PowerVM
| Developer(s) | IBM |
|---|---|
| Operating system | IBM i, IBM AIX, Linux |
| Type | Virtualization |
| Website | ibm.com/systems/power/software/virtualization/ |
PowerVM, formerly known as Advanced Power Virtualization (APV), is a chargeable feature of IBM POWER5, POWER6 and POWER7 servers and is required for support of micro-partitions and other advanced features. Support is provided for IBM i, AIX and Linux.
Description
IBM PowerVM has the following components:
- A "VET" code, which activates firmware required to support resource sharing and other features.
- Installation media for the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), which is a service partition providing sharing services for disk and network adapters.
- Installation media for Lx86, x86 binary translation software, which allows Linux applications compiled for the Intel x86 platform to run in POWER-emulation mode. A supported Linux distribution is a co-requisite for use of this feature.
IBM PowerVM comes in three editions.
IBM PowerVM Express
- Only supported on "Express" servers (e.g. Power 710/730, 720/740, 750 and Power Blades).
- Limited to three partitions, one of which must be a VIOS partition.
- No support for Multiple Shared Processor Pools.
- Withdrawn from marketing August 1, 2014. (source)
This is primarily intended for "sandbox" environments
IBM PowerVM Standard
- Supported on all POWER5, POWER6 and POWER7 systems.
- Unrestricted use of partitioning - 10× LPARs per core (20× LPARs for Power7+ servers) (up to a maximum of 1,000 per system).
- Multiple Shared Processor Pools (on POWER6 and POWER7 systems only).
This is the most common edition in use on production systems.
IBM PowerVM Enterprise
- Supported on POWER6 and POWER7 systems only.
- As PowerVM Standard with the addition of Live Partition Mobility (which allows running virtual machines to migrate to another system) and Active Memory Sharing (which intelligently reallocates physical memory between multiple running virtual machines).
Documentation
- Overview of Advanced POWER Virtualization
- IBM Redbooks | PowerVM Virtualization on IBM System p: Introduction and Configuration
- IBM Redbooks | PowerVM Virtualization on IBM System p: Managing and Monitoring
- Hands-on type article on setting up logical partitions using the Virtual I/O Server
- Virtual I/O Server Commands Reference
See also
- Comparison of platform virtualization software
- IBM AIX
- Linux on Power
- The POWER5 processor
- The POWER6 processor
- The POWER7 processor
- The POWER8 processor
- Kernel-based Virtual Machine - a linux based virtual machine which is developing PowerPC support.
External links
- IBM Website on AIX
- IBM Website on Power Systems
- IBM PowerVM Wiki
- IBM PowerVM Editions Formerly Advanced POWER Virtualization (APV)
- IBM PowerVM Editions Support
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