[TCLUG] Z-Series thread

Thu Apr 5 13:11:12 CDT 2001

Well, according to the mainframe folks here:

You're going to be looking at around $1,000,000 or so for a 3000MIPS
box with 30GB of memory or so.  You'll likely be able to run about 500
active Linuxes on that box.  This certainly isn't a bad deal when you are
crunched for space, but those 4000 boxes are going to run you about
$8,000,000.  Once you're at that size, though, there may be some significant
advantages to running it on a few MFs.  Also, a couple things you're 
forgetting;

1) You'll be writing out a monthly check to IBM for support of these things.
2) To really acheive real mainframe reliability, you need to be running 2 (at 
minimum)
or 4 (better) mainframes in a sysplex setup.

These are "average use" Linux boxes - but if we're talking about people who
want to run big Oracle databases on these boxes, you're going to be cutting
into the number of Linuxes/Mainframe.

- Nick Reinking

tanner at real-time.com, on 04/05/2001 12:14:04 PM
To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org @ PMDF
cc:  
Subject: [TCLUG] Z-Series thread

Ok, I guess I'll do some quick numbers....

Quoting Nick.T.Reinking at supervalu.com (Nick.T.Reinking at supervalu.com):
> I've never understood why people are so damned fascinated with
> Linux on the S/390.  I get to work on SuSE/390, and it really isn't that
> impressive.  The box isn't any more responsive than the Linux PC on
> my desk.  Sure, you can put lots of them on one box - but if you're wanting
> to actually save money, you're better off buying small boxes.  Or, buying
> a higher end Sun box and just intelligently administrating it.

I have to disagree. Let's say you can runn 4,000 instance of linux on 1
Z-Series. That is 1 electrical run. 1 large UPS. 1 port on a switch. 1 rack.
10 sq feet of space to house it. Put what you think it cost here to just get the
hardware.

Lets go 4,000 PCs. I'll make some round numbers. $1000 for each PC. Using 24
port manageable switches you'll need 167 switches. You'll need 4,167 power runs.
Let's live on the wild side and go with 1 ups for every 2 devices, so you'd need
2084 UPSs. I don't know how many racks. And the space will be several hundred sq
feet.

4000 PC * 1000       = 4,000,000
167 switches * 3000  =   501,000
2084 UPS * 600       = 1,250,400
==================     =========
TOTAL                  5,751,400

Plus whatever the racks will cost.  

PLUS the re-occurring and the monthly fee for the space.

Throw in that you'd have to buy a new box, new port on a switch half a UPS for
each new user. You have a start up cost of a min of $1425/per user ($1000 for
pc, $125 for switch port, $300 for UPS). 

Again, not counting the rack space, cost of physical space or utilities.

Let's say everyone is willing to pay $100/month, it will takes 15 months just to
re-coup your hard investement (and you still have all your other operating
expenses).

Add to all of this the admin chores. Think about trying to backup 4000 PCs.
Think about how you'll monitor all of this. Most of us are admins here and we
can fill in the blanks.

YES, there is probably cheaper PCs and there a cheaper switches and you can
spread the UPS even further. Half the cost of everything. IT'S STILL ~2.5
million.

Ok, I left out the Z-series costs. Why? Because I don't really know what it will
cost. I don't want to yank IBMs chain on getting a quote until after the poll
and I see if there is an opportunity and interest out there for this.