Planning Considerations For Your Backup Console - IBM System i Manual

adapters installed. The system will use the first adapter found on the bus. However, during an IPL the
first adapter may not be ready in time and the system could select the second adapter. This could
prevent the console from starting immediately or you might not be able to use that resource for your
intended purposes. It is recommended that you install only one console-capable adapter that matches
your configurations for a single IOP. This situation also will affect asynchronous adapters used by a
local console directly attached to the system.
v The term alternate console is referring to a twinaxial console type located in another IOP tagged as the
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| alternate console. Operations Console and HMC type consoles do not use resources tagged as the
alternate console.
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| Note: Tagging the same IOP as both the primary console and the alternate console may result in the
inability to select a console. If you have a twinaxial adapter in the same IOP as your primary
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console's adapter, consider the twinaxial adapter to be a backup console, not an alternate
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| console. You only have to change the console type to take advantage of the twinaxial adapter for
the console.
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Related reference
"Takeover or recovery of an Operations Console connection" on page 60
You can use these functions to take control of another console device.

"Planning considerations for your backup console"

Most system plans include a level of redundancy to allow for the event of hardware failures; however,
many people do not consider the console in their plans. To recover quickly from an unexpected loss of
your console, you need to plan for a backup console.
Planning considerations for your backup console
Most system plans include a level of redundancy to allow for the event of hardware failures; however,
many people do not consider the console in their plans. To recover quickly from an unexpected loss of
your console, you need to plan for a backup console.
Considerations for a backup console
v The adapter location is fixed, or at least limited, for independent systems or primary partitions. Based
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| on your system's hardware requirements, you might have limited choices of console types. Try to
accommodate at least one additional console type, if possible.
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v Consider using the take over and recovery option as part of your backup console strategy. However,
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| the hardware used for the new console type must exist and be available at the time of recovery.
v If you are working in a partitioned environment, consider:
– In a logical partition environment, the term alternate console refers to the twinaxial console type
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located in another input/output processor (IOP) that is tagged as the alternate console. If a failure of
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| the primary console (twinaxial only) is detected, the system automatically tries the alternate
console's IOP. This function gives you another level of protection. Tagging a single IOP as both the
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primary console and the alternate console can result in errors when selecting a console. Further
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| isolation can be planned by placing the alternate console IOP on a different bus so that failures of
the primary console's bus cannot prevent a console from being available.
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– Models 270 and 8xx are tagged for a console type only at the IOP level. Tagging an IOP that has two
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| alike console adapters reporting to it, for example two 2849s or two 2771s, for the same IOP can
sometimes make it difficult to determine, in advance, which adapter will be used for the console.
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When tagging the IOP, be sure that it only has one console-capable adapter per connectivity. For
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| example, only one 2849 and one 2771. Each adapter can support a different console type but only
one adapter type should be present. The lowest addressed adapter on the bus is attempted first. But
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if that adapter is slow in reporting to the system, another adapter might get selected instead, when
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| two adapters of the same connectivity are present. Another example of this might be that the IOP
has both a 2838 and a 2849 Ethernet adapter reporting to it. They are different adapters but have the
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same connectivity for the console.
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6
System i: Connecting to System i Operations Console