188 IBM ^ zSeries 990 Technical Guide
8.1 Concurrent upgrades
The z990 servers have the capability of concurrent upgrades, providing additional capacity
with no
server outage. In most cases, with prior planning and operating system support, a
concurrent upgrade can also be nondisruptive, that is, without
system outage (Power-on
Resets (PORs), logical partition deactivations, and IPLs do not have to take place).
Given today's business environment, the benefits of the concurrent capacity growth
capabilities provided by z990 servers are plentiful, and include:
Enabling exploitation of new business opportunities
Supporting the growth of e-business environments
Managing the risk of volatile, high growth, and high volume applications
Supporting 24x365 application availability
Enabling capacity growth during “lock down” periods
This capability is based on the flexibility of the z990 system design and structure, which
allows configuration control by the Licensed Internal Code (LIC) and concurrent hardware
installation.
Licensed Internal Code (LIC)-based upgrades
The LIC - Configuration Control (LIC-CC) provides for server upgrade with no hardware
changes by enabling the activation of additional, previously installed capacity. Concurrent
upgrades via LIC-CC can be done for:
Processors (CPs, IFLs, ICFs, and zAAPs)
Requires available spare PUs on installed book(s).
Memory
Requires available capacity on installed memory cards.
I/O cards ports (ESCON channels and ISC-3 links)
Requires available ports on installed I/O cards.
Concurrent hardware installation upgrades
Configuration upgrades can also be concurrent by installing additional:
Books (which contain processors, memory, and STIs)
Requires available book slot(s) in the installed CEC cage.
I/O cards
Requires available slots on installed I/O cage(s). I/O cages cannot be installed
concurrently.
The concurrent upgrade capability can be better exploited when a future target configuration
is considered in the initial configuration. Using this Plan Ahead concept, the required number
of I/O cages for concurrent upgrades, up to the target configuration, can be included in the
z990 server’s initial configuration.
Concurrent PU conversions
z990 servers support concurrent conversion between different PU types, providing flexibility
to meet changing business environments.
