Cold start of a real IBM mainframe - M164

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[@TomFynn]

"Why did you move to a house right underneath an airport glide path?" "Well, it was this or the server noise from my neighbor, so..."

[@Michael-wn4jj]

I own a $8000 PC. So what is your home box? 😃 Sebastian: Mainframe 😊 PC owner: 😨

[@Kyanzes]

Postman is setting down a package, a voice is heard from the direction of the garage: "Theta Nonegon Beta 9 - Thermonuclear War simulation is complete. Standing by..."

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Hahahaha

[@virtualinfinity6280]

Very interesting content. My 40+ years in IT were mostly on Unix - I actually never had to deal with IBM mainframes. After a couple of videos on this channel, I just started with Hercules and TK4-. It's hilariously funny for me to sort of start over more or less from scratch in IT. And to some extend, it has some of the excitement when I started with computers and Unix decades ago.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Glad you are having fun

[@bandanaboii3136]

most people midlife crisis: ferarri sebastian midlife crisis: IBM z9 mainframe

[@cact25]

For most people, a Ferrari is cheaper.

[@cact25]

But it won't heat the house. :)

[@vbinsider]

Please bear in mind that three-phase power supply is the de-facto standard in Germany and nothing special as such. Most houses are provided with three-phase service. Having a suitable outlet for three-phased devices to be plugged in is a different story. But the usual IEC 60309 receptacle (commonly referred to as "CEE-Stecker") can often easily be installed. According to IBMs "Installation Manual for Physical Planning" the z9 is rated at 32 amps when powered by 400V 3-phased supply. That adds to up to 22 kW of power which is actually a lot, though.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks

[@SpaceCliffie]

22kW! That’s really quite a lot! Hope he isn’t running that full time.

[@wadesworld6250]

One always worries about making a mistake and "bricking" their machine. But bricking a 2-ton machine is another whole level.

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

You can brick it by losing both Support Elements without having a backup of their data.

[@jacekruzyczka3058]

The last time I worked on a mainframe (as an ordinary user) was in early 1999 when querying the library catalog (Bibos; which was a joint venture of all scientific libraries in Austria by then) at university. In the lobby we had real InfoWindow II 3270-standard terminals, and in the branch at our colloge, age-old PCs with 80286 CPUs with some 3270 emulation performed the job. It took up to 5 minutes (!!) to perform a query. The mainframe itself was not an IBM machine, but a Comparex "plug-compatible" one (some 6 meters long with a weight of 2 tons) running VM/390 and quite a bunch of guest systems. A couple of months later it was replaced by another Comparex, which was no larger than a washing machine (the computer itself) + drying machine (disk array?). Bibos was replaced by an Oracle-based catalog named Aleph (hosted on some Unix cluster) you could query by using a web browser.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes. Many mainframes disappeared this way. Taken over by Unix

[@nubaus]

Actually Last time you used a mainframe was the last time you used anything other than cash to pay for anything. 😉

[@jacekruzyczka3058]

@@nubaus Yes, but you don't interact with it directly. Besides, many fintech businesses don't even use any mainframes any more.

[@peterjacob8871]

I am insanely jealous and green with envy! Congratulation Sebastian, good luck with your accomplishment!

[@unixtohack]

A mainframe at home. Woooww, sounds crazy to use and learn.

[@MeriaDuck]

At a creative center, nowadays it would be called a maker space of sorts, there was a tiny basement with a computer running Unix comprised of nineteen inch rack components. To start one of the external disks the size of a washing machine you had to enable power, wait for the disk to spin up and finally toggle the physical read/write switch. Only the you could turn the key of the power to the CPU unit, and after a while two terminals (possibly adm3as) beeped and it was on line. Fun times😀

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes I did manage a similar computer at our high school. It was a VAX 8600

[@RealEngineer]

Love this gem of a channel! Made me interested in the world of mainframes.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks for watching !

