IBM Sticks with the HMC

So the SDMC evolution was upon us. I took my test drive. But then, just like that, it's over. The HMC has apparently survived.

Nigel Griffiths (mr_nmon) posted these tweets:

• "SDMC withdrawn as IBM listens to customers. SDMC only functions like dual VIOS+AME for Blades go in the next HMC version. Long live the HMC."
• "I had better add: SDMC owners needing Blade functions it is supported for 2 more yrs & you can convert to HMC (same HW) at your convenience."

 What exactly is going on?

Start with these announcement letters (here and here). IBM is no longer selling SDMC units. The SDMC hardware indicator is going away. The SDMC and SDMC virtual appliances are also going away, although they'll be supported through April 2015.

IBM has announced this statement of direction:

"IBM intends to enhance its systems management capabilities for Power Systems hardware as follows:

• Continued integration between the base platform management capabilities in HMC and advanced capabilities in IBM Systems Director
• Enhancement of the HMC to add support for Power Systems blades and mixed rack and blade server environments
• New HMC virtual appliance offering
• New process for transitioning from SDMC to HMC
• Improved usability"

I, for one, look forward to running the HMC appliance in smaller environments.

This FAQ includes the following, but read the entire document as I didn't copy everything:

"Why is this change being made?

"Clients have asked IBM to continue enhancing the HMC, which is a trusted, secure and dedicated management appliance for Power Systems. At the same time, due to the rapid increase in adoption of advanced virtualization and cloud solutions by Power Systems clients, IBM plans to continue enhancing the virtualization management capabilities of the Systems Director management server software.

"What are the options for clients using an SDMC?

"Clients currently using an SDMC for management can either convert it to an HMC (at no charge) immediately, or continue using the SDMC and convert it at a more convenient time in the future. The SDMC will continue to be supported by IBM until April 2015.

"What are the options for clients using Power blades?

"Clients currently using an SDMC for managing Power blades can continue using it or switch to using IVM instead. When the new release of the HMC (featuring blade support) is available, they can then convert the SDMC to an HMC at no charge.

"Are hardware changes required to convert an SDMC to an HMC?

"The SDMC is based on the same hardware as the HMC, and no hardware changes are required to make the conversion. After converting an SDMC to an HMC, clients can benefit from the additional memory and disk capacity.

"Will endpoint management licenses be required for the HMC?

"No.

"What happens to support agreements after clients convert an SDMC into an HMC?

"SDMC clients with current SWMA contracts may contact IBM Support for assistance before, during and after the HMC conversion process. When their SWMA is due for renewal, clients who have converted an SDMC to HMC should renew using the HMC Machine Control Program Remote Support
Agreement (MCRSA).

"How can a client using SDMC to manage Power blades transition to using IVM?

"As an alternative to the SDMC, clients can manage Power blades with the IVM. However, the IVM has limitations (compared to the SDMC and HMC) and cannot support dual VIOS configurations.

This IBM Redpaper covers SDMC-to-HMC migrations.

Basically you prepare for the migration by gathering IP addresses, verifying passwords, backing up profiles and then removing managed systems and frames from the SDMC. You download the HMC code and service packs (or order it on media) and then install the HMC code. I understand IBM will soon come out with video demonstrations of this process.

Keep in mind that none of this affects the FlexSystems Manager that will be used with the newly announced IBM PureFlex systems. I'll get into that topic soon.

So what are your thoughts about this change? Had you done much with the SDMC, or were you taking a wait and see attitude?

IVM, HMC and SDMC Continued

Continuing from last week, here's more on the recently released IBM Redpaper, "IBM PowerVM Getting Started Guide."

Chapter 2: IVM

From the authors:

"IBM developed the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) as a server management solution that performs a subset of the HMC and SDMC features for a single server, avoiding the need for a dedicated HMC or SDMC server. IVM manages a single stand-alone server -- a second server managed by IVM has its own instance of IVM installed. With the subset of HMC and SDMC server functionality, IVM provides a solution that enables the administrator to quickly set up a server. IVM is integrated within the Virtual I/O Server product, which services I/O, memory, and processor virtualization in IBM Power Systems.

