Top 10--strike that!--Top 20 Reasons to Deploy IBM i 6.1

IBM i 6.1, the latest version of the integrated operating system for Power Systems servers, became generally available in March 2008. Are you using it yet? If so, congratulations! Whether or not you've started using IBM i 6.1, you might be unaware of the significant benefits you can get from this rich operating system release. This week, I want to point out some of those benefits. And, because there are so many, I can't just list the top 10 -- we need to go for 20!

1. Enable consolidation of i and x86 servers with an IBM BladeCenter solution. IBM i 6.1 is supported in IBM BladeCenter S and H with BladeCenter JS12, JS22, JS23 and JS43 blades.
2. Reduce impact of planned and unplanned outages with a high-availability solution from IBM. IBM i 6.1 supports the new PowerHA for i disk-clustering solution.
3. Better performance for i and IBM System Storage environments through improved storage-area network (SAN) support. i 6.1 with POWER6 processor based-servers and a new Fibre Channel Adapter can deliver performance with the DS8000 that's comparable to internal disk.
4. Increased performance for Java and WebSphere applications with IBM i 6.1 enhancements. In Java-application performance tests, IBM i delivered 68-78 percent more transactions per second than i 5.4 running on the same POWER5+ processor-based server.
5. Reduce IT costs with an easy, integrated, Web-based management environment. IBM i 6.1 delivers Systems Director Navigator for i that enables Web-based management. Navigator integrates with IBM Systems Director 6.1 providing a rich management environment for multiple, heterogeneous servers.
6. Monitor the performance of your IBM i environment with Performance Data Investigator, a Web-based component of Systems Director Navigator for i.
7. Meet regulatory requirements by protecting data at rest and backups of critical business information through advanced encryption options available for IBM i 6.1.
8. Reduce costs and simplify creation of test and development environments through virtualization of IBM i storage. IBM i 6.1 with POWER6 processor-based servers can be a virtual partition, receiving its I/O resources from another IBM i or PowerVM VIOS partition.
9. Through PowerVM VIOS, IBM i 6.1 partitions support storage consolidation with IBM System Storage solutions DS3000, DS4000, DS5000, XIV and SVC.
10. Intelligently flow memory from one partition to another for increased utilization and flexibility of memory usage with PowerVM Active Memory Sharing.
11. Simplify deployment of Java applications and extend value of business applications through a Web application server and Web services environment provided with IBM i 6.1.
12. Enhance application functionality and performance with new DB2 database functions and management tools provided with IBM i 6.1.
13. Enhance iSCSI-based integration with System x and BladeCenter servers with support for VMware VMotion and software initiator for Windows servers.
14. Deliver the performance required for IBM i applications with POWER6 processor-based servers. These 1 to 64 core servers provide industry leading performance for IBM i, AIX and Linux operating systems.
15. Expand I/O options with IBM i 6.1 including support for Small Form Factor Disk drives and next generation 12X I/O drawers.
16. IBM i 6.1 provides support for the fastest GHz options for the Power 520 (4.7 GHz) and Power 550 (5.0 GHz).
17. Support for IBM OmniFind Text Search Server, which enables users to conduct full-text searches across documents stored in DB2 for i database.
18. Support for IBM Transform Services which delivers Adobe PDF output support to IBM i applications
19. Support for Network Install of Cumulative Fix Packages and Licensed Program Products.
20. IBM i is now shipped on DVD media (I have received applause for this one!!!)

As I mentioned before, IBM i 6.1 became generally available in March 2008. IBM has delivered numerous enhancements since then. As we introduce additional software and hardware technologies, you'll see the benefits of IBM i 6.1 continue to grow.

For those of you who are running IBM i 6.1, please let us all know if I have missed your favorite feature.

We recently held a webcast to discuss these and other reasons to move up to IBM i 6.1. Listen to the replay. From this Web site, you'll also see that we're doing a webcast on October 6 covering IBM i support for solid-state drives and IBM System Storage, and on October 27 covering the latest IBM i enhancements.

Customer Spotlight -- Gemeente Goes hosts SAP applications for six municipalities on IBM i

Gemeente Goes and five other Dutch municipalities were running CiVision Belastingen & Kadaster Suite, a qualified SAP Business All-in-One partner solution from PinkRoccade Local Government, on a variety of IBM and HP platforms on separate servers at their own data centers. Hardware costs were relatively high, and obtaining local support was difficult and expensive.

Working with PinkRoccade Local Government, the six municipalities consolidated their SAP Business All-in-One environments into separate IBM i subsystems within a single LPAR on an IBM Power 550 Express server running at the Gemeente Goes data center. The subsystems also run a number of legacy applications in mixed workload mode.

Consolidating to a single Power 550 Express server reduces hardware, maintenance and support costs by approximately 40 percent. IBM i subsystems provide a highly secure and reliable environment even for a mixed workload of multiple legacy and SAP applications while IBM POWER6 processors delivered excellent performance for the combined overall workload. Find out more in the IBM case study. 