[@SuperHPaulo]

Wonderful video and experience (feel like a jet fighter pilot on take-off on startup), amazing video!!

[@billgoodman7403]

FYI: Those special power plugs are called russel stoll plugs. I installed many of them. IBM used blower on the bottom of the gates. RCA(univac) used 30 fans in its main cpu. A LOT OF FAN NOISE!!!!!

[@gilsonvidal1]

Awesome Video - Learned a lot. I am going back to mainframes after many years away.

[@kellingc]

The mainframe I operated late 90''s early 2000s the SE was OS/2 based on a token ring. But the interface was the exact same layout. We were running 4 LPARs, with two of them cycling dates so we could run Y2K tests as well as our prod and development systems.

[@uswcboy]

I noted the power was stated at 900W; I think that is under 9kW is what I believe the answer should be, which at 400v (German spec 3-phase) which would be 12.99 rounded to 13Ampere @400VAC (3phase). which at 9kW - at roughly $.10/KwH - it would be like running two large 4/5TON central air conditioning units at the same time.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Sounds about right

[@apollo-so5yj]

Really cool, especially being able to ge it for free. Also good to be prepared, just in case NASA ever decides to re-deploy the space shuttle fleet, Then he can be a mission control backup site for the Johnson Space Center.

[@DavidDHahn]

Please keep all seats in the upright position during takeoff!

[@intubus2]

Very very well and concisely presented!

[@miguelfernandez2452]

My congratulations to Sebastian and Moshix for devoting their time to recovering a computer with a useful life, the operating system use licenses and products programs installed in the CPU could not bring you small legal inconveniences for the use of licenses with charges.

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

Don't worry I made sure the setup is legal.

[@jovetj]

Great opening musical choice! Recognized it instantly! 😁

[@JakubChalupnik]

I am pretty proud of myself to identify it as well. I knew I know it, and I was spot on although it took me a minute to remember the name. Purple Motion - Satellite One

[@jovetj]

@@JakubChalupnik Yup! From the legendary Future Crew. His proper name is Jonne Valtonen, and he's the same age I am, so I keep up on his happenings from time to time. He's written a lot of wonderful and interesting music.

[@ByWire-yk8eh]

What does it do?? It runs software used by almost every financial institution in the world. They do all the back end processing. For example, most bank to bank transactions use mainframes. These systems are considered to be secure. Their rivals are Unix systems. (forget about Windows and Apple)

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes that’s what they do. Not sure they are really secure, or even more secure. IBM doesn’t report vulnerabilities found in z/OS, so we don’t really know how secure or not. But I don’t think it’s more secure then something like Linux because Linux has a lot of scrutiny and attention

[@douro20]

NonStop systems are still used in the financial sector as well.

[@douro20]

Don't forget that z/OS has a UNIX subsystem and that there are a good number of these machines which run Linux.

[@Please-be-patient-Im-autistic]

Its stable, the uptime is great but its more insecure than a 13 year in puberty. There are many talks on mainframe hacking and their legacy really gets in the way of securing anything. It connects over a telnetish protocol, has an 8 alphacharacter case insensitive password limit (as in you can’t exceed it), … Mainframe security is mainly separating everything of the network and only allow very limited connection to it. The only “secure” thing about a mainframe is the fact that almost nobody knows how to use them. Its not unix, windows or even something resembling a normal pc. Don’t get me wrong I really love the big iron. The general way of working is amazing and a real look into 1970’s computing. But security was just not what it is now.

[@Teluric2]

Lol I m sure many fanboys will say Mac os is safer. Fanboys defending their cult.

[@salifores3657]

Fantastic Sebastian, hat's off to you, in future videos can you explain how when the MF cold start hardwired bootup brings the supervisor microcode image in and briefly elaborate on the difference of it's functionality compared to the Operating System functionality. Again excellent job,. And I know if your around that guy Moshix, you gotta have something going for yourself.