"There are many environments that need small partitioned systems, either for test reasons or for specific requirements, for which the HMC and SDMC solutions are not ideal. A sample situation is where there are small partitioned systems that cannot share a common HMC or SDMC because they are in multiple locations.

"IVM is a simplified hardware management solution that inherits most of the HMC features. It manages a single server, avoiding the need for an independent personal computer. It is designed to provide a solution that enables the administrator to reduce system setup time and to make hardware management easier, at a lower cost.

"When not using either the HMC or the SDMC, VIOS takes control of all the hardware resources. There is no need to create a specific partition for the VIOS. When VIOS is installed using the default settings, it installs on the server’s first internal disk controller and onto the first disk on that controller. IVM is part of VIOS and activated when VIOS is installed without an HMC or SDMC."

Chapter 2 continues with details on IVM installation.

I wish this chapter would include screen shots. (There are screen shots in chapters 3-4.) The Redpaper describes the steps, but for those unfamiliar with the interface it might be confusing. Some screen shots could help.

Chapter 3: HMC

More from the authors:

"Note: There is flexibility for you to plan your own adapter numbering scheme. The Maximum virtual adapters setting needs to be set in the Virtual Adapters window to allow for your numbering scheme. The maximum setting is 65535 but the higher the setting, the more memory the managed system reserves to manage the adapters."

They cover the three VIOS installation methods: DVD, via the HMC (using the installios command) and via Network Installation Manager (NIM). One of the notes says:

"Interface en5 is the SEA adapter created in 3 on page 29. Alternatively, an additional virtual adapter may be created for the VIOS remote connection, or another physical adapter may be used (it will need to be cabled) for the TCP/IP remote connection. TCP and UDP port 657 must be open between the HMC and the VIOS. This is a requirement for DLPAR (using RMC protocol)."

I know when I set up shared Ethernet adapters on VIO servers, I like to add an additional virtual Ethernet adapter to put my VIO IP address on. This allows me to perform maintenance on my VIOS and SEA without an outage, as the network traffic goes out my backup SEA on my other VIOS.

Section 3.2 covers setting up dual VIO servers:

"The benefit of a dual VIOS setup is that it promotes Redundancy, Accessibility and Serviceability (RAS). It also offers load balancing capabilities for MPIO and for multi SEA configuration setups. The differences between a single and dual VIOS setup are:

The additional VIOS partition
The additional virtual Ethernet adapter used as the SEA Control Channel adapter per VIOS
Setting the trunk priority on the virtual Ethernet adapters used for bridging to physical adapters in an SEA configuration."

The authors explain how to move from a single VIO SEA to a dual VIO scenario by adding the control channel adapter using this command:

   chdev -dev ent5 -attr ctl_chan=ent6 ha_mode=auto

They also mention that we can run commands on the VIO command line or use cfgassist, which is similar to smitty in AIX.

Section 3.3 covers setting up virtual fibre. The authors argue that virtual SCSI disks be used for rootvg and NPIV be used for data LUNs:

"Virtual Fibre Channel allows disks to be assigned directly to the client partitions from the SAN storage system. With virtual SCSI, the disks are assigned to the VIOS partition before they are mapped to a virtual SCSI adapter.

"The preference is to still use virtual SCSI for client partition operating system disk, and use virtual Fibre Channel for the data. The reasons for using virtual SCSI for client partition operating system disks are:

* When the disks are assigned VIOS first, they can be checked before having them mapped to a client. Whereas using virtual Fibre Channel this cannot be determined until the client partition is loaded from an installation source.

* Operating systems such as AIX and Linux have their kernels running in memory. If serious SAN issues are being experienced, the VIOS will first detect the problem and sever the link to the client partition. The client partition will halt abruptly reducing any risk to data corruption. With operating systems using virtual Fibre Channel or physical Fibre Channel, the partition will remain running for a period. During that period the client partition is susceptible to data corruption.

