IBM z890

[Connor Krukosky]

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