[@mrderby01]

Back in 2000. US Steel used a mainframe in the Pittsburgh Office. Not sure what they use now to date. This operated all of the jobs that could be used to run the mills and different batch jobs. Amazing tech. Does Walt Disney World still use one?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

No idea if they do. Probably not

[@nubaus]

I miss working with the IBM systems 100% reliability have not heard IPL in awhile.

[@tompsheridantsheridant7354]

Replying to @nubaus **IBM** STANDS FOR **I** INTERNATIONAL **B** OWEL **M** OVEMENT

[@LumaControl]

Awesome that you lot rescued this. Also nice purple motion music!!!

[@rossimarti]

I wish Alan Turing could see this. I don't think he would take a laptop or tablet seriously.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Indeed

[@Levelworm]

Shit, need to have one of those in my future garage! This is better than sex.

[@27613James]

Only thing better would be one of the grand daughters of the pretty young ladies in the IBM ads circa 1960 working with you on the Z9

[@CLHLC]

4:41 by coincidence I had the Dune 2 - Eclipse Soundtrack playing in the background... perfect match

[@TheKero2012]

Sounds like it is getting ready to takeoff.

[@SpamMouse]

I understand this, not the kit but the desire to have one. I considered a PDP-11 about 35 years ago, but when I was a kid I had a Creed 7P today's youngest's can google an image.

[@MarquisDeSang]

I wish I had friends like you. My friends are only jerk... on their iPhone

[@tyronewalker5764]

Wow, I've always wanted to see an IBM mainframe!

[@RailRover65]

Thanks so much Sebastian and moshix for taking the time to bring this wonderful video and experience to us! Curious about which Linux distro is used on the ThinkPads, is it Scientific Linux?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

OS/2

[@JakeHambyZ80]

moshix The older ones used OS/2, but those console messages on the z9 looked like Linux to me. The app looks like some combination of OS/2 bitmaps and Java Swing.

[@andrewmclauchlan9205]

Hey, that relocate was easy. Try relocating a 3084!. Well you wouldn't find one now anyway. Given that it had a 400hz motor generator set amongst other things and also needed a water chiller!

[@therik6909]

I love how it barely fits in his basement. Amazing how he got it for free.

[@brianfox7067]

Imagine my surprise/horror when I recognized Satellite One by Purple Motion

[@antocmartinaemz]

I worked on Z12 for a french bank, we had to do the IPL every week, and for each time change, because, they really wanted us to do that :/

[@WhitfieldProductionsTV]

how to make the house fly, this guy figured it out in this one simple video.

[@melissarainchild]

I was not really impressed...until I heared the thing come to life...pure music!!!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Hahaha thanks

[@mrz80]

Aww, I was waiting for a green-screen console view of the IPL...

[@alainbibi0047]

Darling this is my new compact non portable PC ! Hey🧨🔥🚒

[@Arsenic71]

Lol yeah compact. Like the "compact" muon solenoid (CMS) at the LHC 😁🤣👍

[@karlsangree4679]

IPL - now there's a term I haven't heard in several decades.

[@markrosenthal9108]

How about "abend"?

[@karlsangree4679]

@@markrosenthal9108 How about JCL? I see JCL is still used in z/OS and v/VSE, but I haven't heard it since my 43xx/38xx days in the 80s when I worked as an IBM system's programmer.

[@mainframesysprog488]

This was super cool.. !! Thanks a lot!!!! Can you show a video on how the connections were made with the storage?

[@tthoms]

4:35 When the mainframe turbines are starting up

[@gunterhagendorf8318]

Well, I started IT in the 70s with a couple of 3033s and 168s. The power-on sequence was a little bit more exciting, with the big power shunts in the systems connecting first: "BANG", "BANG - BANG", "bang, bang, bang, bang", "tack, tack, tack, tack, tack", "BANG" and so on for about 10 minutes. The turbine sound started then afterward. Power-on, IMPL and IPL took about 30 minutes.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

In the mid 80s I had a sharp 8 bit computer at home. I turned it on and the computer was instantly ready. I was so fascinated when at work an IML and IPL took easily an hour to CICS ready.

