Executive overview
Virtualization technologies can help provide IBM clients with technical and economic opportunities to improve their IT effectiveness while reducing costs. IBM has been and continues to be a leader in virtualization by providing robust virtualization technologies on the System z and the Power Systems platforms and by supporting leading virtualization technologies for the System x platform. And IBM led the industry in providing additional support to clients looking for economic benefits from virtualization by introducing sub-capacity licensing on the System z platform in 2001 and on distributed systems in 2005..
In response to the significant increase in virtualization technologies now available to its clients, IBM has established a set of virtualization environments for servers that we will support across our multi-platform product portfolio for servers. These virtualization environments consist of the operating system and the virtualization technology. This information is intended to help clients plan their strategic deployment environments for applications and achieve the economic benefits available through server consolidation.
Support Virtualization Environments across the portfolio
As clients continue to virtualize more of their IT infrastructure, IBM is committed to supporting them in these efforts. Responding to client demand, IBM is taking steps to support the following server virtualization environments across our multi-platform product portfolio for servers. Exceptions may occur when a product is designed to run only in a particular operating environment, or when other special constraints exist:
- IBM® Processor Resource/System Manager (PR/SM™) hypervisor with IBM z/OS®or Linux® operating systems*
- IBM z/VM® hypervisor with z/OS or Linux operating systems*
- IBM PowerVM™ hypervisor with IBM AIX® operating system
- VMware ESX Server with Windows® or Linux* operating systems
- Red Hat KVM** with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system
- SUSE KVM*** with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) operating system
- Hyper-V with Microsoft Windows® operating system
- Native Windows® or Linux* operating systems
Support Virtualization Environments by selected product portfolios
The following server virtualization environments are supported by a group of IBM products uniquely selected for each of these markets. As other virtualization environments mature and as market demand changes, this list may change:
- PowerVM hypervisor with IBM i operating system
- PowerVM hypervisor with Linux* operating system
- AIX operating system with Workload Partitions (WPARs)
Other environments
Virtualization environments not listed above may be supported on an IBM product-by-product basis, as market demand for the product changes.
Supporting a virtualized environment
If an IBM software product supports a particular virtualization environment, it is designed to:
- Install successfully in that virtualization environment.
- Run in that virtualization environment without losing function or significant performance.
For such a product, IBM also offers the following benefits:
- Licensing support: The product can be licensed under the IBM sub-capacity license for Processor Value Unit (PVU) based offerings
- Technical Support: IBM Remote Technical Support can be obtained under the usual IBM support terms and conditions. If during problem investigation, IBM determines that the issue is the result of an IBM software defect that has not been reported before, we will accept defect requests. If a problem is identified with the virtualization technology, IBM will work with the technology vendor where possible to try to resolve virtualization problems.
- Performance Support: The product's performance in virtualization environments will be considered during the development process.
For information about products running in virtualization environments, refer to the Software Product Compatibility Report. This information will be updated regularly to reflect combinations that are currently supported and those that will be added over time.
* Includes both Red Hat (RHEL) and SUSE (SLES) Linux versions
** Red Hat KVM as delivered in RHEL or RHEV-H
*** SUSE KVM as delivered in SLES
RHEL: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
SLES: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
PR/SM: Processor Resource/System Manager
How to determine policy implications by product or virtualization environment
While the high level policy description above is helpful, we believe many clients will want to know which virtualization environments (hypervisors and guest operating systems) are supported for specific IBM software products, or which IBM software products support specific virtualization environments. We have enabled a query tool that uses the latest data from our product development teams to help you answer these questions. Generally these reports provide the information at a version/release level for both the product and the virtualization environment.
To obtain information:
-
Use the "Hypervisor reports" available on the Software Product Compatibility Report page to determine one of the following:
- the hypervisors that are supported by a specific product
- the products support a specific hypervisor
- the hypervisor(s) that are supported by a specific set of products
- Select the most appropriate report type and fill in the information starting at the top of the resulting page. When you have completed your selections click the submit button to view the report for your selection(s).
If you have additional questions concerning the resulting information please contact your IBM software sales representative.
