VIOS and IBM i

Two questions for IBM i shops: Are you reluctant to use a VIO server and attach it to your SAN, even though your SAN isn't supported directly by IBM i? Do you end up telling yourself that internal disks give you better performance?

If so, this document might help alleviate your fears.

It covers different topics related to IBM i virtualization and open storage, including how to use an IBM i partition to host another IBM i partition:

"An IBM i 6.1/7.1 LPAR can host one or more additional IBM i LPARs, known as virtual client LPARs. Virtual client partitions typically have no physical I/O hardware assigned and instead leverage virtual I/O resources from the host IBM i partition. The types of hardware resources that can be virtualized by the host LPAR are disk, tape, optical and networking."

There's also this about IBM i using open storage as a client of the VIOS:

"IBM i virtual client partitions can also be hosted by VIOS. VIOS is virtualization software that runs in a separate partition with the purpose to provide virtual storage, optical, tape and networking resources to one or more client partitions. The most immediate benefit that VIOS brings to an IBM i client partition is the ability to expand its storage portfolio to use 512-byte/sector open storage. Open storage volumes (or logical units, LUNs) are physically attached to VIOS through a FC or a Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) connection and then made available to IBM i. While IBM i does not directly attach to the storage area network (SAN) in this case, as soon as open storage LUNs become available through VIOS, they are managed the same way as integrated disks or LUNs from a directly attached storage system and run IBM i on a Power blade."

Finally, something about blades:

"The third major virtualization enhancement with IBM i 6.1 is the ability to run an IBM i LPAR and its applications on a Power blade server, such as IBM BladeCenter JS12 or JS22. Running IBM i on a Power blade is beyond the scope of this paper. Refer to the IBM i on a Power Blade Readme First for a complete technical overview and implementation instructions."

The document covers supported configurations and concepts to help you visualize what I'm proposing. I'll highlight this section on 5.2 performance:

"When creating an open storage LUN configuration for IBM i as a client of VIOS, it is crucial to plan for both capacity and performance. As LUNs are virtualized for IBM i by VIOS instead of being directly connected it may seem that the virtualization layer will necessarily add a significant performance overhead. However, internal IBM performance tests clearly show that the VIOS layer adds a negligible amount of overhead to each I/O operation. Instead, the tests demonstrate that when IBM i uses open storage LUNs virtualized by VIOS, performance is almost entirely determined by the physical and logical configuration of the storage subsystem.

"The IBM Rochester, MN, performance team has run a significant number of tests with IBM i as a client of VIOS using open storage. The resulting recommendations on configuring both the open storage and VIOS are available in the latest Performance Capabilities Reference manual (PCRM)."

I find more customers that are willing to give VIOS a try. I've yet to find one that decided to switch back because performance was unacceptable.

I realize that this blog's readership is very AIX-centric, but plenty of shops run Linux and IBM i as well. It's nice to know that the frame that you're virtualizing with VIOS to run AIX can run other operating systems as well. Not that this is a new idea.

Relatedly, this survey is intended to uncover some misconceptions about the IBM i platform.

 

One Guide to the IVM, HMC and SDMC

The just-published IBM Redpaper, "IBM PowerVM Getting Started Guide," shows you how to use the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM), Hardware Management Console (HMC) and the Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) to configure your systems. It's an extremely valuable guide that's brief enough, at 104 pages, to be read quickly.

The chapters are independent, so they can be read in any order. I'll run down some highlights in posts over the next two weeks:

Chapter 1

* There's a great chart on page 2 that compares and contrasts the advantages and disadvantages for the IVM, HMC and SDMC. 

* Section 1.2 covers planning:

"Be sure to check system firmware levels on your power server and HMC or SDMC before you start. Decide if you will use Logical Volume Mirroring (LVM) -- in AIX LPARs -- or Multipath IO (MPIO) at the VIOS level. Obviously if you are running NPIV you would want to run MPIO at the AIX level. The examples in this paper use MPIO. Make sure your Fibre Channel switches and adapters are N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) capable if you will be using NPIV.

Make sure your network is properly configured.

Check the firewall rules on the HMC or SDMC.

Plan how much processor and memory you will assign to the VIOS for best performance."

* The authors recommend using a dual VIOS architecture -- two VIO servers -- to provide serviceability and scalability. So do I.