[@wb8ert]

Where did you get your copy of z/VM? How much does it cost?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

From IBM. It cost at the time about $15k.

[@fruitcake7789]

I want to listen to the full intro track. It sounds good.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Satellite One

[@fruitcake7789]

@@moshixmainframechannel Thanks.

[@da-voodoo-shuffle]

Purple motion at his best

[@da-voodoo-shuffle]

kzbin.info/aero/PLEEC583EE2DCEE411

[@v8pilot]

Sounds like the 1950s BBC radio series "Journey into Space".

[@billgoodman7403]

FYI: NEW Z16 a is rack mount server!!! weight 70 lbs, 120v, rack mount. You can put it on a table or rack with your $2,000 linux or windows server boxs, NOW you can add a classy IBM Z16($250,000) box to the same rack!!!! For only 100 times the price of your linux server you can add an IBM z16(linux server) to your rack!! Wow that should impress your boss!!!!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks. I will talk to my boss about it and see if I can impress him

[@overnxted]

Does Sebastian has his own youtube chanel or any other please to follow him too? Thanks

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

We will release the future videos on moshix's channel

[@JediOfTheRepublic]

Dang, wish I could find a System Z that was going to be trashed for free. Such an amazing find.

[@shaunburke]

In the early 90’s I got my hands on an AS/400 D10. It’s not a big machine but, it could probably heat a house 😀

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Great. I have been looking for as/400 tower for a while.

[@neriozulberti1492]

I’ve made some migrations from 36 38 and AS400 great devices😊

[@MLX1401]

How to find "Sebastian"s channel? I'd love to see the follow-up for this heart warming video 😊

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

What would you like to see?

[@MLX1401]

@@Sebastian-jf5cp Oh, did not expext Sebastian's channel to be named in such practical manner 😂 But thanks, will have a look!

[@erikschiegg68]

Living in a plane. Hey, you could heat up a swimming pool. "Too cold, darling? Wait, I start another JCV..."

[@moshixmainframechannel]

True. JCV heaters are the best

[@wb8ert]

Hello, How does a z/system compare to say a Dell T7920 with dual Gold 3.2Ghz 8 core (16 total) processors, 256GB RAM, etc? Cool on getting it for free. On the power, you talk about the phase, but what is the voltage? How much wattage does it draw? Thank you. (I started programming on a VM/370 R6 with BSEPP in 1977 at Ohio University (Athens, Ohio) and my first job was a Systems Programmer (1979 for TII).) I think it is OUTSTANDINGLY COOL you have your own IBM mainframe. It has been my hope to own one since I saw the IBM 9370.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Good question. I don’t know

[@bertrammoshier8770]

@@RicardoBanffy z/VM?

[@douro20]

There is a guy in Italy who has a z9 and a z10, both of which run Linux workloads.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Fantastico !

[@iggysfriend4431]

That's nuts. It sounds like a helicopter gas turbine spooling up.

[@jonathankovacs1809]

Yes music to my ears!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Exactly !

[@johnathanstevens8436]

Bet you can save a lot of money on heating in the winter 🙂

[@G6PBS]

:)

[@gdevelek]

With power consumption at 662W, why does it need 3-phase power? Also, is it common for Germans to stock vent controllers for IBM mainframes?

[@fum00A]

I would assume that the blower motors require three phase power

[@moshixmainframechannel]

@fum00A nope. Normal 220 volt

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes Germans in general like to stock IBM mainframe fan controllers. It’s a cultural thing

[@scouzi7201]

I doubt that it only consumes 662W.

