1. PowerKVM provides an open source virtualization option for Power Systems running Linux workloads that is managed like other KVM systems using open source tools or OpenStack.
2. PowerKVM exploits features of Power8 like micro-threading to improve workload consolidation compared to traditional PowerVM or PowerKVM.
3. PowerKVM is best suited for customers running Linux-only workloads who prefer open technologies and are familiar with KVM or VMware.
IBM/IDC:Data center operational efficiency best practices, 2012 ftp://submit.boulder.ibm.com/sales/ssi/ecm/en/rlw03007usen/RLW03007USEN.PDF
So is it all hype? I think we all know , by now that it isn’t – but it also isn’t quite as straight forward as seems to be put out and it is possible to move to the cloud and have a very inefficient cloud and a dataceter that is more complex and more expensive that it would have been if you hadn’t gone to cloud.
An efficient cloud can result in significant benefits that have a direct impact on the business.
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It is the different between 70% of budget being spent on maintenance or …..data points
Up to 90% utilization
Seamless scaling from 1/20 of a core to 256 cores
Add, Remove, and Redeploy virtual resource on demand.
Dynamically move resources across pools without downtime
Capacity on Demand to pay as you go
Exceptional Reliability, Availability, Serviceability and Security
5x the throughput & 2X the efficiency over Intel/VMware technology.
Automatic optimization of systems and workloads
Automated policy compliance and reporting
Open standards and choice
Power Systems is as Dynamic as your business. Customers can add, Remove, and Redeploy virtual resource on demand.
PowerVM delivers superior flexibility to optimize IT resource utilization and improve business responsiveness reducing IT costs and customer satisfaction.
PowerVM allows you to dynamically move resources (CPU, memory, I/O, Resource Management) while VMware allows for some or no dynamic resource allocation.
Power Systems has Trusted Resiliency years ahead of the competition. Power Systems outscores the competition in the categories that matter…. RAS and Security years ahead of the competition
Power Systems has zero reported security vulnerabilities, providing bullet-proof security that customers demand for mission-critical workloads.
Power Systems has superior availability AIX/Power over competition.
PowerSC Security & Compliance simplifies management and measurement of security while reducing costs.
Power Systems is Optimized for efficiency… 5x the throughput & 2X the efficiency over Intel/VMware technology
Net: more work, less hardware and software, saving customers money
IBM provides the complete system stack optimized across hardware, and is fully integrated application provisioning and management ready for the cloud.
Freedom of choice to rapidly deploy applications into AIX, i and Linux operating environments establishes long term ROI.
Superior Reliability: 99.997% uptime*
2.3X better than next UNIX, 10X better than x86-based platforms
Innovative RAS (Predictive failure, Live Partition Mobility, Secure device drivers…)
Light Path diagnostics can reduce failure identification from hours to minutes
Higher levels of Consolidation for resource sharing/optimization
Elastic System Capacity on Demand (COD)
Micro partitioning to scaled workloads in the same box
Inter system communication reduces network pressure/cost
Dynamic Flexibility – Add/Subtract resources to a running workloads
Isolated Performance per VM
Dynamic Thread Strength and count per VM
Automated Processor Folding for energy management
Light Weight Partitions (WPARS)
Built in Accelerators for Compression, Crypto, data movement.
Higher Levels Security and Compliance - Secure device drivers, hypervisor
2-4X Memory Bandwidth
Superior Performance
Note that PowerVM is still alive and well and takes care of AIX, IBM i and Linux workloads from a virtualization perspective. PowerKVM is an option for POWER8 Linux only servers.
PowerKVM is a new open virtualization choice for Linux only POWER8 Scale-out servers
A POWER8 Linux Scale-out server can run either PowerKVM or PowerVM but not both simultaneously
PowerKVM is priced to be competitive to x86 KVM deployments and brings the benefits of open source virtualization.
KVM is a Linux Kernel loadable module that virtualizes Compute and Memory resources
QEMU is the I/O virtualizer in KVM
The KVM host is the Linux instance that creates and virtualizes VM s
So KVM on Power is just like any other KVM instance. We have some special Firmware called OPAL(Open Power Abstraction Layer) that is like a super BIOS that abstracts the Power hardware which minimizes the KVM modifications to support Power hardware. You can manage PowerKVM with OpenStack solutions like PowerVC and Smart Cloud Entry or PowerKVM provides Kimchi which is an open source project that provides virtualization administration for small configurations using a web GUI interface.
Any open source tool that uses the libvirt APIs can be used to manage PowerKVM.
This shows what offerings can be used to manage a PowerKVM host system.
All these various Linux distributions run in p7 compatibility mode except for Ubuntu. This means that Ubuntu will support guests running in native P8 mode SMT8.
Other Linux distros will support running in native P8 in the near future.
You cannot mix Big and Little Endian VMs on the same PowerKVM host for the first release.
PowerKVM is the first component that exploits POWER8 Micro-Threading.
Ppc64_cpu –subcores-per-core=4 command dynamically sets the system to a 4/1 division. No VMs can be active during the setup. With this setting this would create 4 vCPUs with 2 threads each.
This is a view of the components in the stack for both PowerVM and PowerKVM virtualization solutions. Notice that PowerVM has more of its function embedded in the firmware and PowerKVM has the hypervisor purely in software. PowerKVM has the option to have ubuntu guest VMs where PowerVM does not.
This gives a picture of how you would plan, configure, setup virtualization, control and service various virtualization on Power systems.
More than two-thirds of Power Systems owners have deployed PowerVM virtualization solutions to help reduce costs, manage risk and improve service levels. The unrivaled performance, scalability, flexibility and rapid return on investment (ROI) from PowerVM has convinced these IBM clients to standardize on a fully virtualized IT infrastructure, based on Power Systems running PowerVM.
PowerVM is available in two convenient Editions, which map to the unique virtualization requirements of clients.
Note – PowerVP has been recently added to the PowerVM Enterprise Edition. This allows monitoring on virtualized workloads