Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted April 21, 2015 on AIXchange
In December I wrote about a document that covers HMC simplification. Actually, the doc isn’t just about that. It’s also about how IBM is trying to make managing PowerVM easier for customers.
From the document:
“Managing the IBM PowerVM infrastructure involves configuring its different components, such as the POWER Hypervisor and the Virtual I/O Server(s). Historically, this has required the use of multiple management tools and interfaces, such as the Hardware Management Console (HMC) and the [VIO server] command line interface.
The PowerVM simplification enhancements were designed to significantly simplify the management of the PowerVM infrastructure, improve the Power Systems management user experience, and reduce the learning ramp for users unfamiliar with the PowerVM technologies.
This paper provides an overview of the PowerVM simplification enhancements and illustrates how to use the new features available in the HMC to set up and manage the PowerVM infrastructure.”
Again though, there’s much more to this. How we manage our Power servers will soon undergo some changes. Here’s more from the document:
“IBM PowerVM is the virtualization solution that enables workload consolidation for AIX, IBM i, and Linux environments on IBM Power Systems.
The [VIO] Server is a software appliance that works in conjunction with the POWER Hypervisor to enable sharing of physical I/O resources among partitions. Two or more [VIO] Servers are often deployed to provide maximum RAS when provisioning virtual resources to partitions.”
Next comes an explanation of how IBM is attempting to simplify things. For those of us who’ve worked on the platform for years, it’s pretty straightforward. But if you work with new POWER server users, it’s another matter. A bit of a learning curve will be involved as far as getting it all working and understanding what’s going on under the covers:
“The PowerVM simplification enhancements encompass architecture changes to the POWER hypervisor and [VIO] Server, new virtualization management features, and new Hardware Management Console (HMC) graphical and programmatic user interfaces to manage the PowerVM infrastructure. The enhancements can be grouped in three main areas:
* Simplified PowerVM infrastructure deployment using templates.
* Simplified PowerVM management and virtual machine provisioning.
* Integrated performance and capacity monitoring tool.
These enhancements are available when managing POWER6, POWER7, and POWER8 Systems using HMC V8.1 or later; except for the performance tool which is available with HMC V8.0 or later. VIO [Server] V2.2.3 or later is recommended for best performance.
You can access all enhancements by logging in to the HMC Graphical User Interface (GUI) using the Enhanced or Enhanced+ log in option. The performance tool is also available with the Classic log in option. A comparison of the features available with each log in option can be found in the POWER 8 knowledge center.”
The document offers quite a bit of detail. With the new versions of HMC code that are coming out, we’ll be able to do much more from the GUI. There won’t be as a great a need to configure machines from the VIO command line. Future posts will cover my impressions of the new HMC code, but for now, here’s more from the document:
“Configuring and managing the PowerVM infrastructure on Power Systems can be accomplished performing the following tasks:
1. Capturing and editing templates to create custom PowerVM configurations that can be deployed on one or more systems.
2. Deploying a system template to initialize the PowerVM infrastructure.
3. Creating a partition from template to get ready to deploy workloads.
4. Managing PowerVM to modify the virtual network and virtual storage configuration as needed to meet workload demands.
5. Managing partitions to dynamically modify their virtual storage and network resources as needed.
6. Monitoring performance and capacity information to understand resource utilization and identify potential problems.”
Although I still prefer the command line, I can understand the desire to simplify PowerVM management. I know that for non-UNIX users and those with an IBM i background, things like command completion and shell history can be hard to understand. Rather than have to learn all of this, these folks now have the option to simply manage their machines via point and click:
“You can view and modify all the [VIO] Server resources and configuration settings by selecting a [VIO Server] in the [VIO Server] overview and accessing the Manage task. The Manage task allows the user to change the processor, memory, physical I/O, and hardware virtualized I/O resources, e.g. logical Host Channel Ethernet Adapters or logical SR-IOV ports, configured to the [VIO Server], either dynamically, that is, while the [VIO Server] is powered on, or when the [VIO Server] is shutdown.
You can view and modify all partition resources by selecting a partition and accessing the Manage Partition task. You can dynamically change virtual network, virtual storage, and hardware virtualized I/O resources configured to the partition.
You can access the performance dashboard for a system by selecting a system and choosing Performance. The performance dashboard provides quick visualization of system and partition processor, memory, and I/O resources allocation and utilization… .”
The PowerVM simplification enhancements available through the [HMC] significantly simplify virtualization management tasks on IBM Power Systems and support a repeatable workload deployment process.
As with anything in technology, I like to consider how far things have come. It’s pretty incredible to look back on what we could do with early versions of VIO server and HMC code and compare it to the things we can do today. At the same time, as much as I relish looking back, I also look forward to what’s ahead. Where PowerVM is concerned, I’m excited about the future.