* Operating system disks using virtual SCSI are not reliant on external device drivers whereas operating system disks using virtual Fibre Channel are. When it comes to upgrading the external device drivers, the client partitions would need to follow special procedures to upgrade."

Chapter 4: SDMC

From the authors:

"The IBM Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) provides system administrators the ability to manage IBM Power System servers as well as IBM Power Blade servers. The SDMC organizes tasks in a single panel that simplifies views of systems and day-to-tay tasks. The SDMC is also designed to be integrated into the administrative framework of IBM Systems Director.

"The SDMC can automatically handle the slot allocation of virtual adapters for the user. With the SDMC the user can choose to either let the SDMC manage the slot allocations, or use the traditional manual mechanism to allocate the virtual adapter IDs."

According to section 4.1.4, setting up an SEA failover configuration is a simple GUI operation when using SDMC:

 

 

Select the primary VIOS, the physical adapter you want to use and the backup VIO and its physical adapter. Then hit OK:

"The SDMC automatically creates the SEA adapters on both VIOS1 and VIOS2. The SDMC will also configure the control channel as a part of this step. The virtual Ethernet adapter with the highest VLAN ID is used for the SEA control channel."

This should remove the possibility of errors arising from setting up the control channels manually.

Although you can do the same with the HMC GUI, I still prefer to manage things on the command line.

The publication has much more. It's well worth your time.

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.

Verifying Microcode Levels

As great as POWER7 servers are, plenty of older machines still run AIX. And as great as that is, even better is that, through the use of certain tools, you can easily verify that these older machines are running the latest versions of system firmware and microcode.

Recently a "Top Gun" CE reminded me about the Microcode Discovery Service. It's a handy tool that allows you to see if your microcode is up to date.

From IBM Support:

"Microcode Discovery Service [MDS] is used to determine if microcode installed on your IBM System p or RS/6000 systems is at the latest level.

"MDS relies on an AIX utility called Inventory Scout. Inventory Scout is installed by default on all AIX 5 systems, and also on some later levels of AIX 4.3."

As noted by IBM, there are three ways to run MDS:

• Run a signed Java applet that connects to Inventory Scout daemon processes on hosts to be surveyed.
• Run Inventory Scout either manually or by script, and upload the resulting survey files to the MDS website for analysis. Refer to the User's Guide for instructions on running Inventory Scout.
• The MDS Microcode CD-ROM is recommended for systems that are not internet connected. An image of this CD-ROM is available online, or you can order a physical disk. For more information or to download a CD-ROM image of this tool, visit: MDS Microcode CD-ROM.

Under the heading, "Preparing to use the Microcode Directory Service," there's a description of the Inventory Scout:

"Inventory Scout is a utility that runs on System p hosts. For AIX version 5 and later it is part of the standard install. In case it is not installed, refer to the User's Guide for instructions. ...

"The MDS applet is capable of performing surveys of more than one host at a time, and creating a combined microcode report. If using the MDS applet, then the following additional conditions must be met.

• "Each host to be surveyed must be running Inventory Scout in a daemon process. These daemon processes are not started by default. Refer to the User's Guide for instructions on how to configure Inventory Scout to run as a daemon.
• "Java support must be enabled in your browser. To enable this support, see the Preferences or Tools options on your browser.
• "Your company must allow applets to establish TCP connections to the hosts to be surveyed."

I clicked on the applet option

 

and allowed it to run:
 


This screen allows you to add a host and give it an IP address, password and (optionally) the port if you've changed it.
 



If the wrong IP address is entered, you'll get this screen.


 

I ran passwd on the invscout userid so that I knew the password for the invscout account. Then I ran invscoutd –d100000 on the command line of the machine I was going to scan so I could activate the daemon and get it to listen for the applet to connect. Originally invscoutd was listening for 50,000 bytes. It needs to listen for 100,000 bytes, which is why the –d flag is required.

Once I successfully added the host, I clicked start:




That brought up this report.



It found three devices and displayed the system firmware that needed to be updated. I clicked the link and copied the files to the machine that was running the applet. Then I moved those files over to the Power system that needed to be updated.

