgrade, not disk space or
performance. Before you ask your employer to drop the $750, look in to what
an entry level used Power5 would cost. Performance would probably skyrocket
and the cost might not be bad at all. And if A&K is paying for hardware
maintenance, that cost might go down on a basic Power5 v. the older 250. A
3-year TCO might show the cost difference between adding disk and a whole
system upgrade to be very small.

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 9:03 AM, Jerry C. Adams <midrange@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Adding disks is one option, of course. I got an estimate of $750 for 2
including installation. RAID-5 would allow even more available space than
Mirroring, wouldn't it? Of course, from what we found out yesterday, that
would mean a separate disk controller.

But I'm holding off on any of that in the (blind?) hope that we can
actually
get a bigger/faster system that isn't dead-ended (Power5/6/7). That,
however, may be a pipe dream.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
Show me a guy who can't pitch inside, and I'll show you a loser. -Sandy
Koufax
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Jones
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 7:30 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cache battery replacement

Well, your box has two mirrored disks which means it has the space for two
more. I haven't looked in ages but I would think a pair of used 8 or 17GB
disks would be pretty cheap. Mirroring the second pair would double or
triple your available space and, if you balanced the data, improve system
performance (on disk-intensive tasks) a little.

A casual Google search of "ibm 6818" shows more than one source listing
6818s for under $200 each. At least one notes the drive will qualify for
IBM maintenance.

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 6:40 AM, Jerry C. Adams <midrange@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Replies in-line.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
Blind people come to the park just to listen to him pitch. -Reggie

Jackson

on Tom Seaver
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Jones
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 4:14 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cache battery replacement

Jerry,

Put the cursor in that column & hit F1 for help on the different

possible

statuses.

I'd love to, but we're so scrunched for space (running at about 80%

used)

that I elected to *not* install on-line help. In fact, I'm going to

remove

some stuff (such as Advanced Job Scheduler which we don't use anyway),

but

install a couple of things I *want* (Openness Includes and QShell).
Hopefully the deletions will balanced out the additions. If not QShell
will
be the first to go.

Just found the problem analysis, repair, and parts manual for your 250:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/iseries/v5r1/ic2924/v5r1hwpdf/pdf/y4459653.pd

f

I found that, too. Didn't tell me as much as it probably told you, Rob,

the

good Doctor and others.

Thanks.

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Jerry C. Adams <midrange@xxxxxxxx>

wrote:

John,

Is this the panel you mentioned regarding WRKDSKSTS F11?

--Protection--
Unit ASP Type Status Compression
1 1 MRR ACTIVE
1 1 MRR ACTIVE

On the WRKHDWRSC *STG here it shows:

Resource name . . . . . . . : DC01
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . : Disk Storage Controller
Type-model . . . . . . . . . : 675A-006
Serial number . . . . . . . : 10-1152012
Part number . . . . . . . . : 0000021P5221

I found the System Builder manual. I'm probably mis-reading, but it

looks

like the 2748/2763 are only required if more than 4 disk units are
installed
(expansion unit? We don't have one) or RAID-5 is required. The 675A

is

a

MFIOP. I'll admit I'm not sure what the manual means here: "The MFIOP
(CCIN
675A) and the processor are combined together on the planar board. It

also

includes embedded base disk unit controller. A separate #9728 is not
required. The #2407 includes a #9740 Base RAID Disk Unit Controller.

The

MFIOP drives two low-speed slots C08, C09, and two high-speed PCI

slots

C03

and C07. It supports #2740/#9740, #2741 or #2748 PCI RAID Disk Unit
Controllers only, if there are more than four disk drives, and RAID-5

is

required." Except the part about " also includes embedded base disk

unit

controller".

Anyway, nice to know that, when things degrade to a snail's pace, I

can

use

WRKDSKSTS to see something.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
All I know is that we lost the game. What's so historic about that?
-Harvey
Haddix after pitching 12 perfect innings and losing 1-0 in the

thirteenth.

--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Jones
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 2:25 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Cache battery replacement

2748 disk controllers have 26MB of cache. 2763 controllers have 10MB.
Those are the two controllers I see for Model 250 systems in the

System

Builder I have from that era. WRKHDWRSC *STG should show you which
controller you have.