* Part of planning includes establishing a VIO slot number scheme. While the SDMC automates slot allocation, the authors illustrate their preferred scheme in Figure 1-2 on page 5.

The authors suggest a VIO slot numbering scheme where the server slot is 101, 102, 103, etc. in both VIO servers, and the client is 11, 12 connecting to VIO1, and 21 and 22 connecting to VIO2. When mapped, VIO1 would map 11 to 101, 12 to 102, and VIO2 would map 21 to 101, 22 to 102. I prefer a numbering scheme where my even-numbered adapters come from one VIOS (VIO1) and my odd-numbered adapters come from the other (VIO2), with both client and server using the same numbers. In my case I like 100, 110, 120, 130 coming from VIO1, and 101 111 121 131 coming from VIO2. Of course, you may have your own numbering scheme -- which I'd love to hear about in Comments.

* Section 1.3 covers the terminology differences between Power- and x86-based systems, which can be handy for someone with little or no background managing power systems. This can help them make the transition in terminology between the two.

* Section 1.4 lists some prerequisites for setting up the machines:

"Check that:

• Your HMC or SDMC (the hardware or the virtual appliance) is configured, up, and running.

• Your HMC or SDMC is connected to the new server's HMC port. We suggest either a private network or a direct cable connection.

• The TCP port 657 is open between the HMC/SDMC and the Virtual Server in order to enable Dynamic Logical Partition functionality.

•    You have IP addresses properly assigned for the HMC, and SDMC.

•    The Power Server is ready to power on.

All your equipment is connected to 802.3ad capable network switches with link aggregation enabled. Refer to the Chapter 5: Advanced Configuration on page 75 for more details.

Fibre Channel fabrics are redundant. Refer to Chapter 5: Advanced Configuration on page 75 for more details.

Ethernet network switches are redundant.

SAN storage for virtual servers (logical partitions) is ready to be provisioned."

Chapter 5

 

The next three chapters are devoted to the specific approaches you might choose to take. Chapter 2 covers the IVM, Chapter 3 the HMC and Chapter 4 the SDMC. I'll dissect those options next week. For now I'll briefly discuss Chapter 5 (Advanced Configuration):

"This chapter describes additional configurations to a dual Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) setup and highlights other advanced configuration practices. The advanced setup addresses performance concerns over the single and dual VIOS setup.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Adapter ID numbering scheme
• Partition numbering
• VIOS partition and system redundancy
• Advanced VIOS network setup
• Advanced storage connectivity
• Shared processor pools
• Live Partition Mobility
• Active Memory Sharing
• Active Memory Deduplication
• Shared storage pools"

* Table 5-1 illustrates an example of virtual SCSI adapter ID allocations.

* Section 5.4 covers advanced VIOS network setup, including link aggregation and VLAN tagging:

"The VIOS partition is not restricted to only one SEA adapter. It can host multiple SEA adapters where:

A company security policy may advise a separation of VLANs so that one SEA adapter will host secure networks and another SEA adapter will host unsecure networks.

A company may advise a separation of production, testing, and development networks connecting to specific SEA adapter configurations.

"There are considerations regarding the use of IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation, 802.1Q VLAN

tagging, and SEA:

There is a maximum of 8 active ports and 8 standby ports in an 802.3ad Link Aggregation device.

Each of the links in a 803.3ad Link Aggregation device should have their speeds set to a common speed setting. For example, set all links to 1g/Full duplex.

A virtual Ethernet adapter is capable of supporting up to 20 VLANS (including the Port Virtual LAN ID - PVID).

A maximum of 16 virtual Ethernet adapters with 20 VLANS assigned to each adapter can be associated to an SEA adapter.

A maximum of 256 virtual Ethernet adapters can be assigned to a single virtual server, including the VIOS partitions.

The IEEE 802.1Q standard supports a maximum of 4096 VLANS. SEA failover is not supported in IVM as it only supports a single VIOS partition."

Whether you set up IBM Power Systems all the time or you're just getting started with the platform, this Redpaper is an excellent resource for learning or reviewing the relevant technology and terminology.

What to Say About What You Do

This recent Anthony English post got me thinking. When someone asked him what he did, he wasn't sure how to respond. How do you answer that question? Can you explain what you do in a nice 30-second elevator pitch?