In my case I created /tmp/mcode, and copied the files to that directory. Then I ran rpm –ivh -–ignoreos *.rpm to get the information and microcode loaded into the /etc/microcode directory.

Next, I ran diag, task selection:

On this screen, I selected the "Microcode Tasks" option:

Then I selected "Download Latest Available Microcode" and hit enter:

Since I ran the rpm command earlier, I knew the files should be in /etc/microcode. I selected that option:

Then I selected "All Resources" and then hit the F7 key to let the microcode install:

 


I actually updated the system firmware via the HMC, though I could have used the command line if my system wasn't managed by an HMC. Once my updates were complete, I reran the MDS applet. No further updates were needed:

 

Of course there are other methods for verifying that your microcode is up to date. How do you prefer to do this in your environment?

We Could All Use Extra Capacity

I was recently delayed at the San Jose airport. Such is the life of a consultant.

The problem this particular day was dense fog. Airplanes could take off, but, per FAA rules, they weren't allowed to land. My flight was coming from Reno, stopping in San Jose and continuing to Las Vegas. But with the fog, the plane was rerouted straight to Las Vegas. That left me and a bunch of other passengers to fend for ourselves.

Luckily I was able to book tickets for a flight later that day. (Given my many miles logged with this particular airline, they were pretty accomodating.) I made some different connections through different cities and arrived home some six hours later than planned. Unsurprisingly, my checked luggage didn't accompany me. It showed up the next day (which is why I generally only take along what I can carry on). But at least I was able to complete my travels in one day.

As a frequent flyer, I've been through worse. Several times I couldn't get directly home. I had to fly into a nearby airport and take the train the rest of the way. Once I ended up in a rental car with three strangers as we drove from Pittsburgh to Chicago (again, fog was the issue). I've also shared a rental car with fellow weary travelers between Fresno and San Francisco.

Being stranded at the airport does give a person time to think. For instance, while I sat in San Jose, I thought how great it would be if, whenever a flight is delayed or diverted, a spare plane with a standby crew standing would be instantly available to take passengers to their destination.

Imagine a snowstorm or other weather event that causes disruptions throughout an entire region over several days. In my fantasy world there would be lightly loaded planes with available seats so everyone could rebook with little worry or hassle. In an even more perfect world, this extra capacity would be available at every airport, at any time. If one plane has a mechanical problem, another would be ready to go. And in peak travel times -- say, Thanksgiving week -- extra planes could be deployed as needed to satisfy the additional demand.

So basically, I was thinking how awesome it'd be if flying was like Power Systems hardware.

Just think about that. Think about capabilities like Capacity on Demand (COD), micropartitioning and shared processor pools. Think about how the hypervisor, on a millisecond by millisecond basis, can redistribute workloads and efficiently utilize the processors on your machine.

Instead of sizing standalone machines for peak workloads, you can put many LPARs on a single frame to more fully utilize that machine. If you need extra capacity, it's available. If you're using COD, you can fire up dormant processors or extra memory that's already on the frame. Active memory expansion and active memory sharing allow you to do more with less physical memory. You have many options to get extra capacity built right into your systems.

Unfortunately, excess capacity was nowhere to be found on my most recent layover at the San Jose airport. But at least whenever I return from the road, I know I'll have excess capacity to handle additional workload in my computing environment.

AIX and TCO

Would you put bicycle tires on a new car? I keep hearing that analogy, and I like it.

When I was much younger and much less well off, I sort of did that, only instead of a bicycle, I made life more difficult when I bought used tires for my car. This wasn't quite as foolish as choosing gas over oil, but bear with me.

A tire shop in town took in old tires when they sold customers new tires. Then they'd resell their used tires to poor kids like me. The shop charged $5 per old tire. That sure seemed like a bargain at the time, but I soon learned that you get what you pay for. My "new" old tires had no tread and wouldn't hold air. Then I'd spring for more $5 tires. While occasionally I'd find some tires with a little more life in them, it wasn't long before I concluded that I should just spend the extra money up front. Once I started purchasing new tires, my tire problems went away.