[@jfbeam]

Well, it's not packed with 1000 processors, and it's not actively doing anything. The server on my bench might n=only be drawing 180W _right now,_ but if I give it anything remotely complicated to do, it could draw 2kW. (currently software limited to 500W so I don't pop any breakers.) Similarly, the GPU in my machine may only be drawing 5W right now, just drawing the console, but fire up a game, or render a video, it'll spike to 300W.

[@vinatron8075]

Hope the Kona card deal works out!

[@CheapSushi]

I love these videos!

[@andrew8293]

You need a pilot licence to fly that server

[@iroler]

Wow, just the noise that looks like a big avenue or highway.

[@real_andrii]

"64 gigabytes of RAM" - sounds like pricy laptop nowadays.

[@douro20]

That's nothing on a System z. Current models have terabytes of physical memory, and there is a 64-bit physical address space which means it could address up to 16 exabytes of physical memory.

[@real_andrii]

@@douro20 what's that to have with my comment? I am referring to this particular mainframe.

[@douro20]

@@real_andrii I know. But this model supports up to 512GB.

what do you need the power connection for? i mean those turbines that start up there do produce the electricity it needs... right? b.t.w. what does it take, kerosine, gasoline, benzedrin?

[@comedicsketches]

The operator ordinarily takes benzedrine, sniffs gasoline in times of trouble, and douses the whole thing in kerosene and tosses in a match when things go really haywire.

[@Shol2thaVa]

sounds like it's powered a jet engine lol =)

[@maus3454]

Support elements (the 2 laptops) for IBM z9 are comparable to HMC for the Series P (Power) and Series i (aka AS/400) to manage for instances the LPARs

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Indeed

[@marceloptenhofel7503]

I have a AS/400 in my basement.

[@intubus2]

Brilliant idea to determine the demographic data for the livestream, as depressing as it may be!

[@pedrojapalima8943]

Sick man 🔥

[@WoodmanBlack]

Cool! In my garage have MF:) Incredible. What software installed on MF is: ZOS1.13,DB2v10 Data sharing, MQ,TWS etc?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Only Linux and z/VM

[@copper4eva]

At 4:18 is the desktop anything special? Or is it just a desktop with a bunch of IBM stickers and logos put on it?

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

Normal Server case modded to look like a mainframe, it is running the HMC in a VM

[@copper4eva]

@@Sebastian-jf5cp Yes, I found your video on the case design. Really cool design. And if I build a new PC I will strongly consider using it. You just don't get PC designs this cool nowadays. Or ever really.

[@ipekshev]

Great video! Thank a lot!

[@takayamaguchi2849]

Amazing!!!!

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

It sounds like it’s about to jump to warp speed 😂

[@ayingtorres5938]

awesome

[@furzkram]

Where is the link to Sebastian's channel?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Who knows?

[@furzkram]

@@moshixmainframechannel I found it meanwhile but there's not a trace of the video he mentioned to be making in your video. Hmm.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Weird

[@grappydingus]

Is that Yoda you have sitting in your mainframe? :D

[@Sebastian-jf5cp]

The machine was called Jedi by it's original owner. Also all LPARS were using StarWars related hostnames.

[@OllyO-gt8pg]

sounds like my grandads old diesel.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

It’s possible

[@Johan-ez5wo]

Geil !! now curious.. what is he going to do with it ? booting and shutting down get boring very fast.

[@lavaq9593]

Hi Moshix, is this mainframe connected to your BitNet? ;))

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes

[@mrz80]

Ah BITNET. Met my wife over BITNET. I worked at NASA/GSFC; she worked at the Univ. of FL. Lessee... SCFVM---UMDD---GWUVM---PSUVM---VTVM1---TUCC---NERVM :D

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Sweet !

[@solotron7390]

Awesome!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks!

