Network Installation Manager (NIM) provides an easy and efficient way for POWER® users to perform various installation and software maintenance tasks over several network types. Now a new virtualization tool, IBM Systems Director VMControl V2.1, in the IBM Systems Director product family, is available, which can simplify and centralize image management across multiple virtualization platforms. PowerVM administrators can take advantages of IBM Systems Director VMControl to manage AIX images simpler and quicker than using NIM.

Overview of IBM Systems Director VMControl

IBM Systems Director VMControl is a cross-platform solution that assists in rapidly deploying virtual appliances to create virtual servers, which are configured with the operating system and software applications that you desire. IBM Systems Director VMControl includes:

• No-charge (free) function that allows you to create and managed virtual servers for z/VM®.
• An optional chargeable (fee-based) function that allows you to create, import, and deploy virtual appliances in your environment. A 60-day evaluation license is granted when you download and install IBM Systems Director VMControl.

The licensed portion of IBM Systems Director VMControl, IBM Systems Director VMControl Image Manager, allows you to complete the following tasks.

• Discover existing image repositories in your environment and import external, standards-based images into your repositories as virtual appliances.
• Capture a running virtual server that is configured just the way you want, complete with guest operating system, running applications, and virtual server definition. When you capture the virtual server, a virtual appliance is created in one of your image repositories with the same definitions and can be deployed multiple times in your environment.
• Import virtual appliance packages that exist in the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) from the Internet or other external sources. After the virtual appliance packages are imported, you can deploy them within your data center.
• Deploy virtual appliances quickly to create new virtual servers that meet the demands of your ever-changing business needs.

Virtual appliances can be deployed to the following platforms:

• IBM Power Systems™ servers (POWER5™ and POWER6®) that are managed by the Hardware Management Console or Integrated Virtualization Manager.
• Linux® on System z® systems running on the z/VM hypervisor.

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Use VMControl to manage AIX images

VMControl is applicable to an IBM Systems Director management domain. It introduces an image repository to store images. For POWER, the image repository is a NIM master server, and for z/VM, it's a z/VM Management Accessibility Point server. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of VMControl in a POWER environment.

VMControl has two parts; one is a plugin residing in Director Server, and the other is a sub-agent installed on a NIM master server with a CAS agent. The NIM master server armed with VMControl sub-agent becomes an image repository, which is able to store, capture, and deploy images.

Prepare and set up VMControl

The requirements for VMControl in the POWER platform are:

• IBM Systems Director Server should be version 6.1.1.2 or above.
• If Power CECs are managed by the HMC, the HMC should be version7.3.4.2, PTF MH01181 or above.
• If Power CECs are managed by IVM, IVM should be version 2.1.0.10 or above.
• The AIX version of NIM master server should be at least version 6.1.3.

In order to set up VMControl, users should take the following steps:

1. Install and configure Director Server and upgrade it to version 6.1.1.2 or later. Discover and request access to the HMC or IVM that is managing the POWER hosts.
2. Install VMControl to Director Server in GUI or silent mode. This installation gives users access to the no-charge function of VMControl and a 60-day evaluation license. When the license expires, users must purchase and install a permanent license to resume the image-related functions provided by VMControl. When the installation is complete, IBM Systems Director VMControl is displayed in the Welcome page of Director Server (Figure2).
   
   Figure 2. Welcome page of Director Server
   
   
   
3. Set up a NIM master server that has a network connection with Director Server, HMC, and IVM. See the Resources section for instructions on how to set up and configure a NIM master server.
4. Discover and request access to the NIM master server in Director Server, push the Director CAS agent to it, and upgrade to version 6.1.1.1 or later. As the installation of VMControl has already placed the VMControl NIM sub-agent to Director Server as "CommonAgentSubagent_VMControl_NIM-2.1.0", you can install the VMControl NIM sub-agent to the NIM master server using Director Release Manager directly. Restart the CAS agent on the NIM master server to enable the sub-agent. VMControl supports only a single Image Repository in the current release, so only the first NIM master server added in the Director management domain will be recognized as the Image Repository.
5. In the VMControl summary page, launch the Discover Virtual Appliances task on the NIM master server. After the task completes, all the virtual appliances stored on the NIM master server are listed. Then VMControl is ready for work, and users can capture and deploy in the VMControl page.
   
