IBM — 12 Real Engineering Questions
Real questions enterprise IT engineers ask about IBM hardware, sourced from Server Fault and Network Engineering Stack Exchange under CC BY-SA. Answers are original Pro Disk Network content with internal links to our IBM catalog and buying guides.
Restarting an IBM BMC without restarting the server itself
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
BMC access: ipmitool -H <ip> -U admin -P <pw> chassis status for remote IPMI. For Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, Lenovo IMM/XCC, Supermicro IPMI — all expose Redfish REST API as the modern alternative.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Original question on Server Fault (17 votes · 109,922 views) ›
IBM Server takes a long time to boot past UEFI to OS
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Original question on Server Fault (11 votes · 59,556 views) ›
Do RAID controllers commonly have SATA drive brand compatibility issues?
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
Interface selection: NVMe (PCIe Gen4/5) for random workloads above 500 IOPS. SAS SSDs for mid-tier. SATA HDDs for capacity / backup tiers. Match drive interface to RAID controller; mismatches force fallback to lowest common denominator.
BIOS / firmware update: flash before installing newer-generation CPUs. Many motherboards refuse to POST with unsupported CPUs long enough to flash. Modern BMCs (iDRAC, iLO) include online flash without OS interaction.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Original question on Server Fault (22 votes · 4,299 views) ›
Communicating via Command Mode with IBM HS22 IMM via AMM
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
BMC access: ipmitool -H <ip> -U admin -P <pw> chassis status for remote IPMI. For Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, Lenovo IMM/XCC, Supermicro IPMI — all expose Redfish REST API as the modern alternative.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Original question on Server Fault (10 votes · 8,269 views) ›
Best practice for 24 Disk Array
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
RAID level guidance: for HDD arrays of drives 4 TB or larger, use RAID 6 (dual parity). RAID 5 is no longer responsible at large drive sizes — the rebuild window exceeds typical MTBF. RAID 10 (stripe of mirrors) wins for OLTP databases and VDI write caches.
Interface selection: NVMe (PCIe Gen4/5) for random workloads above 500 IOPS. SAS SSDs for mid-tier. SATA HDDs for capacity / backup tiers. Match drive interface to RAID controller; mismatches force fallback to lowest common denominator.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
How do you install ClearCase 7.1 on a Unix-based server with no GUI and no internet?
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Original question on Server Fault (6 votes · 13,746 views) ›
IBM GPFS : very slow to remove files recursively
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
IBM System i Permissions on Database views
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
What is the added value of installing Dell / HP / IBM / etc. supplied drivers?
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
BMC access: ipmitool -H <ip> -U admin -P <pw> chassis status for remote IPMI. For Dell iDRAC, HPE iLO, Lenovo IMM/XCC, Supermicro IPMI — all expose Redfish REST API as the modern alternative.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
iis 7 application pools not starting after installing ibm client access
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Is IBM's OS V7R2 the same as AIX?
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
OS/2 grep had a great feature where it would show you n lines BEFORE the search item was found. Is there an equivalent in unix anywhere?
This is a common operational question for IBM environments.
For environment-specific guidance on this question, email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your server model and details.
Pro Disk Network ships IBM legacy and ThinkSystem replacement parts. IBM catalog · Buying guides
Have a IBM question we did not answer?
Email sales@prodisknetwork.com — Pro Disk Engineering responds within one business day.