Luckily for me, Watson recently made a repeat appearance on "Jeopardy!" Watson has become the basis for my "pitch": I simply tell people I work on the same servers that they saw on TV with Alex Trebek.

Of course, I'll never be able to count on "my" servers appearing on television with any regularity, so I still need other ways to explain to others how I make my living. Or do I? As I've noted previously, telling people you work on computers can have some unwanted consequences. In their minds my admission is their opening to ask me to come over and resurrect their old, possibly virus-ridden machines. ("Can’t you just add a hard drive or memory or something?") I generally counter those requests by explaining that I work on large enterprise servers running enterprise operating systems--in other words, small machines aren't my specialty. Of course to a lot of folks, a computer is a computer.

(As an aside, why is it considered bad form to ask your doctor and lawyer acquaintances for free legal or medical advice, but few think twice about asking computer nerds they know for free help? Maybe they figure we have nothing better to do. Maybe we need to start quoting our hourly rates.)

So what do you say when you're asked what you do? Do you talk about a typical day at work (one where machines haven't blown up)? I've heard a system administrator liken his job to a plumber's: nobody notices or needs one until something stinks. (That's figuratively, one can only hope, in the admin's case.)

If you're reading this blog, I figure you're involved with provisioning machines. You may not have built them, but you do care for them day to day. Interacting with your machines as much as you do, over time you may even get close to them. However, eventually you must put them out of their misery and upgrade to newer gear. (Another aside: It's actually funny how quickly this cycle can run. You just installed the fastest, shiniest new hardware, but in a few short years you're yearning for that new, state-of-the-art box.)

Ultimately, the way I explain what I do depends entirely on my audience and their frame of reference. To those in the industry, it's simple: I start by saying I sell and install IBM's Power hardware line and specialize in AIX. But to non-industry folks, I can't have their eyes glazing over from my tales of patching, upgrading, installing, cabling, provisioning and deploying machines. Not to mention backups, restores, clones, LUNs, mirrors, migrations, copies, archives, scripts, cron jobs and the like. Maybe it's enough for them to know that my specialty is enterprise IBM hardware. Or maybe I just say I work with computers.

What do you do?

Thoughts on IBM's New Support Model

I assume many of you saw this e-mail recently, but if not, I'll share it here:

Dear Valued Customer,
   
We wanted to let you know about an upcoming change to our service delivery model. We know that you have come to rely on us for a high-quality remote technical support experience with access to a skilled technical representative, and we can assure you that this model change will not detract from that experience.

Effective Sept. 1, 2011, requests for remote technical support for AIX and Storage software products, entitled to base support, will receive a callback from a technical support representative in lieu of a live call transfer. This change will ensure a specialist with the required skills is assigned to your problem and create a more consistent remote software support experience across all IBM software products.

Clients with enhanced support (formerly called premium support) will continue to have live call transfer by using an assigned DAC (Direct Access Code). If your business requires a live call transfer solution, please consider one of our enhanced support offerings which includes a responsiveness component in addition to many pro-active elements to help promote IT stability.

All IBM clients with technical support contracts can open support requests electronically via IBM's web based Service Request (SR) tool. This option allows you to provide very detailed information about your issue and environment. Electronic service requests are handled with the same priority as one submitted by phone. Regardless of your call entry choice, the service request will be routed to the appropriate technical support team and they will respond with either a callback or an electronic response.

If you haven’t visited the Support area of our website recently, we invite you to take a fresh look.

http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview

The IBM Support Portal offers increased access to information and solutions that will help to manage your IT environment. You can now customize your IBM Support Portal to meet your specific product information needs and ensure the resources you require are always at your fingertips.

All of us at the IBM AIX and Storage support organization look forward to assisting you with your software technical support needs, and we thank you for doing business with IBM. Please contact your service representative if you have any questions.

Here's what I was told about how this change is designed to benefit customers:

• "IBM will be able to better align experts with client needs and more effectively solve customer problems without having to transfer clients to another resource for support. This will improve IBM's ability to be more responsive on high priority issues."

Hopefully this will mean that the first person that you talk to will be able to solve the issue, instead of needing to be transferred to different people. However, it will also be important when we open calls to give IBM good information so that the right person can call us back.

• "Maintains high client satisfaction as demonstrated in the SWMA pilot program."

