Getting started with Beta 3
If you are new to z86VM and would like a beta copy, please send an email and you’ll receive an ID and password to get the code off of our FTP server. Please put z86VM Beta in the subject line of all correspondence. Perhaps even easier – just fill in the contact form below. Detailed installation instructions are included below.
We’ve released the beta because we wanted to learn from you, the customer, what is good and bad and also to check our documentation, identify any restrictions in the code and capture new product requirements. We have found it is capable of doing some very interesting demos as to possibilities for how it can be used in the future. We are concerned about expectations for our product. We know we have performance and quality work to do before it becomes generally available. We ask that you understand that.
We would like to make the beta a good experience for you. We may ship additional beta’s with new functions, fixes and performance enhancements. If you want to show someone a demo because you think it is “cool”, “exciting”, “the future”, or any other kind words, that would be wonderful. We ask that you not show nor publish any performance data associated with your experience in the beta, without permission from Mantissa. We are not done developing the product yet and we hope to further improve the experience. That’s also why we have no published nor target general availability date yet. We will not release the code until it meets our own expectations.
If you don’t feel that you can adhere to the spirit of our beta, please don’t request to participate.
Generally speaking, systems which predate model z196 and z114 do not have the necessary instruction support for this installation.
Installation Instructions
This is the THIRD in a series of distributions. The timing and content of distributions will depend on problems identified and addressed at each stage of the beta. The FIRST Beta was Damn Small Linux (DSL) kernel level 2.4 with a fluxbox window manager. The SECOND Beta is SME Linux 7.6 with a 2.6 kernel. See wikipedia.org for details. This THIRD Beta includes both SME Linux 8.1, with its additions of more middleware, including the LAMP Stack (Linux, Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP) and WordPress. and DSL 2012 edition.
** New note: Experience has told us that you need to initiate the following FTP from a Windows or Mac system and then locally update it to your zVM system. There seems to be an issue with the FTP Client on zVM that is inhibiting a successful download. Once downloaded to the desktop system, from that system, open a connection to your zVM and PUT the files there.
Instructions for download Beta 3 (start)
ftp ftp.mantissa.com <http://ftp.mantissa.com>
user: (Insert userid received in email)
pw: (insert case sensitive password received in email)
ascii
get z86vmb3.direct.txt
bin
get tightvnc-2.0.2-setup.exe <== if you need a VNC Client
get z86vmb3.vmarc
quit
Instructions for download Beta 3 (end)
**New Note: We want to keep you up to date with changes within the Beta and new functionality. Please look at our Blog site: http://www.mantissa.com/category/z86vm/ regularly to stay abreast. Don’t hesitate to post your own experiences or questions that you think might be applicable to other customers. You’ll have to register at the site, but nothing secret nor scary about that process. We want to hear from you.
————————————————————————————————
After test image customization and subsequent IPL activate z86VM stats reporting by entering (on the DEMODSL console):
//son <=== Stats on command
System Response:
Echo __ //SON
Command issued=SON
11:21:06 cmu (mmudisp ) - _______ Stats display enabled
Capturing Performance Data
We are interested in several performance metrics you may obtain. The first is test script duration. Upon script termination a message (“Script took XX seconds to run”) recording duration is displayed. Please record that number. This duration may be longer than with DSL owing to increased trace overhead.
The next metric of interest is resting CPU consumption. Every ten seconds CPU consumption is reported. After you see the GUI appear in the VNC session, let the system remain idle for several minutes and collect a text clip of the statistics output from the VM guest console. It should look something like this.
11:35:00 cmu (cmumaint) - _______ x86 mips high(0) interval(0) avg over 88 cpu sec(0) x86im(0) vcpu(1045004166)
11:36:10 cmu (cmumaint) - _______ x86 mips high(0) interval(0) avg over 89 cpu sec(0) x86im(0) vcpu(1046444810)
11:37:30 cmu (cmumaint) - _______ x86 mips high(0) interval(0) avg over 91 cpu sec(0) x86im(0) vcpu(1048526709)
11:37:40 cmu (cmumaint) - _______ x86 mips high(0) interval(0) avg over 91 cpu sec(0) x86im(0) vcpu(1048636213)
Finally, we would like to see output produced by a z86VM probe command. By entering (on the z860001 console):
//probe <=== Probe command
on the VM guest console you should get a series of messages similar to these:
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEINSTRUCTIONLINESIZE ) Count(256) Desc(Cache Instruction Cache Line Size
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEINSTRUCTIONTOTALL1 ) Count(65536) Desc(Cache Instruction Total Level 1 Size
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEINSTRUCTIONTOTALL2 ) Count(1572864) Desc(Cache Instruction Total Level 2 Size
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEDATALINESIZE ) Count(256) Desc(Cache Data Cache Line Size
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEDATATOTALLEVEL1 ) Count(131072) Desc(Cache Data Total Level 1 Size
z86VM – Probe Name(CACHEDATATOTALLEVEL2 ) Count(1572864) Desc(Cache Data Total Level 2 Size
z86VM – Probe Name(MMURTEREPAIRS ) Count(2527) Desc(MMU RTE repairs
z86VM – Probe Name(EXTINTCOMPARATORSECONDS ) Count(1075) Desc(External Interrupt Comparator Calculated Sec
z86VM – Probe Name(EXTINTTIMER ) Count(90065) Desc(External Interrupt for Timer
z86VM – Probe Name(EXTTOTAL ) Count(202467) Desc(External Interrupt Total for A-L-L
z86VM – Probe Name(PIT0TICKS ) Count(106919) Desc(TimeX Total Pit0 ticks
z86VM – Probe Name(PIT0POSTS ) Count(107547) Desc(TimeX Total Pit0 posts
z86VM – Probe Name(PIT2TICKS ) Count(21383) Desc(TimeX Pit2 ticks
z86VM – Probe Name(PIT2POSTS ) Count(106927) Desc(TimeX Pit2 posts
Clip and save.
