So I bought an IBM z890 for $237 from Rutger's University off govdeals.com
The starting bid was 100 bucks figured why not, and won it.
http://imgur.com/a/5uWit
The SEs are fine and have the default SERVICE/SERVMODE login.
That was a heck of an adventure to get into the basement (since the rack alone weighs 800lbs) but its down there now and I have been able to successfully Power-on and preform a 'Power-on Reset' on the system. Now I am at the problem of all the old setup information being in there from the university not helping with the confusion of learning how to use the thing. Along with the fact that I have to reconfigure the I/O because when I was removing the I/O modules the heat-sinks were falling off due to failed thermal compound. This damaged a pair of Ethernet modules thus requiring me to remove them from the I/O cage. I currently have 4 FICON, 3 fast ethernet, 2 ESCON modules that should work (some of them may also be damaged, I will have to test them somehow), and yes I replaced the thermal adhesive in them.
My plan is to get linux running on it via FTP as of now until I get the FC SAN box I ordered that will give me SCSI and allow me to use a standard SCSI hard drive array as storage.
Anyway can anyone here help me out in re-configuring the thing?
I have the PDFs that explain it but I'm a little confused, especially considering there is a lot of old configuration that isn't helping (also it seems the old I/O config may have been wiped? not sure)...
Anyone who helps me out I will personally give SSH access to it to play with if you want
Just don't expect 24/7 up-time (let alone 24 hour up-time) since powering this thing is expensive haha.
I'd greatly appreciate any help.
Thanks!
-Connor K