 

Comments

[Nathan M. Andelin]

Quite impressive. Keep up the good work.

[Sumanth kumar kotra]

Hi,

Can you please let us know what level of performance data collection is possible with i6.1. I mean is it possible to find out what jobs and what programs are consuming more cpu and why?

[Craig]

IBM i supports several layers of performance data collection and the ability to find out what jobs and programs are consuming CPU is available in all supported releases. Standard work management interfaces (such as work with active jobs) can be used to identify the jobs that are consuming CPU and you can view call stacks for jobs to see what programs are running. Collection Services is the primary performance data collection method for basic performance analysis. In the IBM i 6.1 release, the Job Watcher performance data collector is now included in the operating system as well, and Job Watcher has the ability to collect call stacks and SQL statements, which can be very useful for understanding the application's performance characteristics. Finally, Performance Explorer, which has been available for many releases, has a profile mode that can be used to application performance analysis.

With IBM i 6.1 you should look at the Systems Director Navigator for i, one of the functions provided is this performance data investigator.

Since IBM i's performance management capabilities are very rich, we are working on a new Redbook that will cover the end-to-end performance management capabilities of IBM i. This Redbook will be available on the Redbooks web site early in November.

[harry daum]

There are still tens, if not hundreds of thousands of installations running RPGLE and CL. Is IBM investing any of their resource to upgrade/improve this outstanding language and to also make it easy to integrate with web data?

It seems to be a given in the AS/400 community that IBM is marginalizing the AS/400 (i). There are many people leaving the platform and IBM doesn't seem to care much. It is perceived by the younger owners/managers as an old green-screen dinosaur representing bygone times. How can a user-based iManifest organization succeed if IBM is not behind it? The AS/400 user community can not force IBM to invest in a platform they don't believe is their future.

I've been using IBM's midrange systems for over 30 years. It's very sad and dis-heartening to watch the slow demise of this once great world class platform. I wish I were wrong but IBM's silence on this is deafening.

[Steve Will]

Responding to harry daum (but the rest of you go ahead and listen in.)

First, some information: We have added support to both allow RPG to call web services, and to allow RPG to be called as a web service. This is available to RPG for V5R4 and later. IBM also has new RPG features available in every release of the compiler and OS. And, if you watch the announcements next week, you'll see a preview of more work we're doing to make RPG more interesting and open.

In IBM i 6.1 we also added some function to CL that had been requested for quite a while. Feel free to check it out in the "What's New" part of the Information Center.

So, to answer your "Is IBM investing...?" question -- yes, we are. My job, in fact, is prioritizing the work that IBM funds in investing in the IBM i operating system itself.

Now, how do people find out about the new things we've done so they don't feel as you describe? That's a question we've struggled with as a community for years. I hope this blog, and Dawn May's, are helping to dispel the feeling that "IBM's silence on this is deafening."

And, if we think about it, it's a tad ironic that you would say we're silent in a blog written by IBMers.

[Slimani Med]

Hi,
what this version 6.1 brings again about IASP ,because the version 5.3 or 5.4 a lot off application or ERP don't operate well in mode IASP .

I want use replication hardware global mirror flash copy (baie DS800 to baie DS8000) .
Best regard

[Andrew Karpie]

This is a great list. Here at Varsity Logistics we couldn't agree more with your reasons.

We actually have a few reasons of our own. Feel free to check out our blog, "Our Take: IBM i Is A Vibrant Market"

http://www.varsitynet.com/blog/index.php/2009/08/our-take-ibm-i-is-a-vibrant-market/

Best,

Andrew Karpie
Sr. Director, Business Development and Marketing

www.varsitylogistics.com

[juan carlos maduro]

información por que debmos irnos a 6.1

[Kevin Purtell]

Our biggest struggle to date has been getting vendors to get their products 6.1 compliant. We can't move until they are all ready. Some of them act as if this "6.1 thing" is all new to them! I can't imagine we are the first of their clients to attempt to move to 6.1.

[Craig]

Kevin, you are correct you are not the first to move to IBM i 6.1. We have a team that specifically works with ISVs on their support of IBM i. There are 1000s of applications already available for 6.1. If you let us know what applications you are running that are not yet supported on 6.1 we can see what we can do to help out.

[Craig]

Slimani....

A number of ISVs do support IASPs. Setting them up is relatively straight forward. We are the process of completing a Redbook on the subject.... the draft is currently available: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedpieceAbstracts/sg247811.html?Open

[Ray Rhyno]

What is the performance increase for Java and Websphere on a Power 5 processor configured as below? I am currently running V5R4 but in the next six months plan to upgrade to i6.1.

520 Processor 522A, Service Processor 28D7 , Processor Capacity 7459 - .43 of a 2400 CPW Processor Prod = .25 = 600 CPW - 12.5 G (Memory) 4g memory, Dev = .15 = 360 CPW - 5.5 G (Memory)