IBM Z10 BC manual Dynamic Oscillator Switchover, Transparent Sparing, Concurrent Memory Upgrade

Dynamic Oscillator Switchover

The z10 BC has two oscillator cards, a primary and a backup. For most cases, should a failure occur on the pri- mary oscillator card, the backup can detect it, switch over, and provide the clock signal to the system transparently, with no system outage. Previously, in the event of a failure of the active oscillator, a system outage would occur, the subsequent system Power On Reset (POR) would select the backup, and the system would resume operation. Dynamic Oscillator Switchover is exclusive to System z10 and System z9.

Transparent Sparing

The z10 BC offers 12 PUs, two are designated as System Assist Processors (SAPs). In the event of processor failure, if there are spare processor units available (undefi ned), these PUs are used for transparent sparing.

Concurrent Memory Upgrade

Memory can be upgraded concurrently using LIC-CC if physical memory is available on the machine either through the Plan Ahead Memory feature or by having more physical memory installed in the machine that has not been activated.

Plan Ahead Memory

Future memory upgrades can now be preplanned to be nondisruptive. The preplanned memory feature will add the necessary physical memory required to support target memory sizes. The granularity of physical memory in the System z10 design is more closely associated with the granularity of logical, entitled memory, leaving little room for growth. If you anticipate an increase in memory require- ments, a “target” logical memory size can now be speci-

fied in the confi guration tool along with a “starting” logical memory size. The confi guration tool will then calculate the physical memory required to satisfy this target memory.

Should additional physical memory be required, it will be fulfi lled with the preplanned memory features.

The preplanned memory feature is offered in 4 gigabyte (GB) increments. The quantity assigned by the confi gu- ration tool is the number of 4 GB blocks necessary to increase the physical memory from that required for the “starting” logical memory to the physical memory required for the “target” logical confi guration. Activation of any preplanned memory requires the purchase of preplanned memory activation features. One preplanned memory acti- vation feature is required for each preplanned memory fea- ture. You now have the fl exibility to activate memory to any logical size offered between the starting and target size.

Service Enhancements

z10 BC service enhancements designed to avoid sched- uled outages include:

•Concurrent fi rmware fi xes

•Concurrent driver upgrades

•Concurrent parts replacement

•Concurrent hardware upgrades

•DIMM FRU indicators

•Single processor core checkstop

•Single processor core sparing

•Rebalance PSIFB and I/O Fanouts

•Redundant 100 Mb Ethernet service network with VLAN

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