On Sat, 22 Aug 2015 05:25:02 -0400 (EDT), Christian Boitet wrote: > > sorry if this goes to the wrong group... > if so, please give us a better pointer.
This is a forum for those running the s390x port of Debian. How to run Debian under Hercules would definitely be on-topic here, since Hercules is a software emulation of the hardware on which Debian for s390x was designed to run. If your question regards how to run Debian in a virtual machine under z/VM, that would also be on topic. But questions about how to run z/VM under Hercules are not on topic. I would suggest the Hercules forums on Yahoo, specifically, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/H390-VM/info > > We have a z800 with zVM 5.3.0, and under it several Linux/390 (Debian) > virtual machines, and a special VM that runs zVM 4.2.0 and under it a > legacy system made of 100 or more VMs, all under CMS, plus of course > all service VMs. > > We have bought the 4.2.0 system "one shot" back in 2001 and have been > entitled to all following releases, including the 5.3.0. > > Now, this z800 is a burden, the processor went dead last year and we > had to find a second-hand one... > > In short, we would like to put all our configuration under Hercules, > preferably on a Macintosh under Yosemite. > > Our problem is: how to get our OSs (zVM 530 and zVM 420) from our > machine and install them under Hercules? > > Thnks in advance for any help! Although this question is, strictly-speaking, off topic, I suspect that it is of interest to many of the subscribers to this list, so I'll answer it anyway. I need to start by saying that I am not a lawyer, an IBM employee, or an official spokesman for any person, company, or government. As I see it, there are three sides to this question: the practical side, the legal side, and the technical side. I will address them in that order. First, the practical side. Hercules is a software emulation of a mainframe, not a real mainframe. It adds a tremendous amount of overhead. Debian under Hercules under amd64 is *way* slower than Debian running directly under amd64 using the same hardware. I suspect you will find that the performance of your z/VM systems is not adequate for production use, even when Hercules is running on the fastest amd64 processors available. But the only way to find out is to try it, I suppose. Next is the legal side. As I said, I am not a lawyer. But if you check the fine print in your contract, you may find that you did not, strictly speaking, *buy* z/VM. What you probably did was *license* z/VM. Typically, this license is good for a single mainframe box. The license is typically not transferable to another box without a contract modification. IBM typically does not license their proprietary 64-bit mainframe operating systems, such as z/VM, to run on anything other than IBM hardware. I'd have your legal department go over this very carefully, if I were you. I'd hate to see you get in legal trouble for running z/VM on a processor for which you are not licensed. Finally, there's the technical side. There are a number of ways to migrate the data. One way that I can think of is to use DDR to create a volume dump, convert the real tape file to an AWS emulated tape file, create a DDR stand-alone IPL tape, convert that to an AWS emulated tape file, Then IPL the DDR stand-alone IPL tape under Hercules using the AWS emulated tape file, and use the stand-alone version of DDR to restore the dumped volume from its AWS emulated tape file to a Hercules volume. That's one way to do it. Perhaps the folks on the above Yahoo group know a better way. Regards, -- .''`. Stephen Powell <[email protected]> : :' : `. `'` `-
