IBM Virtualization enhancements deliver industrial-strength enterprise virtualization

IBM United States Software Announcement 220-380
October 6, 2020

Table of contents

	Overview		Effective date
	Key requirements		Program number

Overview

IBM® PowerVM® 3.1.2

IBM PowerVM 3.1.2, which delivers industrial-strength enterprise virtualization for IBM AIX®, IBM i, and Linux® environments on IBM POWER® processor-based systems, has been enhanced with additional capabilities including optimized Live Partition Mobility (LPM).

PowerVM VIOS 3.1.2 offers:

NPIV acceleration: VIOS has enhanced Fibre Channel NPIV to provide multiqueue support. NPIV multiqueue provides improved performance, including more throughput, reduced latency, and higher IOPS, by spreading the I/O workload across multiple work queues.

Note: In addition to VIOS 3.1.2, the following requisites are required for the full performance benefits of NPIV multiqueue support:
- 16 GB or 32 GB Fibre Channel adapter - Feature codes EN1A, EN1B, EN1C, EN1D, EN2A, and EN2B.
- AIX 7.2 technology level 5, or later.
- Power® 9 systems with FW940, or later.
Fibre Channel Congestion Control (NPIV): SAN switch status gets sent back to the host software, including multipathing, enabling better and faster pathing decisions.
VIOS Secure Boot (tamper-proof image): FW-assisted verification of the authenticity of the VIOS digitally signed boot image and boot process. This requires Hardware Management Console (HMC) 950.
VIOS Maintenance Tool (HMC): Validate VIOS redundancy, backup, and restore.
LPM support for multiple client virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) adapters (NPIVs) mapped to a single physical FC port (IBM i only).
SSP resiliency enhancements.

IBM NovaLink 1.0 media will be delivered electronic only.

IBM Virtual HMC (vHMC) 9.2.950

IBM vHMC 9.2.950 gives clients the ability to use their own hardware and server virtualization to host the IBM-supplied HMC virtual appliance. Additional enhancements include the following:

Support for additional I/O adapters
Platform KeyStore enablement
Validation of VIOS maintenance mode
VIOS backup and restore from HMC and store VIOS backups in HMC
Multithreaded support for LPM performance improvements
UI enhancements, including DLPAR add/remove adapter for vSCSI/vFC in VIOS or client VMs
Transport protocol TLSv1.1 support removed from all HMC communication channels
DSA key authentication disabled

The following cipher protocols are disabled in all crypto policy levels:

DH with parameters < 1024 bits
DH with parameters < 1024 bits
RSA with key size < 1024 bits
RSA with key size < 1024 bits
Camellia
ARIA
SEED
IDEA
Integrity-only cipher suites
TLS CBC mode cipher suites using SHA-384 HMAC
AES-CC

IBM Cloud® Management Console

IBM Cloud Management Console (CMC) support for dedicated processor VMs in IBM Power Enterprise Pools 2.0.
IBM Power Private Cloud Solution and Enterprise Pools 2.0 supports up to 1,500 virtual machines and up to 48 systems in a pool managed by a single CMC, with up to 500 virtual machines supported per HMC.

Key requirements

PowerVM

For IBM PowerVM Linux Edition (5765-VL3): IBM POWER 7+, IBM POWER8®, or IBM POWER9™ technology-based server.
For IBM PowerVM Standard Edition (5765-VS3): POWER 7+ or POWER8 technology-based server.
For IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition (5765-VE3): POWER 7+, POWER8, or POWER9 technology-based server.

vHMC

For IBM HMC Virtual Appliance for POWER-based systems (5765-HMB): The Power Systems HMC virtual appliance requires a Power Systems server with a POWER8 or POWER9 technology-based processor.
For IBM HMC Virtual Appliance for x86-based systems (5765-HMW): The x86-based HMC virtual appliance requires an x86 64-bit hardware with hardware virtualization assists (Intel™ VT-x or AMD-V).
For additional information, see the Installing the HMC Virtual Appliance web page.

Cloud Management Console

Power Systems Firmware level 950, or later

Effective date

November 13, 2020: PowerVM
November 20, 2020: CMC and vHMC

Program number

Program number	VRM	Program name
5765-VE3	3.1.2	IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition
5765-VS3	3.1.2	IBM PowerVM Standard Edition
5765-VL3	3.1.2	IBM PowerVM Linux Edition
5765-HMB	9.2.950	IBM HMC Virtual Appliance for POWER-based systems
5765-HMW	9.2.950	IBM HMC Virtual Appliance for x86 based systems
5765-CMT	1.0.0	IBM Cloud Management Console Monthly Term offering

Trademarks

POWER9 is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

IBM, PowerVM, AIX, POWER, Power, IBM Cloud and POWER8 are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

The registered trademark Linux® is used pursuant to a sublicense from the Linux Foundation, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a worldwide basis.

Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

Terms of use

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