IBM Mainframes on Linux
January 6, 2010
Behold IBM’s zSeries mainframes [yep, it is a 404 error. I just wanted to provide a reminder that IBM makes it tough to locate its product information when pushing marketing ideas without communicating with the technical writers in the affected engineering unit. The second link here points you to support, which is the real reason for the Linux on mainframes play.] running Linux. Now you won’t be using one of these installations at Starbuck’s to check your email. In fact, you may wonder why Beyond Search is writing about an IBM mainframe. Well, I like mainframes, having worked on an ITRC search project decades ago and then some other, more modest undertakings on the Bellcore MVS TSO environment when the Baby Bells had to keep track of what each did with one another.
Linux on zSeries opens up a brave new world for search. I must admit that world is a little out of step with the sorts of computing infrastructures I track, but IBM has its own symphony. Goose honks don’t matter at all.
This is a a testudo. One can mount a surface-to-air missile on the top of the formation, using the shields as a base. The question is, “Why?” Why not put the missile installation on the ground and avoid creating an anachronistic kludge? Image source: http://ferrelljenkins.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/soldiers_54sm.jpg
Navigate to “Pity the Poor Mainframe Salesman Scraping by on Cheap Linux”. The idea is that Linux eliminates a big chunk of the cost of working with mainframe systems. I think IBM is hoping that Linux experts will see the mainframe as the ideal vehicle for goosing [no pun intended] performance of some applications. The article explains:
With Linux, Blue figures it stands a better chance of moving iron, noting that the Linux capacity it shipped in the last two years was up 100% and that more than 3,000 of the 6,300 applications available on the System z platform are Linux-based. The two shiny new Enterprise Linux Servers, based on a special Linux processor known as an IFL or Integrated Facility for Linux, start at $212,000 for an entry-level two-processor model with three years worth of maintenance thrown in and go up over a million bucks from there for configurations with 10 or 64 IFLs.
What strikes me as interesting is that there is an assumption that a Linux wizard will be able to deal with the zSeries plumbing, its hardware, and some of those IBM oddities. Last week, we tore down an IBM server and counted five different fans, each with a proprietary connector. These puppies were not repairable; they were FRUs, or field replaceable units. How much does it cost to get an IBM service tech to drive over and order the device, go back to the IBM office, and then drive back to put the gizmo in. Some of the engineering of these mainframes requires a tear down to get to certain jumpers. Now the tear down isn’t difficult if you have some familiarity with IBM engineering logic for mainframes. A Linux wizard more familiar with pancakes from HP will be stumped. DASD configuration? Well, that is also a bit of work which begins with special screws, special housings, special cables, and – well – you get the idea.
I think that IBM is using external motivators in its labs these days. The IBM wizards put in their time and come up with quasi innovations. The intrinsic innovators at other outfits approach performance and stability in quite different ways.
I think that the idea of running Lucene or Solr on a zSeries is interesting. I wouldn’t mind having a couple of zSeries machines, a petabyte of DASD storage, and some time to run my test corpus on the gizmo. My hunch is that I could achieve equivalent velocity with some commodity hardware, a couple of Drobos, and some time. I can even rig white box servers to die quietly allowing back up servers to keep on trucking. If I need real speed, I could make a couple of phone calls and tap the engineering expertise of the folks at Coveo, Exalead, or Perfect Search, among others. Each company delivers sizzling performance via different engineering routes.
IBM is becoming more like the Burroughs Corporation. There are still D825s kicking around, and I ran across a person who told me that a small publishing company was running a Burroughs B25 with he BTOS operating system. You can still get support through Unisys I would guess. The problem is that the technical world is moving forward and grafting Linux to a mainframe is like mounting a surface-to-air missile to the shields of Roman soldiers in the testudo formation. It can be done, but why do anachronisms when innovations are much more interesting.
Stephen E. Arnold, January 6, 2009
A freebie. I will report this unpleasant situation to the War College which finds the testudo a useful tactic to discuss with young officers.
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“Stephen E. Arnold, January 6, 2009”
Either your CMS template has last year hardcoded in it or you have the same brain-fart problem i do every January.