IBM PowerVM V2.2 refresh includes
new function
IBM United States
Software Announcement 211-354
October 12, 2011
The previously announced IBM® PowerVM™, which delivers industrial-strength
virtualization for AIX®, IBM i, and Linux™ environments on IBM POWER® processor-based
systems, has been enhanced with the following:
- Shared Storage Pools now allows up to four systems to share a
common pool of pre-allocated storage. Shared Storage Pools are able
to provide quick provisioning and efficient storage utilization for
virtualized IBM Power Systems™ workloads. Shared Storage
Pools technology can simplify server and storage administration, reduce
SAN infrastructure, and provide a framework that allows for easier
movement of live workloads across Power® frames.
- Live Partition Mobility provides a 2X improvement in Live Partition
Mobility concurrency.
- Network Load Balancing balances network traffic across redundant
Shared Ethernet Adapters.
- Active Memory™ Deduplication
detects and removes duplicate memory pages to optimize memory usage
in Active Memory Sharing
configurations.
- NPIV support for storage provisioning to virtual Fibre Channel
HBAs prior to LPAR activation is improved. Virtual Fibre Channel
HBAs are more visible to the SAN administrator, which simplifies SAN
provisioning and management of virtual machines using NPIV.
New customers will receive the latest updates automatically upon
ordering.
For ordering, contact your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference:
RE001).
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Refer to Software Announcement 210-196, dated October 07, 2010 for
technical requirements.
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- October 14, 2011: PowerVM 2.2
Service Pack
- December 16, 2011: PowerVM 2.2
Service Pack (Shared Storage Pools enhancements)
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PowerVM delivers industrial-strength
virtualization for AIX, IBM i, and Linux environments on IBM POWER processor-based
systems. Power Systems servers
coupled with PowerVM technology
are designed to help clients build a dynamic infrastructure, reducing
costs, managing risk, and improving service levels.
IBM PowerVM V2.2 contains the following enhancements:
- Live Partition Mobility provides a 2X improvement in Live Partition
Mobility concurrency.
- Network Load Balancing balances network traffic across redundant
Shared Ethernet Adapters.
- Active Memory Deduplication
detects and removes duplicate memory pages to optimize memory usage
in Active Memory Sharing
configurations.
- Shared Storage Pools (which requires PowerVM 2.2 Service Pack available December
2011, creates pools of storage for virtualized workloads), and can
improve storage utilization, simplify administration, and reduce SAN
infrastructure costs. The enhanced capabilities enable four systems
to participate in a Shared Storage Pool configuration, which can improve
efficiency, agility, scalability, flexibility, and availability.
- Shared Storage Pools flexibility and availability improvements
include:
- Storage Mobility is a new function that allows data to be moved
to new storage devices within Shared Storage Pools while virtual machines
remain completely active and available. This ability to move data
to new devices can improve performance and allow for the retirement
of old storage devices without incurring any application outages.
- VM Storage Snapshots/Rollback is a new function that allows multiple
point-in-time snapshots of individual virtual machine storage. These
point-in-time copies can be used to quickly roll back a virtual machine
to a particular snapshot image. This functionality can be used to
capture a VM image for cloning purposes or before applying maintenance.
- Shared Storage Pools
- Increases storage utilization by allowing underutilized storage
trapped in traditional storage configurations to be used by a pool
of servers. Thinly provisioned virtual disks are an option with Shared
Storage Pools, which eliminates the waste of disk resources that are
not in use. In cases where full provisioning of storage is desired
up front, thickly provisioned virtual disks are also available.
IBM PowerVM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) life cycle
enhancements:
The VIOS release and service strategy is being enhanced to provide
up to three years of service pack support for each release. Additionally,
there will be limited support for some new hardware on previous technology
levels. This new release and service policy is limited to future VIOS
updates starting with VIOS V2.2.1 and will not include previous VIOS
versions.
Improved PowerVM software
manageability:
IBM intends to provide support
for future releases via service pack, and interim fixes for the entire
service life of the release. By providing support through service
packs and interim fixes throughout the entire service life of a Technology
Level, clients would be able to use more consistent service procedures
for maintaining VIOS.
Support for new hardware on previous releases:
Beginning with the VIOS V2.2.1 release, service updates will be
delivered through both service packs and interim fixes for the entire
service life of the VIOS release. Enhancements such as processor
speed improvements, new I/O adapters, and new processors within a
family (for example, IBM POWER7®) may be supported on previous
releases by installing a service pack.
Clients can get support for the new hardware by installing a service
pack that contains the necessary changes to support the new hardware
on a previous release. This support will typically only include toleration
of the new hardware, not exploitation of new hardware features such
as additional page sizes.
Exploitation of new hardware features will generally require installing
the latest release, although in some cases, upgrading to a later VIOS
release is necessary to fully exploit new hardware features.
New hardware that requires pervasive changes will not be supported
on previous releases. Examples of hardware that would require pervasive
changes would include things such as a new processor family or a new
I/O bus.
Systems that offer preload or pre-installation of VIOS will only
include the latest available release. Preload and pre-installation
for previous releases of VIOS will not be available.
Blade
Network Technologies® (BNT®) VMready® Switch
A new IBM BNT switch feature called VMready recognizes PowerVM and preserves the IBM BNT switch
attributes during Live Partition Mobility events. This new switch
feature simplifies the Live Partition Mobility process when BNT VMready switches are deployed in conjunction
with IBM Power systems running PowerVM virtual machines.
For further details on the VMready feature
on IBM BNT switches, refer to the Hardware Announcement 111-077, dated April 12, 2011.
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Refer to Software Announcement 210-196, dated October 07, 2010,
for product details and ordering information.
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Program number Program name
5765-PVX IBM PowerVM Express® Edition V2.2
5765-PVS IBM PowerVM Standard Edition V2.2
5765-PVE IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition V2.2
Business Partner information
If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products
from IBM, you may link directly to Business Partner information for
this announcement. A PartnerWorld ID and password are required (use
IBM ID).
- https://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/mem/sla.jsp?num=211-354
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For Passport Advantage® information
and charges, contact your IBM representative,
authorized IBM Business Partner,
or authorized IBM Business Partner
for Software ValueNet®,
if applicable. Additional information is also available at
- http://www.ibm.com/software/passportadvantage
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To order, contact the Americas Call Centers or your local IBM representative, or your IBM Business Partner.
To identify your local IBM representative
or IBM Business Partner, call
800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).
Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255)
Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329)
For IBM representative: callserv@ca.ibm.com
For IBM Business Partner: pwswna@us.ibm.com
Mail: IBM Teleweb Customer Support
ibm.com® Sales Execution Center, Americas North
3500 Steeles Ave. East, Tower 3/4
Markham, Ontario
Canada
L3R 2Z1
Reference: RE001
The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization,
can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products.
Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.
Trademarks
PowerVM, Power Systems and Active Memory are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM, AIX, POWER, POWER7, Express, Passport Advantage, ValueNet and ibm.com are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
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Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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ENUS211-354.PDF