• "No change in Service Level Objectives, and we will continue to meet and exceed our 2-hour response time objective on problem submission."

Keep in mind, this does NOT mean that it will take two hours to get a response, just that we should expect to have heard something back from IBM within two hours in a worst-case scenario.

• "No change in the world-class service we deliver to our clients."

• "A large percentage of clients open support calls electronically (vs. via phone) and are, as a result, already accustomed to callback mode."

I know it can be convenient to open a call online and have someone call you back, but one scenario that I run into will take some getting used to. For many customers, getting a call directly into their data center is a challenge. In many cases data center phones aren't configured to take incoming calls originating from outside of the company. And even when they are, many times IT staff don’t know the external number of this phone line. Hopefully your data center offers acceptable cell phone reception and you have a workable callback number to give IBM.

One final point: According to the letter, if we have a severity one (SEV1) problem and a system is down, we should be able to reach a duty manager and see about getting a live transfer instead of waiting for a call back.

So how do you feel about this change? Please register your thoughts in Comments, and let me know what you see as things move forward.

The Value of IBM Tech Briefings

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend an IBM technical briefing covering Power Systems and Storage Systems.

This one-day conference covered an array of information. For starters, IBMer Ian Jarman offered some stories and anecdotes about Watson and the IBM Jeopardy! Challenge.

This talk was followed by two simultaneous breakout sessions. Rolf Kocheisen and John Purcell covered IBM Systems Director, showing attendees how to install and use the solution in a live demo. Meanwhile, Bill Wiegand's presenation, "Simplify Storage Management with Virtualization," examined storage virtualization solutions, including products like XIV, V7000 and SVC.

After lunch, the conference broke into five different tracks. The storage track featured seasons covering VMware on XIV (Pete Kisich), TSM for Virtual Environments (Greg Van Hise) and Data Deduplication with ProtecTIER (Neville Yates). The AIX and IBM i track covered AIX Performance (Steve Nasypany), Oracle RAC and Oracle 11g on IBM Power Systems (Rebecca Ballough), VIO introduction for IBM i (Allyn Walsh), and IBM Storage Systems on Power (Brian Sherman).

Later sessions covered: Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) (Gary Anderson), Shared Storage Pools and VIO Server Enhancements (Ron Barker), PowerHA for IBM i (Eric Hess), Cloud Computing 101 (Jaqui Lynch), "What’s new in PowerHA for AIX?" (Shawn Bodily), NIM Master Tuning and NIM Master Group Migrations (Steve Knudson), Upgrade Planning for POWER7 Hardware and IBM i 7.1 (Allyn Walsh), and WebSphere Performance and Tuning on Power (Surya Duggirala).

So why did I list all these sessions and presenters after the fact? To illustrate the breadth of information that was presented and the technical "firepower" that delivered it. If you've worked on IBM Power Systems for any amount of time, you surely recognize at least some of the names I shared.

The point is, even though this IBM technical briefing is past, there will be others. And if you get a chance to attend an event like this -- which is free of charge, by the way -- jump at it. It's a day well-spent. I've heard people compare IBM tech briefings to drinking from a firehose -- you get so much information that it can be overwhelming -- but I'll take my chances. (Others like to joke that IBM stands for Information Between Meals. IBM teaches you, feeds you, and then moves you along to the next session where you can learn more.)

So reach out to your local IBM reps. They'll e-mail you with information on upcoming events, and they can also connect with IBM presenters to get you slides from previous sessions. They may even be able to help you bring an event like this to your area. For that matter, if you're close enough to the IBM Briefing Centers in Rochester, Minn., or Austin, Texas, simply schedule a briefing for your company.

Remember, IBM and other AIX pros have produced so many freely available resources: conferences, blogs and documentation like IBM Redbooks. It's out there, and all we need to do is ask for it or look for it.

 

The SDMC Evolution

The IBM Redbook covering the IBM Service Director Management Console (SDMC) is now available. Whether you're making the move from the HMC to the SDMC now or later, this publication will help you with your transition. It's well worth the download.

The first time I read it, I learned interesting things like:

* "The SDMC is available as a software and a hardware appliance. The software appliance will replace the Integrated Virtualization Manager, and can manage machines from the blades up to the 750 class servers. The hardware appliance is required for management of midrange systems and high-end systems. The SDMC releases can be used alongside the Hardware Management Console during trials and deployment, which eases transition."

