IBM Platform Symphony for Power, V7.1 enables scalable, high-performance grid services running on IBM Power Systems
IBM United States Software Announcement 215-013January 6, 2015
ENUS215-013.PDF
|
| At a glance |
 |
IBM® Platform Symphony® - Standard Edition for Power®, V7.1 and IBM Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition for Power, V7.1 can help you exceed your performance goals with a fast, efficient grid and analytic computing environment. The latest version offers increased scaling and performance.
With Platform Symphony on Power, V7 you can realize the following benefits:
- Faster throughput and performance
- Higher levels of resource utilization
- Reduced infrastructure and management costs
- Reduced application development and maintenance costs
- The agility to respond instantly to real-time demands
- Improved management of heterogeneous distributed applications
For ordering, contact your IBM representative, an IBM Business Partner, or IBM Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: RE001).
Back to top
|
|
| Overview |
|
Platform Symphony Standard Edition and Platform Symphony Advanced Edition on Power, V7.1 offer enterprise-class grid management for running distributed application services on a scalable, shared, heterogeneous grid. They accelerate a variety of compute- and data-intensive applications, quickly computing results while making optimal use of available infrastructure.
This latest version of Platform Symphony on Power includes the following significant enhancements:
- Improved scale and performance: 3X increased scalability and improved performance across core Symphony and MapReduce workloads.
- Innovative data management technologies: Data bottlenecks removed and data movement reduced.
- Enhanced multitenancy and resource management: Runtime elasticity with new cloud-native applications addressed. 1
- Expanded workload management: Emerging application workload patterns managed. 1
- 1
- These functions are available with a new optional Application Service Controller add-on for Platform Symphony Advanced Edition. The Application Service Controller extends the Platform Symphony grid to provide a shared-service backbone for a broad portfolio of distributed software frameworks, including long-running cloud-native applications such as MongoDB and Cassandra, among others.
Application Service Controller offers these benefits:
- Increased utilization of existing hardware resources.
- Increased application performance.
- Increased resiliency and high availability.
- Improved management efficiencies.
To order the Application Service Controller add-on available from IBM Passport Advantage®, refer to 214-361, dated October6, 2014.
The efficient low-latency middleware and scheduling architecture of Platform Symphony on Power delivers the performance and agility required to predictably meet and exceed throughput goals for the most demanding analytic workloads. Platform Symphony helps organizations realize improved application performance at a significantly reduced total cost of ownership.
Platform Symphony can help you achieve the following results:
- Obtain higher-quality business results faster.
- Reduce infrastructure and management costs.
- Accelerate many types of Hadoop MapReduce workloads.
- Combine compute- and data-intensive applications on a single shared platform.
Platform Symphony includes the following features:
- Ultrafast, low-latency grid scheduler
- Multicluster support for scalability to 128,000 service instances per cluster (typically mapped to cores)
- Unique resource-sharing model that enables multitenancy with resource lending and borrowing for maximum efficiency
- Optimized, low-latency MapReduce implementation compatible with IBM InfoSphere® BigInsights™ and other big data solutions
Platform Symphony is available in two editions tailored to different business requirements.
- Platform Symphony Standard Edition: Enterprise-class performance and scalability.
- Platform Symphony Advanced Edition: Ideal for distributed compute- and data-intensive applications requiring Hadoop MapReduce, or benefiting from the advanced capabilities of the Platform Application Service Controller for Platform Symphony add-on.
Back to top
|
|
| Key prerequisites |
|
- A physical grid computing environment that consists of any of the following:
- IBM Power Systems™
- IBM PureSystems®
- Cluster nodes preinstalled with supported operating environments
- Cluster nodes that are connected via a fast TCP/IP network infrastructure
- Management hosts on the cluster that ideally share a common network file system (to enable recovery of grid sessions in case of failure)
Back to top
|
|
| Planned availability date |
|
January 9, 2015
Back to top
|
|
| Description |
|
Platform Symphony Standard Edition and Platform Symphony Advanced Edition on Power, V7.1 offer a high-performance grid middleware and management solution that runs on IBM Power Systems and varied operating environments. You can use Platform Symphony to run preintegrated applications available from a variety of ISVs, or easily adapt and accelerate your own compute- and data-intensive parallel workloads on a grid, making your organization agile and flexible.
A new optional Application Service Controller add-on is available for Platform Symphony Advanced Edition. The Application Service Controller extends the Platform Symphony grid to provide a shared-service backbone for a broad portfolio of distributed software frameworks, including long-running cloud-native applications such as MongoDB and Cassandra, among others.
Performance and scalability
Platform Symphony gives organizations a competitive advantage by solving a wide range of large-scale compute- and data-intensive business problems that can be run concurrently with exceptional performance.
