Useful add-ons: snIPL (simple network IPL)

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for use with "June 2003 stream" and "April 2004 stream", as well as "October 2005 stream".

snipl-0.2.1.tar.gz MD5 recommended (2004-11-02)

This version supersedes

• snIPL experimental (2002-03-04) for "August 2001" and "May 2002 stream"
• snIPL for STONITH (2003-07-25) for "June 2003 stream"
• snIPL V.2.0 (2004-01-30) for "June 2003 stream"

This version contains the following snIPL bug fix for snIPL V.2.0:

Description:	snipl: VM systems are always immediately deactivated.
Symptom:	VM systems cannot shutdown gracefully for "snipl --deactivate" without option --force.
Problem:	"snipl --deactivate" for VM systems is always processed with FORCE IMMED, even though option --force is not specified.
Solution:	Fixed handling of option --force and its default "noforce".
Problem-ID:	-

snIPL - simple network IPL (Linux Image Control for LPAR / VM) is a command line tool which serves as remote linux image control using basic S/390 or zSeries Support Element (SE) functions or basic z/VM system management functions with z/VM 4.4 (or higher) on one or more images.

• snIPL for LPAR utilizes the management application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by the HMC/SE. To communicate with the HMC/SE, snIPL establishes a network connection and uses the SNMP protocol to send and retrieve data. The HMC/SE has to be configured to allow the initiating host system to access the API. In this mode snIPL can be used to boot Linux for S/390 or zSeries in LPAR mode, to send and retrieve operating system messages, or to reset, activate or deactivate an LPAR for I/O fencing purposes.

  To compile and run snIPL for LPAR, it requires to be linked to the management library hwmcaapi which comes with the HMC software for various operating systems inluding S/390, see SB10-7030 for further details. The library itself is maintained by the IBM HMC team.

  For questions concerning the management APIs of the Support Element and the Hardware Management Console, please refer to the document zSeries 900 Application Programming Interfaces (SB10-7030-xx) which is available at the IBM Resource Link site http://www.ibm.com/servers/resourcelink/

• snIPL for VM serves as remote control of basic z/VM system management functions. It can be used to boot Linux for S/390 on z/VM, to reset, activate or deactivate an image for IO fencing purposes. In this mode snIPL utilizes the System Management Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of z/VM 4.4 (or higher). To communicate with the z/VM host, snIPL for VM establishes a network connection and uses the RPC protocol to send and retrieve data. To compile and run snIPL for VM, the RPC protocol specification DMSVSMA.X has to be copied to the Linux system running snIPL (usually into /usr/share/dmsvsma/).

  For questions concerning the management APIs of z/VM, please refer to the document z/VM V4R4.0 Systems Management Application Programming (SC24-6063-00) or z/VM V5R1.0 Systems Management Application Programming (SC24-6122-00) (from the z/VM website: http://www.vm.ibm.com).

• snIPL for STONITH (Linux Image Control - Virtual Power Switch) is a plugin for the heartbeat-stonith "framework".
  STONITH (Shoot The Other Node In The Head) provides an extensible interface for remotely powering down a node in a cluster. The used STONITH implementation is part of the Heartbeat framework of the High Availability Project (http://linux-ha.org).
  http://linux-ha.org/STONITH gives a general description of the STONITH technique. The latest STONITH release can be downloaded from http://linux-ha.org/download.

  snIPL for Stonith supports the remote image operations activate, deactivate, and reset, exploiting basic S/390/z800/z900/z990 Hardware Management Console (HMC) and Support Element (SE) functions for Linux running in an LPAR and of basic z/VM 4.4 System Management Functions for Linux running under control of z/VM.

  The actual implementation of STONITH may limit the functionality of all Power Switches to reset.

  Further requirement (in addition to the snIPL command line tool):
  To compile and make use of the STONITH plugin lic_vps, package heartbeat has to be downloaded from http://linux-ha.org/download and installed.

Please read the README and manpage of snIPL enclosed in the tarball for further information and restrictions.