   Figure 3. Summary page of VMControl
   
   
   

Import OVF/OVA format fileset as a virtual appliance

VMControl enables the delivery and management of virtual appliances on IBM Systems. A virtual appliance is a representation of a virtual server that contains a configured, tested operating system (OS) and middleware and software applications, along with the metadata that describes the virtual server.

Metadata describes the server resources, including:

• Number of CPUs (dedicated versus shared)
• Memory size
• I/O and networks
• Configuration variables such as IP address, hostname, and more

Disk images contain OS, middleware, and other applications.

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Open Virtualization Format (OVF) standardizes the virtual appliance structure and packaging format. VMControl supports virtual appliances in the form of OVF fileset and its TAR file with the .ova extension. For AIX running on POWER, the virtual appliance contains an AIX mksysb image and.ovf files, which describe resources and production information on the server. For zLinux, it consists of an .ovf file and a .gz zLinux image clone. When imported into VMControl, the fileset is stored in the image repository (/export/nim/appliances on the NIM master server) and is listed as a virtual appliance used for deployment. The OVF fileset can be imported from either the Internet or from the IBM Systems Director Server local path.

Capture task

The capture task enables you to capture a virtual server or an existing mksysb image file to create a virtual appliance.

You can capture these types of virtual servers:

• IBM Power Systems (POWER5 and POWER 6) virtual servers (logical partitions) running AIX V5.3 or AIX V6.1
• Linux on System z systems running on the z/VM hypervisor

Before you want to capture a Power Systems virtual server, make sure the Hardware Management Console (HMC) or Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) that manages the virtual server appears in IBM Systems Director. Also, that the virtual server that you want to capture and the operating system running on it is discovered in IBM Systems Director. See the See the Resources section for more requirements.

When all the prerequisites are met, you can invoke the Capture wizard from the VMControl Welcome page or by right-clicking on a virtual server in the resource navigator and selecting Capture. In the wizard, you need to input only the name and description of the virtual appliance and then select the virtual server you want to capture as the source.

VMControl also provides the systems management command-line interface smcli captureva to wrap an existing mksysb image file created by NIM as a virtual appliance.

After the capture, a new virtual appliance is created, which is composed of metadata that describes the virtual server, and a reference to an image. The image just contains the full operating system and software applications of the source virtual server. The new virtual appliance will be displayed in a list of virtual appliances in the VMControl home page. You can then deploy it to create a new virtual server that is complete with a fully functional operating system and software applications or overwrite an existing virtual server.This makes the clone and backup/restore scenarios very easy to do.

Deploy

The deploy task enables you to deploy a virtual appliance to a new or existing virtual server, or you can you simply create a new virtual server without an operating system and other software. You can customize various attributes for the resulting virtual server, such as network settings.

You can deploy virtual appliances that have been captured or imported into IBM Systems Director VMControl to the following platforms:

• IBM Power Systems servers (POWER5 and POWER6) that are managed by Hardware Management Console or Integrated Virtualization Manager
• Linux on System z systems running on the z/VM hypervisor

For example, you can deploy a virtual appliance to a new virtual server on POWER. Launch the Deploy wizard from the VMControl Welcome page or by right-clicking on a host server (CEC) or virtual appliance in the resource navigator and selecting Deploy.

Then you can select one virtual appliance and the target (CEC in Power environment) where the virtual server is created. In the "deploy to existing virtual server" scenarios, the target is the virtual server (LPAR). After choosing the storage pool and virtual network, you can customize TCP/IP network settings for the new virtual server.

When the deployment job is complete, one new virtual server is created on the target host with the defined network settings and the same configuration as the system you captured to the virtual appliance, such as CPU, memory, operating system, middleware, and application software. The "deploy to existing virtual server" scenario only eliminated the procedure of virtual server creation and deploy virtual appliance to an existing virtual server directly. When you don't specify the virtual appliance, VMControl can create a pure virtual server without an OS, just like you created a LPAR in the HMC.

