Chapter 3. Virtualization 81
Draft Document for Review September 2, 2008 5:05 pm 4405ch03 Virtualization.fm
3.3 PowerVM
The PowerVM platform is the family of technologies, capabilities and offerings that deliver
industry-leading virtualization on this 570. It is the new umbrella branding term for Power
Systems Virtualization (Logical Partitioning, Micro-Partitioning, Hypervisor, Virtual I/O Server,
Advanced Power Virtualization, Live Partition Mobility, Workload Partitions, etc.). As with
Advanced Power Virtualization in the past, PowerVM is a combination of hardware
enablement and value-added software. Section 3.3.1, “PowerVM editions” on page 81
discusses the licensed features of each of the 2 different editions of PowerVM.
3.3.1 PowerVM editions
This section provides information about the virtualization capabilities of the PowerVM
Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition which are available on this system. Upgrading from
the PowerVM Standard Edition to the PowerVM Express Edition is possible and is completely
undisruptive. The upgrade doesn’t even require the installation of additional software, the
customer just has to enter a key code in the hypervisor in order to unlock the next level of
function.
Table 3-2, outlines the functional elements of both of the PowerVM editions.
Table 3-2 PowerVM capabilities
For more information about the different PowerVM editions please refer to PowerVM
Virtualization on IBM System p Introduction and Configuration, SG24-7940.
3.3.2 Virtual I/O Server
The Virtual I/O Server is part of all PowerVM Editions. It is a special purpose partition that
allows the sharing of physical resources between logical partitions to allow more efficient
utilization ( for example consolidation). In this case the Virtual I/O Server owns the physical
resources (SCSI, Fibre Channel, network adapters, and optical devices) and allows client
partitions to share access to them, thus minimizing the number of physical adapters in the
system. The Virtual I/O Server eliminates the requirement that every partition owns a
dedicated network adapter, disk adapter, and disk drive. The Virtual I/O Server supports
OpenSSH for secure remote logins. It also provides a firewall for limiting access by ports,
PowerVM capability PowerVM Standard
Edition (FC 7942)
PowerVM Enterprise
Edition (FC 7995)
Micro-partitions Yes Yes
Virtual I/O Server Yes Yes
Shared Dedicated Capacity Yes Yes
Multiple Shared-Processor Pools Yes Yes
Lx86 Yes Yes
Live Partition Mobility No Yes
Maximum # Logical Partitions Up to 10 per core Up to 10 per core
Note The 570 has to be managed with the Hardware Management Console.
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