* "The SDMC virtual machine contains Linux as the base operating system. For the software appliance, the client supplied virtualization options for different hypervisors include Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization KVM or VMware ESX/ESXi."

* Section 1.5 shows us how the terminology will evolve. Managed systems are now called servers, frames are power units, LPARs are virtual servers, the hscroot ID becomes the sysadmin ID, partition
mobility becomes relocation, etc.

* "The SDMC incorporates most functions of the Hardware Management Console. This has been done through direct mapping of commands or by replacing functions that are present already in IBM Systems Director. Some functions are not available in the first release of the SDMC, notably the ability to handle system plans."

Comment: As system plans are wonderful tools that I highly recommend, hopefully this will be fixed very quickly. From what I understand this will be addressed in one of the early service packs.

* "The command-line interface has been mostly kept the same. On the SDMC, most of the commands are just preceded by smcli. This new prefix might require changes to existing scripts that use the Hardware Management Console."

* "SDMC provides the capability to back up the whole virtual machine onto removable media or a remote FTP server. You can restore using the backup file from the removable media or from a remote FTP server. The restore will be full image deployment and all existing files will be replaced from the backup. Unlike the HMC, SDMC backs up the entire disk instead of individual files. The backup function requires that the SDMC be temporarily shut down to quiesce the disks, but it will be immediately restarted while the disk files are copied to removable media or a remote FTP server. The restore function takes under an hour to complete."

The SDMC has been a topic of discussion at workshops and IBM Technical University conference, so hopefully most customers are up on this change. It shouldn't come as a surprise.

Basically, the SDMC is still an appliance just like the HMC is today. It will run Systems Director code under the covers. The hardware will be the same CR6 that we're used to, but SDMC will require more memory and disk space. There will be two 500 GB disks running in a RAID0 setup, so be sure to backup the SDMC; these disks will not be mirrored. Although I've heard that existing CR6 machines will ultimately be upgradeable, at GA the machines will be net new. So initially, it will probably make sense to run the HMC and SDMC simultaneously until you get used to the SDMC's new capabilities.

Those new capabilities are impressive. The SDMC will be able to manage the whole POWER6 and POWER7 lineup, including blade systems. This is a much nicer alternative than the current solution of using and managing each individual blade via IVM. It's a pain to use the GUI and deal with the frequent timeouts that occur when using the IVM interface. Assuming you have sufficient resources, another thing you'll be able to do with the SDMC that can't be done with IVM is create dual VIO servers on your blades.

Finally, the SDMC will support the capability to run live partition mobility operations between blades and standalone servers and back again. This will give customers greater flexibility as far as purchasing hardware and running workloads. With this forgiving infrastructure you'll be able to move workloads around on the fly, and with dynamic logical partition operations you'll be able to adjust hardware allocations on the fly.

The SDMC transition will not be a big bang change from the HMC, but it will take some time. The rollout, in fact, is expected to take years. As is standard practice for IBM when introducing updated solutions, the HMC will continue to be supported through this transition, but over time advanced virtualization capabilities will increasingly be brought to the SDMC (and not necessarily the HMC). Customers are encouraged to try out the SDMC, make a transition plan, run it alongside the HMC and get used to it.

As noted, there is a strong thread between the two solutions. The SDMC, like the HMC, is an appliance with user management capabilities and a built-in firewall. The network topology is identical on both solutions. As with the HMC, the SDMC won't allow admins root access or the capability install software. Just as larger environments have multiple HMCs now, you'll be able to run multiple SDMCs. You'll still need an additional Systems Director server to manage your SDMC stand-alone devices and take advantage of advanced plugins like Active Energy Manager or VMControl.

SDMC availability is planned for May 13.

So what do you think of this change? When do you expect to see an SDMC in your environment?

Getting Started With NPIV

NPIV isn't new functionality, but plenty of customers are only just now getting started with it. I know this because lately, I'm hearing a lot about NPIV. In response to the numerous queries coming my way, I searched and found this excellent IBM Support document on configuring NPIV:

"N_Port ID Virtualization or NPIV is a Fibre Channel facility allowing multiple N_Port IDs to share a single physical N_Port. This allows multiple Fibre Channel initiators to occupy a single physical port,
easing hardware requirements in Storage Area Network design. An NPIV-capable fibre channel HBA can have multiple N_Port IDs, each with a unique identity and world wide port name."