- Scalability to 40,000 service instances per application (typically mapped to cores)
- Scalability to 128,000 service instances per cluster (typically mapped to cores)
- Throughput to 17,000 tasks per second (interim result pending completion of testing)
- Submillisecond overhead for grid requests
- Service reallocation speeds of up to 1,000 services instances per second (interim result pending completion of testing)
For workloads such as MapReduce where standard comparative benchmarks are available, Platform Symphony demonstrates clear business value. As an example, in the SWIM benchmark developed at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), the Platform Symphony scheduler was measured to deliver approximately four times the performance of Apache Hadoop Release 1.0.1 running on identical hardware.
Flexible resource sharing
A key advantage of Platform Symphony is its sophisticated hierarchical resource-sharing model. The ability of Platform Symphony to lend and borrow resources, based on policy, guarantees users access to owned resources when needed. Departments can also easily share resources not in use with others and borrow resources dynamically as needed. By avoiding the need for application-specific silos, users enjoy a better quality of service with reduced infrastructure and management costs. Whether you are deploying on Linux™, IBM PowerLinux™, Microsoft™ Windows™, Windows HPC Server, UNIX™, or all of the above, you can manage your environment as a single, shared resource pool with Platform Symphony.
Support for compute- and data-intensive analytic workloads
Platform Symphony is optimized for both compute- and data-intensive parallel workloads. This is important to large organizations that want to avoid having a discrete grid for each application. Platform Symphony delivers a rich set of client- and server-side APIs for a variety of parallel computing problems alongside an optimized Hadoop-compatible MapReduce implementation. It also delivers other data-handling innovations to accelerate the processing of large distributed datasets. The resource orchestration capability and low-latency middleware of Platform Symphony together can deliver dramatic performance gains for both compute- and data-intensive applications. Tasks can be dispatched with an awareness of data locality resulting in better performance and efficiency: Applications avoid the needless movement of data across congested networks.
Rapid response for business-critical workloads
Platform Symphony can react instantly to changes in application demand. With the flexibility to adapt when priorities change, Platform Symphony can reallocate service instances at a rate of up to 1,000 per second to different workloads depending on configurable sharing policies and application priorities (interim result pending completion of testing). This translates into better application performance, better utilization, and an ability to respond quickly to business-critical demands.
Ease of application and data integration
Regardless of your development environment, Platform Symphony can meet your needs. Well-documented APIs enable fast integration for applications written in the following languages and software environments:
- C++
- C#, .NET
- Java™
- Excel COM
- Native binaries
Platform Symphony also supports other languages and environments commonly used in distributed computing, including Python. It also supports layered Hadoop technologies, including Apache PIG (a high-level language for writing data analysis programs) and HIVE (a data warehouse implementation for Hadoop) available as part of IBM BigInsights or with third-party Hadoop distributions.
Plug-ins for Microsoft Visual Studio Professional support compilation-free integration of .NET assemblies. Developers can use a step-by-step wizard to integrate and test applications end-to-end without needing to be expert in the Platform Symphony APIs. For Java developers, the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) is supported as well.
Associated with the MapReduce scheduling capabilities of Platform Symphony, plug-ins are included for distributed file systems such as IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS™), Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), and Appistry. Platform Symphony also supports integrations with third-party in-memory data grid solutions.
Accessibility by people with disabilities
A US Section 508 Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) containing details on accessibility compliance can be requested at
Back to top
|
|
| Product positioning |
|
Platform Symphony on Power is part of a family of cluster and grid workload management solutions from IBM. These products include:
- IBM LoadLeveler®
- IBM Platform LSF®
IBM LoadLeveler is a job scheduler that controls the scheduling of batch jobs. It matches job requirements to the best available compute resources for execution and runs on IBM Power Systems. LoadLeveler is an excellent choice as a workload management system for running applications already integrated with, or supported by, LoadLeveler on POWER-based systems.
The IBM Platform LSF family of products includes a batch workload scheduler similar to LoadLeveler. A number of other components are also available for Platform LSF including graphical workflow management tools, application-centric portals, monitoring and analysis tools, and tools for scheduling commercial software license features. Although there is some intersection in function between LoadLeveler and Platform LSF, Platform LSF may be an appropriate choice when you need these specific additional capabilities or when you want to deploy a Microsoft Windows, or mixed Windows, Linux, or UNIX (including IBM AIX®) environment involving hardware or operating systems not supported by IBM LoadLeveler.
Platform Symphony is different from all of the solutions mentioned above. Key differences include:
- Platform Symphony is most often used with programmatic (API-driven) workloads. Whereas a batch scheduler such as Platform LSF can schedule jobs in seconds or minutes, Platform Symphony can schedule tasks in milliseconds. Because of this difference, Platform Symphony is frequently described as supporting online or near-real-time requirements.