Send Mantissa your results
We would appreciate an email containing:
- test script run time,
- resting CPU consumption,
- //probe command output
- model number of your machine.
[contact_form_for_repace id=”11″]
Problem reporting:
If z86VM ABENDs for any reason, clear the z/VM guest console of the abending z86VM user and provide the following information:
“x’5B5000’ contains 16 64 bit registers, followed by 16 32 bit registers, followed by the ABEND PSW at 5B5100. The failing instruction address will be at 5B510C
“On the z86 Console, to display the registers and PSW, Enter:
CP D T5B5000.200
This will produce a dump of the system diagnostic work area (SDWA). It will look something like this:
V005B5000 00000000 00018261 00000000 00000000 06 *......b/........* V005B5010 00000000 00000000 00000000 00087580 *................* V005B5020 00000000 C0825DA0 00000000 00000F9C *.....b).........* V005B5030 00000000 FFFFA020 00000000 00080F9B *................* V005B5040 00000000 0572389E 00000000 C0425848 *................* V005B5050 00000000 0015EA00 00000000 FFFFA000 *................* V005B5060 00000000 1CF61900 00000000 1C962128 *.....6.......o..* V005B5070 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000F9D *................* V005B5080 00018261 00000000 00000000 00087580 *..b/............* V005B5090 C0825DA0 00000F9C FFFFA020 00080F9B *.b).............* V005B50A0 0572389E C0425848 0015EA00 FFFFA000 *................* V005B50B0 1CF61900 1C962128 00000000 00000000 *.6...o..........* V005B50C0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 *................* V005B50D0 00000001 00000001 00000001 00000001 *................* V005B50E0 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000001 *................* V005B50F0 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 *................* V005B5100 47045001 80000000 00000000 000DD252 *..&...........K.* V005B5110 00000101 00470440 01800000 00000000 *....... ........* V005B5120 0005775F F4000600 00000000 00000000 *...¬4...........* V005B5130 00000000 00000000 D7000000 00000000 *........P.......* V005B5140 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 *................* V005B5150 to 005B51FF suppressed line(s) same as above ....
In this Example, the failing instruction address is DD252. So to capture that data, we’ll need data before and after this failure. In this case, enter:
CP D TDD200.100 V000DD200 A5080001 D201D1C0 8102E310 81220071 06 *v...K.J.a.T.a...* V000DD210 E310D1B8 0024D700 D1D4D1D4 E310D1B8 *T.J...P.JMJMT.J.* V000DD220 00710A00 0000E3F0 00080071 A7F40739 *......T0....x4..* V000DD230 920081A8 E31080EC 0016E3B0 10100016 *k.ayT.....T.....* V000DD240 95D73138 A774040B D2073108 8020B2B2 *nP..x...K.......* V000DD250 3100E390 30480004 9A47815C B2790200 *..T.......a*....* V000DD260 58103134 5010B208 E310000E 00715820 *....&...T.......* V000DD270 31304010 B231E310 30480004 5010B22D *.. ...T.....&...* V000DD280 E3F0D1D5 0024A7F9 0000BFF3 B233E3F0 *T0JN..x9...3..T0* V000DD290 80F00018 BEF3B233 E3F0D1D5 0004E300 *.0...3..T0JN..T.* V000DD2A0 B010001E B9160000 5000B014 94F7B015 *........&...m7..* V000DD2B0 9108B013 A7E40006 9608B015 94F7B014 *j...xU..o...m7..* V000DD2C0 4830B231 592080F4 A77401E0 B9040043 *.......4x.......* V000DD2D0 B9040014 9102B011 A7E40054 9101B213 *....j...xU..j...* V000DD2E0 A774004D 9601B13C 89400003 E370B1F2 *x..(o...i ..T..2* V000DD2F0 001EB916 0077E374 70000071 E3407006 *......T.....T ..*
Email a copy of output from this storage dump. If possible, leave the guest active and await instructions .
Known Beta 3 issues:
- Cannot run SME 8 with more than 900M of memory
- When starting an operating system image, wait one minute before starting the VNC to avoid a Display device driver incompatibility. Conversely, at shutdown, it may be wise to kill the VNC prior to shutdown completion and look for the z86user WTO that says shutdown has completed. (a build issue)
- If z86vm hits an internal error, there will be a wait state issued. Data collection information is described above.
- The STOP command of the ZVOS console doesn’t work properly. Z86 continues to run. (that’s why the wait state was added).
- Console commands must start in column 1, including commands to drop into CP mode.
- zvcopy will take down the IO server if there isn’t enough space on the x86 storage side.
- Firefox doesn’t work properly on the DSL 2012 distro
- VNC connect/reconnect from one device to another doesn’t work with the zVM VNCServe. Need to test with the DSL VNCServer.
- No testing has been done with multi-media sound or video files yet