Now, instead of a car, think about your computers, and instead of tires, think about the operating system or applications that you run in your enterprise. Then ask yourself, why do people go with cheap computers and free operating systems?

Sure, they're less costly up front, and we might be able to download an OS and get them to run on commodity hardware. But by taking this route, are we putting bald used tires on a fancy new sports car? Are we so focused on the cheap initial investment that we overlook the total cost of ownership (TCO)?

I like enterprise class servers and enterprise class operating systems. In the case of Power Systems, I like knowing that IBM designed the hardware, designed the hypervisor, designed the operating system, and is there to support them all. If I have issues, help is a quick phone call away. If I need to escalate an issue, I can easily gather an army of IBMers to help solve problems.

If I'm running an application that supports my business, and I need application availability, why would I want to buy used, worn tires?

Recently on Twitter, fellow Power Champion Andrew Wojnarek (@andywojo) said that Linux is free only if your time is worthless. I don't want to go that far, because Linux has its uses. But assuredly, if given the choice, I'll always choose AIX over Linux.

Of course, there are those who believe that Linux on VMware is good enough for their needs, as you can see from the comments on this post. What do you think?

Running nmon and topas

Nigel Griffiths had a great session at this fall's IBM Technical University on "nmon, topas and Friends." I assume that you know that he actually wrote nmon (aka, "Nigel's Monitor"). As such, it's very enlightening to hear him speak about the history of the tool and his motivation for writing it. Besides, obviously, being very knowledgeable about the subject, he's also a very entertaining and engaging public speaker.

Nigel mentioned how nmon and topas had come together, and detailed the history and timeline around nmon being officially supported by IBM. He then offered some tips and tricks for running both tools.

He mentioned that current versions of AIX (which you should be running) include a copy of topas_nmon. I assume it's on your machine if you're reading this post. We should all be using the current version. nmon "classic" should only be used if you're running old versions of hardware and AIX, although Nigel recommends using ONLY the latest version (12e+). Keep in mind that nmon classic is functionally frozen.

Nigel said this endeavor started as a personal project, but he was soon deluged with requests for copies. He explained that the tool consumes less than 1 percent CPU and uses APIs, rather than AIX commands, under the covers. This is how he accomplished his goal of making nmon "small, simple and safe."

While I can't capture everything Nigel laid out in his presentation, I do encourage you to experiment and learn more about the tool. Run nmon –h and look at all of the different available options and statistics. As IBM now supports both nmon and topas, you have a choice when it comes to viewing performance data and talking to IBM about what you're seeing on your systems.

With topas, see what you get by entering "P," "E," "D," "L," "V" or "F." Be sure to capitalize. "E," for instance, is for shared Ethernet adapters. Log into your VIO server, run topas and hit "E," and you'll see the network traffic going across your shared Ethernet adapter.

If you're running virtual SCSI devices, try "D"--and then "d"--inside your VIOS to view virtual to physical disk mapping information.

Topas –C gives you a view of all the LPARs across your physical machine (assuming you can access each LPAR over the network).

One nice thing is if you're on a system and topas keeps refreshing, you can freeze the screen to conduct closer analysis. Just hit the space bar.

Now try nmon. Hit "l" (that's a lower-case L) and watch as it gives you a long-term view of physical CPU. If you observe the display over time as your CPU works and idles, you should see the scale automatically change based on your machine's activities.

Nigel also mentioned how we can use the Stephen Atkins tool, nmon analyzer, to graph and view our nmon output.

What are some of your favorite ways to customize your topas or nmon views?

As I've often noted, the IBM Technical University is a great educational experience. I think every one of Nigel's sessions was standing-room only, and I know that Jay Kruemcke had to add another session on AIX trends and directions. I'm sure other presenters drew large crowds as well. The 2012 conference will be held in Las Vegas. Plan now so you can attend.

Proud to be a Champion

I may be late to the party, but I'll still take a moment to toot my own horn. As Doug Rock and Steve Will note, I was recently recognized, along with 13 others, as an IBM Champion, and as an IBM Power Champion in particular.