- Whereas Platform LSF jobs are typically command-line driven or integrated through a C language API, Platform Symphony offers a rich set of client and server-side APIs including C++, C#, .NET, Java, Excel COM, and other programming interfaces. Platform Symphony incorporates service-oriented middleware specifically optimized for high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
- With a batch workload scheduler, the resources assigned to a job are, with a few exceptions, static and do not adjust at runtime. With Platform Symphony, resource assignments are fluid and service instances can be reallocated very quickly.
- Jobs in a batch computing context often run for minutes or even hours. Task run times in Platform Symphony, by contrast, are often very short and jobs execute in milliseconds. As a point of reference, the largest Platform LSF clusters complete a few million jobs per day while the largest production Platform Symphony clusters run in excess of 400,000,000 tasks per day.
- Another difference is related to data handling. Batch workload schedulers generally rely on a shared file system to move data between hosts or on mechanisms such as pre-execution scripts to move data by other means. Platform Symphony, by contrast, supports fast in-band data movement and a variety of optimizations for data handling such as direct-data transfer, data compression, and data-aware scheduling to minimize data movement.
- Platform Symphony dynamically provisions services in response to application demand, but does not provision the actual cluster nodes or host operating environments. Because of this, Platform Symphony will normally be sold along with cluster management tools, or into environments that already have cluster management tools in place.
Because of these key differences, Platform Symphony typically runs different types of analytic workloads than Platform LSF. Workloads that require very fast scheduling, low latency, high throughput and scale, and fast, agile resource sharing are likely to be best served by Platform Symphony.
Some unique characteristics of Platform Symphony relative to other high-performance SOA grid middleware solutions are:
- Heterogeneity: Platform Symphony is independent of operating systems, programming languages, and software frameworks, making it easier to integrate heterogeneous environments. Platform Symphony can run not only multiple compute-oriented workloads, but also data-oriented MapReduce workloads on the same grid, sharing resources between them.
- Scale and performance: Platform Symphony employs a unique push-based scheduling model that helps it deliver better scalability and faster response times.
- Sharing: A unique resource sharing model at the heart of Platform Symphony gives users or lines of business instant access to owned resources when needed, but also facilitates dynamic resource sharing to help ensure that compute hosts are fully utilized at all times.
As previously mentioned, Platform Symphony is also available to run MapReduce jobs (a component of Apache Hadoop) through an optimized, low-latency MapReduce capability built into the Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition. If you deploy Hadoop clusters, you may want to consider IBM InfoSphere BigInsights for specific requirements where you want to run service-oriented workloads on the same cluster as Hadoop jobs. Where you have special requirements that demand low-latency scheduling to speed up short-duration MapReduce jobs, Platform Symphony may be the appropriate solution.
You may choose to deploy Platform LSF and Platform Symphony on the same shared-cluster infrastructure, but there are some limitations. If you deploy mixed Platform Symphony and Platform LSF clusters, contact a Platform Symphony product specialist for configuration advice and assistance.
Back to top
|
|
| Program number |
|
Program Program number VRM name 5765-SS7 7.1.0 Platform Symphony - Standard Edition on Power 5765-SA7 7.1.0 Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition on Power
Product identification number
Maintenance Maintenance
Program PID number 1 year PID number 3 year PID number
5765-SS7 5660-SSE 5662-SSE
5661-SSE 5664-SSE
5663-SSE
5765-SA7 5660-PSA 5662-PSA
5661-PSA 5664-PSA
5663-PSA
Back to top
|
|
| Offering Information |
|
Product information is available via the Offering Information website
Business Partner information
If you are a Direct Reseller - System Reseller acquiring products from IBM, you may link directly to Business Partner information for this announcement. A PartnerWorld® ID and password are required (use IBM ID).
Back to top
|
|
| Publications |
|
The following publications are available from the IBM Platform Symphony Knowledge Center for V7.1. Documentation is included in both web-friendly and PDF formats.