[@X-Production_Sg]

btw How much does an Z9 or Z12 Cost? Cuz imma buy one and try for cheap without rental

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Those machines have no value. Cost a lot to transport

[@X-Production_Sg]

And where do i find it? Because i live in indonesia and i am trying to find one

[@Nightowl_IT]

How much power does it need?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

About 900 watts

[@BoydWaters]

How expensive is the Yoda option?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

1/137

[@melissarainchild]

🤣

[@cypherf0x]

I want one, what's the power bill run on that thing?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Depends on the electricity price

[@MilMike]

how much did you pay for this? And how is the power consumption of this? How are you using it? Just a hobby to try it out or more?

[@SuperNova-py1ec]

He said he got it for nothing. Not bad considering it originally cost 1.4 million (£$€?)

[@KodiBrehdon]

what a music!

[@yamaindustrials4046]

Great video!

[@videosuperhighway7655]

How do you deal with licensing. IBM is a pain regarding LIC.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

No issue with licensing for the hardware. It came with all the required licenses. Software is a different topic. As long as you run Linux you don’t need software licenses

[@markrosenthal9108]

@@moshixmainframechannel And once you have Linux running, just install Hercules and run MVS. :-)

[@Decco6306]

I wonder how this compares in performance to the new epyc from AMD

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Probably equal linux for linux

[@Decco6306]

@@moshixmainframechannel What do you mean? Linux for Linux? what's that?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Linux is a UNIX-like operating system created by Linus Torvalds in the 90s in Finland. More here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux

[@Decco6306]

@@moshixmainframechannel I know what linux is, but you said "linux for linux"

[@egg5474]

The older architecture in this unit will likely not hold up, but a power9 system will destroy anything below a 3990x in terms of raw compute which is why supercomputers are built with the same processors in more modern mainframes

[@captainchaos3667]

The OS on those Thinkpads is OS/2, no?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes

[@hakureicirno6059]

Are there any video capabilities on this system, text or graphics, prebuilt or optional, or its graphics solely relies on external devices like the HMC and terminals etc. ?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Nope

[@BetterLifePhilosophies]

Superb!!

[@krs.703]

i wonder how good will be these big tools for coin mining...

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Not good at all.

[@poparab]

@@moshixmainframechannel A Mainframe is a bad Idea to mining coins. The Mainframe was not constructed for algorythm and Cryptology. Is faster for Databases and for million of transactions per second to move money from 1 account to the other.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Oh ok. Didn’t know

[@poparab]

@@moshixmainframechannel The Mainframe is Data Transactionsystem. Is not for Algorithm or for mass calculations. He is only make for 1 Millionen Users are storage a Data and later he will search. Also business math is been easy for the Mainframe. Cobol is very fast for business math operations. Cryptologic is not a part on this machines

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Ah ok. Wasn’t aware. Thanks a lot

[@nutrino75]

Can this run doom?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes. But only when it’s dark outside

[@zachz96]

How did he get three phase electricity service in a house?

[@moshixmainframechannel]

By law in most countries , the electricity company has to give you three phase power on request.

[@alicewyan]

@@computerpro123abc I thought that was the case in the US, but is it so in Europe as well?

[@TheStefanskoglund1]

I would say that it is an exception seeing villa with 1- or 2-phase power in Germany or Scandinavia for that matter. Apartments is ANOTHER thing, though here in Sweden at least many apartments gets 3-phase when they are refurbished (or blown out.)

[@stvpls]

poor thinkpads stuck in there must be in mint condition though, can you take them out and put them in if needed?

[@tdog7925]

no, they belong with the mainframe. The mainframe has laptops that come with it and they cannot be taken out.

[@glurak888]

@@tdog7925 why is that?

[@ChatGPT1111]

@@glurak888 it’s kind’ve like the larger jet aircraft have an engine (APU) in the fuselage to start the main engines on the wings. That way, you can diagnose problems and don’t have to brick the whole thing if the mainframe has faults.

[@debugin1227]

Cool!

[@טלשםטוב-ס5ב]

I am also 24 years in it started in compaq and after 2001 I was in Hp