Compared to using virtual SCSI devices (vSCSI), storage management is greatly simplified with NPIV. NPIV allows AIX admins to zone a LUN to a particular client LPAR directly, rather than use VIOS as a middleman. So with NPIV and SEA, the VIO servers handle the shared Ethernet and NPIV duties. Best of all, there's no need to map and track LUNs -- that duty can be left with the SAN team where it belongs.

In contrast, when using vSCSI with VIO servers, your lsmap –all output can be a mess to manage if a large number of LUNs are being mapped through your VIOS to client LPARs. I've seen servers with hundreds of LUNs being presented to the VIOS. In those cases, the AIX admins must manage the subsets of LUNs that are then mapped to individual VIO clients. All that disk-mapping must be tracked, and I've seen many different spreadsheets and documents that attempt to do this.

In a typical scenario, two VIO servers will be set up (so that one can be serviced or restarted without these activities impacting the client LPARs). A fibre card or two is usually attached to each VIO server. Then the SAN team can zone the VIO servers to the SAN using the World Wide Name (WWN) information from the physical adapters. This results in a pile of LUNs that AIX admins must map to the appropriate VIO clients. To make all of the LUNs accessible from both VIO servers, each LUN's no reserve attribute must be set. So the admins end up doing the mappings twice, once on each VIO server.

On top of that, admins must pay attention to PVIDs or LUN IDs to ensure that the disk that's mapped on VIOS1 is the same one mapped on VIOS2. Having the no reserve attribute set on the disk can open up a potential disaster if the same LUN is accidentally mapped to different clients. If two different clients are booting from the same LUN, it's time to look for a mksysb and do a restore.

One plus with vSCSI is that MPIO software only needs to be loaded on the VIO server. The VIO clients usually just use the built-in AIX MPIO software as they have no visibility to the disks other than recognizing that they're virtual SCSI disks.

From this lengthy explanation on vSCSI, you might have already figured that NPIV, once you have it set up, is much easier to use. And you're correct. With NPIV, virtual WWN information is created for each client LPAR. The SAN team gives LUNs to the client LPARs directly. Virtual fibre adapters must still be mapped to a particular physical fibre card in the VIO server, but admins don't need to map and track LUNs or worry about reserve locks on the LUNs. (We do, however, need to remember to load the MPIO software into the client LPARs, because the clients do recognize the disks and the storage subsystems from which they come.)

I'll have more NPIV info next week, so stay tuned.

IBM Product Preview

IBM is conducting what it calls a "product preview" today. The subject of this preview is new hardware that is expected to be rolled out later this year.

I received this information during a recent conference call with IBM.

First, there will be a new POWER7 high-performance computing machine, the Model 775. As you'd expect, this machine is based on POWER7 processors, which come with eight cores per socket running at 3.8 GHz. The 775 will be packaged with a Quad Core Module (QCM). A QCM consists of four POWER7 chips; thus, each QCM will have 32 cores.

IBM will then take the QCMs and integrate them into what they call a drawer, or a node. A 2U drawer will have eight QCMs, giving us 256 (8x32) total cores in an efficient, densely packed 2U form factor. You'll be able to have 2TB of memory per node, and IBM estimates peak performance of 7.8 teraflops in a 2U package.

The machine will have a high-speed interconnect fabric, which allows these 2U nodes to be connected using an optical interconnect. This will provide the capability to connect to a total of four drawers (IBM calls this a supernode) consisting of 1,024 cores. Twelve nodes will fit in a rack, with a maximum of 24 TB per rack and a peak performance of 95 teraflops in the rack. Optical interconnects allow for connecting supernodes together -- as of now customers could have as many as 512 supernodes (or 524,000 cores) running at an estimated 15 petaflops at peak performance.

The 775 will be a quiet machine, because it will have fewer fans. It will be water-cooled with 100 percent heat capture. The 775 is expected to be used for climate and weather modeling and prediction, life sciences, nuclear resource management, and financial services.

