power9 and ibm i: install, upgrade and backup using … · since v5r1 ibm i has been distributed on...

© 2018 IBM Corporation© 2018 IBM Corporation

POWER9 and IBM i: Install,

upgrade and backup using USB

Robert A Schuster

IT Specialist – Power Systems

IBM Power Systems technical webinar series (Power VUG)

D-Mode IPL from RMS Media

Jim Tilbury – Thanks for your support !

IBM i removable media

© 2018 IBM Corporation

Since V5R1 IBM i has been distributed on CD/DVD, and all supported systems have had an integrated drive.

The computer industry has been moving away from DVD drives being standard, and typically use USB devices as their portable media.

When IBM POWER9 systems become available, there will be no integrated DVD-Drive available. Question: What is IBM's strategy for distributing i?

Background


USB attachment has become ubiquitous and inexpensive.

Flash “thumb” drives are very inexpensive and easy to use.

Downloading from ESS is acceptable, but “burning” IBM bootable media is problematic (3rd party software frequently “fixes” the media and makes it non-IPL capable)

Assertions


Optical container support was first added with 7.2 TR5 and 7.3 TR1

RMS (removable mass storage) includes RDX cartridges and Flash drives,

which configure on i as optical class devices. (Flash drives configure as a

632C-005, with a Media Type of *DEVICE)

*CONTAINER is a INZOPT option that allows an optical class device to

hold media images (virtual media) and work similarly to an IMGCLG.

If a media is formatted as a *CONTAINER, and then an IPL capable save

(e.g. SAVSYS) is done to the media, it will still be a *CONTAINER. When

a D-Mode IPL is done from a container media, the LIC code will

automatically create a virtual resource that includes the bootable volume

as the first entry, and will automatically load any other media images on

the volume.

Boot from this media type is supported in V7R2 TR5 and V7R3 TR1 and

later

Optical container support


666

With IBM i 7.2 TR7 and 7.3 TR3 support was added for installing Power

Systems with POWER8 and later technology using USB 3.0 flash drives

and IBM i images downloaded from the Entitled Systems Support (ESS)

website.

Two ESS features are now provided for the bootable LIC media.

First is the normal DVD based image that was previously available

Second is a new image (USB I_BASE_01_Licensed_Machine_Code*.img) that is

targeted for the 512 byte blocks found on RMS media.

An IBM supplied tool is also provided to “burn” USB Flash Media for install. Tool is a Java 8 program, found with the same feature as the new image.

Targeted to run on Windows or MacOS X.

No charge.

Burned filesystem will be expanded to make full flash capacity usable.

New install option leveraging optical containers


“_CONT” is added to the volume name to prevent problems with duplicate IFS file names.

When a D-Mode IPL is done, the virtual device will be reported as the load source device

(this means the virtual device will be the default source for install).

After the copy to RMS option completes, if the flash is inserted into IBM i, the

system will automatically create a virtual drive and load the physical media image

as the first file. For example, WRKOPTVOL:

*CONTAINER RMS (cont)


Allow the DVD images on ESS to be added to the FLASH,

so the device can be used as an IMGCLG to both boot, and

install both LIC and other software.

*CONTAINER media allows both DVD and RMS flash

images in the catalog

The LIC code will load and sort the images. All images

must be in the root directory.

WRKIMGCLGE *DEV OPTVRTxx will display the loaded

images and allow switching. (Very similar to NFS

backed... does not support all the IMGCLG commands.See developer works:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/IBM%20Remov

able%20Media%20on%20IBM%20i/page/Optical%20Containers?lang=en

*CONTAINER RMS (cont)


https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/IBM Removable Media on IBM i/page/Optical Containers?lang=en

Optical Containers - developerWorks

9


Install code knows how to switch media when needed. But to switch manually (e.g. LPPs),

use WRKIMGCLGE *DEV OPTVRTxx

*CONTAINER RMS – Media Switch


VERY similar...

QOPT *CONTAINER does not require the VOLUME_LIST file. If present, does respect

the list. If not present, will attempt to load/sort all files in root as ISO files.

If the physical media is bootable, the first image in the virtual volume is always the actual

physical volume (so that the virtual load source has the LIC code first).

Volumes default to read only, just as with NFS backed.

If mastering via IFS IMGCLG, Differences exist for the LIC code (I_BASE_01/SAVEDS

volume), see developerWorks.

/QOPT *CONTAINER vs NFS IMGCCLG


What does config LOOK like?

