IBM z890

[Guy Sotomayor]

Excellent!  Another person with an IBM Mainframe!

TTFN - Guy

TTFN - Guy

On 11/2/15 7:03 PM, Connor Krukosky wrote:
> I recently won an IBM z890 via auction for $237.
> It was a very interesting adventure to retrieve this machine since it 
> weighs 1500LBS on a good day, and well myself only clocking in around 
> 115LBS I needed the help of a few friends and family to get this thing 
> into the basement...
> I stripped the machine down to its bare rack to get it into the 
> basement safely, although the rack itself I calculated to weigh about 
> 800LBS itself.
> I'd say the most difficult part was the excavation we had to do to get 
> it to fit under the deck! It was a REALLY tight fit as you will see in 
> the photos.
> It took two trips to get it all, one with the truck alone to remove 
> most of the innards and another with the trailer to grab the rest out 
> of the rack and the rack itself.
> Its already in the basement and most of the way back together, just 
> running the wiring internally for it then I need to wire up a 240v 30a 
> outlet once we get the new breaker box in since there is no more room 
> in the current box.
> Photos of the whole adventure:
> http://imgur.com/a/5uWit
>
> I plan to pickup an SAN based SCSI box to install Linux and play with. 
> As far as I know I can't install any IBM OS' this way, I would need 
> FICON or ESCON type storage to boot anything like z/OS. (Read EXPENSIVE!)
> As far as I know I can grab one of these boxes:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/201459314771
> And hook this up to a FICON interface and it will act as storage via 
> FCP as a SAN. This 'should' allow me to use SCSI devices like an array 
> of hard drives to install Linux.
>
> I'm obviously not very familiar with the z-series but I have been 
> trying to read up and learn about everything.
> Let me know if my thought process and info are correct, also any 
> suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!
>
> -Connor K