VMcontrol commands

VMControl includes a set of commands to perform image management tasks. Users can list the virtual appliance, image repository, and the servers valid for capture and deploy action. Additionally, you can capture the running AIX OS of a virtual server and deploy a virtual appliance to an existing or new virtual server using these commands:

• captureva: Captures a virtual appliance from a virtual server or from an existing AIX mksysb image file.
• deployva: Deploys a virtual appliance into a new or existing virtual server as a workload.
• importva: Imports a virtual appliance into IBM Systems Director VMControl Image Manager.
• lscapsrv: Lists servers that you can capture as virtual appliances.
• lscustomization: Lists attributes that you can customize for a virtual appliance when you run the captureva, deployva, or importva commands.
• lsdeploytargets: Lists the target servers or hosts on which you can deploy a virtual appliance workload.
• lsrepos: Lists repositories.
• lsva: Lists virtual appliances.

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Summary

IBM Systems Director VMControl provides the full lifecycle management of virtual servers, along with another virtualization component, Virtualization Manager, in IBM Systems Director. It can facilitate the provision and deployment of virtual systems, federates distributed and heterogeneous image repositories, and simplifies the management of the images. It is more user friendly than NIM. When using NIM to back up and restore images, much preparation work needs to be done, such as defining the network, NIM clients, and NIM resources. With VMControl, users are released from such tasks, because the Deploy Wizard, Capture Wizard, and Import Wizard of VMControl can do the NIM configuration automatically without user interactions.

As an advanced feature, VMControl is based on IBM Systems Director's strong system management. Besides image management, users can also monitor and manage the system resources such as Power CECs, LPARs, and HMC/IVM comprehensively in a PowerVM environment. Additionally, the import capture and deploy task can be scheduled and correlated to the IBM Systems Director Event Action Plan in order to implement automation.

Resources

Learn

• To get the syntax of the VMcontrol commands, please refer to the VMControl InfoCenter.
  
  
• As for Power Systems requirements for deploy, please refer to Information Center.
  
  
• More requirements on capture, please refer to Information Center.
  
  
• See the Installing IBM Systems Director VMControl subagent for NIM for information on how to setup and configure a NIM Master.
  
  
• Information Center, IBM Systems Director VMControl v2.1
  
  
• Information Center, IBM Systems Director v6.1.
  
  
• To learn NIM concepts, configuration and management, click here.
  
  
• Read the redbook PowerVM Virtualization on IBM System p: Introduction and Configuration to learn Power partitioning and virtualization capability.
  
  
• Learn DMTF OVF standard.
  
  
• The AIX and UNIX developerWorks zone provides a wealth of information relating to all aspects of AIX systems administration and expanding your UNIX skills.
  
  
• New to AIX and UNIX? Visit the New to AIX and UNIX page to learn more.
  
  
• Browse the technology bookstore for books on this and other technical topics.
  
  

Get products and technologies

• Download IBM Systems Director VMControl v2.1(60-day trial).
  
  

Discuss

• Check out developerWorks blogs and get involved in the developerWorks community.
  
  
• Participate in the AIX and UNIX forums:
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About the authors

Xiao Yu Wang has over three years of system test experience. Her work has focused on IBM virtualization products and cross-platform system management softwares such as IBM Systems Director and its advanced managers.

Shu Xi Wei has worked as a software tester for more than three years. She is experienced with IBM virtualization products and cross-platform system management software such as IBM Systems Director and its advanced managers.

Ling Zhan has been working as a software engineer on test areas for more than two and a half years. She's experienced in System Verification tests on IBM Systems Director base for Linux on System z products and its virtualization plug-in on z/VM.

Wei Lei Huang has worked on IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager SVT for more than one year. She also has two years of experience in IBM Tivoli Maximo FVT.

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Table of contents

• Overview of IBM Systems Director VMControl
• Use VMControl to manage AIX images
• Summary
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

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