Here are some other things that grabbed my attention:

* The 795 is expected to have new capabilities that allow for hot node add, hot memory upgrades and repair. You'll also see concurrent GX adapter add and hot GX adapter repair, along with concurrent system controller repair. The maximum number of partitions that can be created on a frame will increase to 1,000 on the 795, 640 on the 770 and 780, and 320 on the 750. Relatedly, when active energy manager is used with these machines, administrators will be able to set up energy policy definitions by partition rather than by system, so different policies can enable energy savings while maintaining performance.

* New blades are planned. There will be a new single-wide Model 703 blade with a maximum of 16 cores running at 2.4Ghz and 128 GB of memory. There will also be double-wide Model 704 blades, which consist of 32 cores running at 2.4GHz and a maximum of 256 GB of memory. The 703 is expected to have one hard disk bay, and you can choose either an HDD or an SSD. The 704 will have two disk drive bays, so you can have either two HDDs or four SSDs. The blades would provide the capability to run both traditional rotating hard drives and SSD drives. These new blades are expected to run in BladeCenter H, HT or S chassis.

* The Model 750 will be refreshed with new processor options, including 4-core 3.7 GHz, 6-core 3.7 GHz and 8-core 3.2 and 3.6 GHz options. The 750 will still have four sockets and 512 GB of memory per machine.

* Support for dual VIO servers across all of the POWER7 blades will be enabled through the new Systems Director Management Console (SDMC). SDMC will be used to enable active memory expansion on the blades. There will also be support for running live partition mobility operations between blades and rack servers, which will open up a whole new way to manage workloads. The SDMC will run on familiar CR6 hardware, although with beefier disk and memory requirements.

The SDMC enhancements mean we'll no longer need to run IVM to manage our blades, and since we'll be able to run dual VIO servers, this will make blade offerings a much more attractive option to many customers. In addition, because IBM is making the SDMC the next-generation management console for Power systems, the HMC will be phased out over the next several years. (Although the HMC and IVM are expected to be kept current with new Power systems models into 2013, they will not incorporate future advanced management capabilities.) During the transition period, customers will be able to run the SDMC side by side with existing HMCs until they're ready to switch permanently.

On the call it was stressed that the SDMC is meant to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. In other words, IBM says it will give customers ample time to make this transition. And really, this shouldn't come as a surprise. For awhile now, I've been hearing that "the HMC is going away" at conferences and workshops I've attended.

The SDMC will manage POWER6 and POWER7 servers, and there will be a virtual appliance version for small-tier systems. The SDMC will utilize the Systems Director user interface. It will support a superset of HMC capabilities, integrate platform and OS management, and maintain compatibility for CLI and scripting support.

I'll write more about this in the near future, but rest assured this solution will make it much easier to manage an entire computing environment -- including servers and blades -- from a central location. In addition, read IBM Systems Magazine for more details about the SDMC (a cover story is planned for the May 2011 issue). And an IBM Redbook on the SDMC is expected to be ready later this month.

* Another interesting option that I saw was an SAS disk-only I/O drawer (the EXP24S) that could house up to 24 SFF drives in a 2U form factor. This I/O drawer would allow you to partition the drawer into four different sets of disks, thus making it easier to present a smaller group of disks in the drawer to different partitions. This could be a nice option if you're not using a SAN but still need access to more external storage.

* Finally, IBM highlighted a change to the Power systems landing page on its website. Look for this URL: www.ibm.com/power.

So what do you think of these planned solutions? I expect there to be plenty of discussion around the HMC and SDMC as we learn more in the coming months.  Please leave your thoughts in Comments.

Watson's Impact

The IBM Jeopardy! challenge has ended, the experience succinctly summarized with Ken Jennings' words after Final Jeopardy: "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords."

I heard that the project was originally code-named bluej. IBM code names are meant to be placeholders, but still, I'm glad they went with the name Watson. Hearing that bluej beat Jennings doesn't have the same ring, and somehow, I'm not sure the Ken Jennings reddit AMA (ask me anything) would have been quite as interesting. (Warning: comments may not be safe for work.)

Here's another reddit AMA with Watson team members.

Though the buzz has naturally subsided, interest is still strong. From what I understand there remains a huge demand for Watson team members to speak at different events. Really, just about any conference you may attend in the near future -- Pulse, Impact, Innovate: SWG Events, STG Technical Conferences, COMMON Minneapolis, Power User Groups, Smarter Computing Summit, LinuxCon, University Events and many more -- will feature presentations and demos.