From System Service Tools, Hardware Service Manager view:


So what does this all look like ? How do I create USB IBM i Key ?

13© 2018 IBM Corporation

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

on%20IBM%20i/page/Adding%20virtual%20volumes%20to%20optical%20containers%20for%20install

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20Removable%20Media%20on%20IBM%20i/page/Adding%20virtual%20volumes%20to%20optical%20containers%20for%20install

So what does this all look like ? Creating USB IBM i Key


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

on%20IBM%20i/page/Adding%20virtual%20volumes%20to%20optical%20containers%20for%20install

For USB 3.0 devices the 32GB max capacity restriction was removed with 7.2 PTF MF63610 and 7.3 PTF MF63611.

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20Removable%20Media%20on%20IBM%20i/page/Adding%20virtual%20volumes%20to%20optical%20containers%20for%20install

So what does this all look like ? Readme.txt




For more information, please visit the IBM i Technology Updates wiki in developerWorks(R)

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/IBM%20i%20Technology%20Updates/page/New%20

installation%20process%20for%20LIC%20using%20USB%203.0%20media

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home/wiki/IBM i Technology Updates/page/New installation process for LIC using USB 3.0 media

So what does this all look like ? ESS Download Site V7R3


So what does this all look like ? Utility for Bootable_Licensed_Machine_Code


So what does this all look like in real life ? command line


"C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Java80\jre\bin\java.exe" -jar USBUtility-1.3.0.0.jar G: USB_I_BASE_01_Licensed_Machine_Code_RS_730-E_LCD8_2327_01.img

Development heard the calls for a better interface !!


So what does this all look like in real life ?


So what does this all look like in real life ? My 7.3 USB Key !


So what does this all look like in real life ? D Mode IPL !! POWER9 and HMC managed


Using Optical Containers




https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/apis/qmocrtcv.htm

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/ssw_ibm_i_73/apis/qmocrtcv.htm

eConfig - RDX and S914


eConfig - RDX/DVD and 7226-1U3



For More Information:

Some Links You Need Twitter #Hashtags

IBM i Home Page:

www.ibm.com/systems/i

IBM 30th Anniversary

http://ibmi30.mybluemix.net/

IBM Systems Magazine IBM i Edition:

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/

Support Life Cycle:

https://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/ibmi/lifecycle/

License Topics:

https://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1022087

@IBMSystems

@COMMONug

@IBMChampions

@IBMSystemsISVs

@IBMiMag

@ITJungleNews

@SAPonIBMi

@SiDforIBMi

#IBMi30

#PowerSystems

#IBMi

#IBMAIX

#POWER8

#LinuxonPower

#OpenPOWER

#HANAonPower

#ITinfrastructure

#OpenSource

#HybridCloud

#BigData

http://www.ibm.com/systems/i

http://ibmi30.mybluemix.net/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/

https://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/ibmi/lifecycle/

https://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1022087

https://twitter.com/IBMSystems

https://twitter.com/COMMONug

https://twitter.com/IBMChampions

https://twitter.com/IBMSystemsISVs

https://twitter.com/IBMimag

https://twitter.com/ITJungleNews

https://twitter.com/SAPonIBMi

https://twitter.com/SiDforIBMi


For More Information:

Blogs

IBM Blogs:

• IBM Systems Magazine You and i (Steve Will)

• IBM Systems Magazine i-Can (Dawn May)

• IBM Systems Magazine: Open your i (Jesse Gorzinski)

• IBM DB2 for i (Mike Cain)

• IBM DB2 Web Query for i (Doug Mack)

IBM Champion’s Blogs:

• IBM Systems Magazine: iDevelop (Jon Paris and Susan Gantner)

• IBM Systems Magazine: iTalk with Tuoy

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/you-and-i/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/i-can/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/open-your-i/

http://db2fori.blogspot.co.uk/

http://db2webqueryi.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/idevelop/

http://ibmsystesmag.com/ibmi/trends/italk-with-tuohy/

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/you-and-i/

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/you-and-i/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/i-Can/

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/Open-Your-i/

http://db2fori.blogspot.com/

http://db2webqueryi.blogspot.com/

http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/Blogs/iDevelop/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/trends/iTALK-WITH-TUOHY/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/i-can/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/open-your-i/

http://db2fori.blogspot.co.uk/

http://db2webqueryi.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/blogs/idevelop/

http://ibmsystemsmag.com/ibmi/trends/italk-with-tuohy/

power9 and ibm i: install, upgrade and backup using … · since v5r1 ibm i has been distributed on...

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