"The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community—and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make best use of IBM solutions and services. IBM Champions are not employees of IBM."

I believe that this blog was a big part of the reason I was nominated, so I want to thank all of the readers for helping to make this possible. Between this blog and Twitter (@robmcnelly), hopefully I've been providing information that you've been able to use over the years.

I've been an IBM customer since 1988, when I started working as an AS/400 computer operator. Things were much simpler back then, but the systems that I managed were built to last and they seldom had
problems. In that regard, nothing much has changed.

I was always impressed with our local customer engineer (CE). He'd come onsite, check how things were going, and proactively run diagnostics and check error logs on the machines. I can remember
asking the CE about how he got started with IBM. Even then I admired the company.

Any time we called IBM Support, our problems were handled quickly. Even with the recent switch to call-back mode, I still believe I'm getting the timely support I've come to expect over the years.

I worked for a few different companies during my time on the AS/400. Later when I went back to school while continuing to work full-time, IBM recruiters came to campus. When they looked at my resume and saw that I had years of experience working with IBM products, they led me to the appropriate hiring manager who helped bring me on board with IBM.

I was an IBMer for six years in Boulder, Colo. I've been with my current employer for four years. They're an IBM Premier Business Partner. So for my entire career, I've been either an IBM customer, an IBM employee or an IBM business partner.

"Apple fanboy" is a moniker that's sometimes given to those who love Apple products. Along those lines, I guess I'm a "Power fanboy." I love the platform and the operating systems that run on it. I love the virtualization capabilities, the performance and the reliability. And, as readers of this blog surely know by now, I love telling others about Power Systems servers. I've been reading the articles and following the tweets of other Power Champions for some time, which makes me all the more proud to be included in this group and recognized for my efforts.

If you know of someone worthy of recognition as an IBM Champion, please respond in Comments. I'd be happy to be involved with nominating others for this distinction.

Note: On another personal note, the end of Daylight Savings Time here in the U.S. this past weekend stirred up some old feelings. Check out my previous AIXchange blog entry on the topic.

Virtualization Webinars Add to AIX Education Offerings

For some time, I've informally collected a few go-to resources for AIX pros. For starters, there's Anthony English's AIX Down Under blog, Chris Gibson's AIX blog and the AIX Virtual User Group-USA. And for sure, get on Twitter.

Others who provide good AIX info include Andy Wojo, Nigel Griffiths, Waldemar Mark Duszyk and whoever is behind AIX Mind. (Feel free to let us know in the Comments section.)

Beyond those, have a look at these great AIX movies. And here's some links to the Quicksheet and QuickStart documents that cover AIX and PowerVM.

Finally, courtesy of Anthony English, here's word of a new webinar series on Power Systems Virtualization from IBM:

"As an IT professional, you may have heard of IBM PowerVM or Power Systems based around the IBM POWER processor. You may even have seen a presentation on it, but have you wondered:

• What is it like to actually use?
• What are the key features for POWER and AIX, Linux for Power and IBM i?
• How will it save me systems administration time and reduce weekend working?
• What do I need to run it and how do I get started?

"What are we planning to do?

• Well .... it is best to let the product talk for itself via a series of live lectures and hands-on demonstration of these features.
• The sessions aim to be about 50 minutes long and roughly once every two to three weeks.

"Who should attend?

• These webinars are aimed at a technical audience (operators, systems administrators and technical specialists) -- people using (or planning to use) IBM's Power based systems.
• Primarily customers, but also available to IBMers and IBM Business Partners."

These webinars are being held during U.K. business hours (hence the euro spelling of "virtualisation"). Currently four sessions are listed; replays are available for the first two, which have already taken place.

Session 1: Exploiting Virtualisation on IBM Power Systems with PowerVM
Session 2: VIOS -- how to get going
Session 3: Controlling processor resources in virtualised partitions
Session 4: Deeper dive into Active Memory Sharing

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm always looking for more tips and tricks and information. So let me know: Who do you follow? And how do you keep your skills and knowledge current?

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.