There of course has been tons of discussion about what Watson's victory means for humanity, including, already, a book.

The Jeopardy Archive breaks down Watson’s win (here, here and here).

Recently I saw the webcast, "Beyond Jeopardy!: The Business Implications of IBM Watson." The participants explore potential real-world uses of this information processing technology (healthcare, for example).

Thanks to Watson, lately I find myself talking about Power systems with non-technical people. Generally, these folks would have a hard time imagining what I do for a living, but because they saw Alex Trebek in the computer room with those servers and computer racks, I found I could more easily explain what I do: "I rack and stack and configure and sell those 750s you saw on Jeopardy!, along with the rest of the IBM Power server product line."

By the way, Watson may have won the challenge, but it isn't undefeated. Rush Holt, the New Jersey
congressman and a Jeopardy! champ from the 1970s, recently beat a slightly slower Watson version. From CNN:

"After beating Watson $8,600 to $6,200, Holt expressed admiration for the machine, saying the technology has the potential to be extremely useful in situations that require tough decision-making, such as medical diagnosis, air traffic control, and situations that require piecing together bits of knowledge.

"Such technology can also be extremely helpful in emergencies, like an outbreak of a food-borne illness or a natural disaster, said Chris Padilla, vice president of IBM Governmental Programs.

"'In the modern world, we're all flooded with information,' Padilla said. 'What Watson can do, is go through all of that data, and in response to a natural language question, rank the order of likely responses in terms of what you asked it in the first place.'"

IBM has a web page filled with interesting facts. For instance, during preliminary sparring matches Watson only used 75 percent of its processing resources. And did you know that a computer with a single processing core takes more than two hours to perform the deep analytics needed to answer a single Jeopardy! clue? Watson, in contrast, holds all the information that it needs to compete on Jeopardy! in about 500 GB of space. You'll also find flash animations of the machine on stage, a graphic depicting the physical server layout and links to Watson's architecture, workload, energy storage and network usage and more.

Finally, check out IBM's Watson website and this whitepaper.

I expect Watson will be talked about for quite some time, both for what it did and for what it
can potentially do. Are you still following Watson? Did you enjoy seeing POWER7 machines on prime time television? Are your non-technical friends actually interested in what you do now? Feel free to post in Comments.

#watson

IBM's New Software Compatibility Tool

IBM has come out with a new software compatibility website.

I learned of this site from a mailing list, which offers this description:

"Clarity is the new tool based on Clearing House data designed to allow users to easily generate custom reports about compatible IBM software combinations.... Using this tool customers may create reports about a product's compatibility with operating systems, prerequisite software or virtualization environments. They can also generate EOS reports for [IBM] products."

When you go to the site you'll find lists of available reports, including:

* Operating systems for a specific product.
* Prerequisites of a specific product.
* Virtualization environments supporting a product.

I was interested in "Products that use a specific operating system," so I selected "Products supported by AIX 6.1 POWER System." (Options ranged from the current AIX 7.1 and back as far as AIX 4.3.)

The tool produced a report displaying a list of products that were supported, under headings with names like:

* Information Management (DB2, InfoSphere, Informix)
* Lotus (Domino, Mashups, Quickr)
* Rational (Asset Manager, ClearCase, COBOL)
* Tivoli (Access Manager, Configuration Manager)
* WebSphere (Application Server, Business Monitor)

I didn't count the number of products listed in the report, but it was several pages worth of information. Besides the software name, it also displayed the versions that were supported. (To my surprise, some of these products -- including Tivoli Access Manager, DB2 and Informix -- support AIX 4.3.) This is a great way to quickly determine which levels of software are supported by a particular operating system version.

Using checkmarks or greyed-out checkmarks as indicators, this report also broke down each product in this manner:

* "This operating system is supported by all parts of the product."
* "This operating system is supported by some of the parts of the product."

Also available on the software compatibility site is a software end-of-service tool. For fun look at the end of service dates on VIOS: You'll see the general availability date along with the time (e.g., 2012 third quarter) products are expected to reach end of service. And by adjusting the tool's start dates, you can see when the product came on the market and when it will go end of service in a graphical format.

I'm always interested in new ways to look at data, so if you run your own sample reports, let me know what you find.