Also, most if not all of the time you can see if the cache batteries

are

still good by doing a WRKDSKSTS followed by F11. The Status column
normally
shows "DEGRADED" if the cache batteries have failed and the write

cache

is

disabled. This doesn't let you predict or anticipate battery failure

like

the service tools function, but it does let you confirm that the cache
memory is in fact being used (which it only does if the batteries are
good).

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 12:22 PM, Jerry C. Adams <midrange@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Boy, Rob, I never would of thought of going that route. But it did,

I

think, tell me something. There was nothing in the Advanced

Analysis

list

that remotely looked like it had anything to do with batteries (and

looked
in some pretty obscure items). So maybe there aren't any cache

batteries

in
the 250.

As far as the "old" part goes, I figured that. I still have to

maintain

my

previous employer's software and run functions for the auditors

(even

after

you close the doors, they're still there!) so I compare things

whenever

I

have a chance, and STRSST menus are different. I'm pretty sure I'll

have

to
live with the old (V5R1 and Model 250) for awhile (sigh).

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
I know Koufax's weakness. He can't hit. - Whitey Ford
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 11:54 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: Cache battery replacement

On old unsupported hardware which will not have some new ptf's to

allow

you to see it at the command line, nor the cache battery option in

SST

there is another SST option
STRSST
1. Start a service tool
4. Display/Alter/Dump
1. Display/Alter storage
2. Licensed Internal Code (LIC) data
14. Advanced analysis
1=Select BATTERYINFO
Options . . . . . -list -all
But that really doesn't tell you jack
Concurrently

Can

Be
Resource Serial Type Frame Card Maintainable

Safely

Name Number Model ID Position Battery Pack
Replaced
DC09 YL1088121002 57B7-001 3C00 C9 Yes

No

You miss all the date information.

http://ibmsystemsmag.blogs.com/i_can/2010/07/i-can-display-the-status-of-you

r-ioa-cache-batteries.html

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

From: "Jerry C. Adams" <midrange@xxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 02/21/2011 11:46 AM
Subject: RE: Cache battery replacement
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Good advice. Had a cache battery die on a Model 720 and it took me

all

day
to figure out why things had ground to a snail's pace. The Model

520

actually gave out a shout when it wanted its diaper changed.

The new employer has a Model 250 (running V5R1). I don't know if it

has

a

cache battery or not (though I suspect that it does). SST doesn't

show

an

option '9' and I couldn't find anything about cache batteries in any

of

the
other options, though I could have missed it or misinterpreted it.

Seems I'm wrong guessing that there is cache on the 250. The System
Handbook shows 0 for L2 Cache. But, then, the Handbook only shows

6818

model disk units (17.54 gig) whereas ours has 6717 units (8+ gig).

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
When we played, World Series checks meant something. Now all they

is

screw up your taxes. -Don Drysdale
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 8:43 AM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Cache battery replacement

I strongly suggest checking your cache batteries on a regular basis

and

when the time to warning gets down to 45 days or so, calling IBM and
ordering it then. Mine have been backordered a while and I am still
waiting on a replacement.

STRSST
1. Start a service tool
7. Hardware service manager
9. Work with resources containing cache battery packs
5=Display battery information

Resource name . . . . . . . . . . . : DC09
Serial number . . . . . . . . . . . : YL1088121002
Actual type-model . . . . . . . . . : 57B7-001
Unit ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : U789C.001.DQD0P72
Planar ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . : P1
Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : C9
Battery type . . . . . . . . . . . : Lithium Ion (LiIon)
Battery state . . . . . . . . . . . : No battery warning/error
Power-on time (days) . . . . . . . :
Adjusted power-on time (days) . . . :
Estimated time to warning (days) . :
Estimated time to error (days) . . :

Apparently some batteries are harder to get ahold of than others.

least that's what he said when I called him and he said he was just
finishing a battery replacement somewhere else and I asked him where

was

mine. He still doesn't have an ETA from his parts depot.

Rob Berendt
--
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com

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4 Out of 3 people have trouble with fractions.
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