- Release notes
- Supported System Configurations
- Cluster Verification
- Connector for Microsoft Excel User Guide
- Platform Symphony Foundations
- GPU Application Development Guide
- Installing the Platform Symphony Client on UNIX
- Installing the Platform Symphony Client on Windows
- Installing Platform Symphony: Cluster Overview
- Cluster and Application Management Guide
- MapReduce Application Integration Guide
- MapReduce User Guide
- Symphony Kerberos Integration Guide
- MATLAB Integration Readme
- Platform Symphony Reference
- Troubleshooting RPM Installation Issues
- Upgrading your Platform Symphony Cluster
- Parallel Upgrade Guide for 5.x/6.x Clusters
- Virtual Server Harvesting User Guide
- Getting Started: Developer Overview
- Application Development Guide
- Installing and Using the Platform Symphony Solaris SDK
- Installing the Platform Symphony Developer Edition
- Platform Symphony Developer Tutorials
- Installing Platform Symphony MultiCluster
- MultiCluster User Guide
- FAQs
- Data Schema for Platform Symphony
- Platform Symphony C++ API Reference
- Platform Symphony Java API Reference
- Platform Symphony.NET API Reference
- Platform Symphony COM API Reference
- Platform Symphony REST API Reference
- Platform Symphony Error Message Reference
- Platform Symphony WSDL API Reference
IBM Knowledge Center is a worldwide central repository of IBM technical publications hosted in a single application, located at a single web address
You can find and navigate technical content more efficiently and easily with improved search, filtering, and user experience. Create your own collections of IBM documents with PDF output on demand.
Back to top
|
|
| Technical information |
|
Specified operating environment
Hardware requirements
Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 is supported on IBM Power Systems servers running PowerLinux operating environments. PowerLinux support is for running in big-endian mode only.
Power System servers running AIX can integrate with Platform Symphony on Power, but from a client perspective only.
Other platforms include:
- Linux on IBM Power
- IBM AIX 64-bit: C++ software development kit (SDK) and Java client
When the product is available, you can find additional details in the Supported System Configurations document on the IBM Symphony Knowledge Center. Visit
Software requirements
A high-level summary of operating environments supported by Platform Symphony on Power are listed below. Complete details, including "on demand" operating systems, can be found in the Supported System Configurations document on the IBM Platform Symphony Knowledge Center. Visit
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SE, 2008 EE, 2008 R2 SE, and 2008 R2 EE (64-bit)
- Windows HPC Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2012 Standard and Datacenter, and 2012 R2 Standard and Datacenter (64-bit)
- Windows 7, 8 (64-bit)
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on IBM POWER6®, POWER7®, and POWER8™
- Oracle Solaris SPARC 10-64 (64-bit) (with limitations)
- IBM AIX 7.1 (64-bit) (with limitations)
Note: Not all product capabilities are supported uniformly across all operating systems.
For Linux installations, precompiled binaries facilitate easy installation on different Linux kernels. Which distribution to install depends on the version of Linux, specifically the Linux kernel version, and the version of glibc.
In the case of Microsoft cluster deployments, compatibility is based on the version of the Windows operating environment.
POWER6, POWER7, and POWER8 that run PowerLinux supporting RHEL 6.x, RHEL 7, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP2, can run Platform Symphony on Power. PowerLinux support is in big-endian mode only.
Clusters can consist of nodes running multiple operating systems. For example, 64-bit Linux hosts can be mixed running different Linux distributions, and multiple Windows operating systems can be deployed as well. Platform Symphony on Power has mechanisms to deal with the management of these different types of hosts in the same cluster to control what application services are able to run on each type of host. Also, clients and services may be heterogeneous. It is common to have Platform Symphony on Power clients and services be implemented on different operating environments, languages, and frameworks. For example, a client-side spreadsheet can embed visual-basic code that opens a connection to Platform Symphony on Power to a simulation service that is built on Java running on RHEL 6.x.
Platform Symphony on Power clients can integrate their own applications so that they can be deployed and managed on a Platform Symphony on Power cluster. Because of this, software development environments become an important consideration for clients deploying Platform Symphony on Power.
If you choose to run Platform Symphony on Power together with a big data solution such as IBM BigInsights, Cloudera, IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) - File Placement Optimizer (FPO), MapReduce, HortonWorks, or Apache Hadoop, you should be aware that Platform Symphony on Power supports different Hadoop versions, and MapReduce API versions.
The following distributed file systems for MapReduce are supported:
- GPFS-FPO: V3.5.0.10, V3.5.0.11, V3.5.0.17, and V4.1.0.1
- GPFS-FPO on PowerLinux V3.5.0.11, V3.5.0.17, and V4.1.0.1
- GPFS-FPO on Linux x86-64: V3.5.0.10, V3.5.0.17, and V4.1.0.1
- Hadoop HDFS: V1.1.1 and V2.4
- Cloudera CDH: V5.0.2
- MapR: V1.0.3
- HortonWorks HDP: 1.3
Platform Symphony on Power has been tested with and supports applications frequently deployed in big data environments including most layered open-source Hadoop applications such as:
- Pig
- Mahout
- Nutch
- HBase
- Oozie
- Zookeeper
- Hive
- Pipes
After the product is available, you can find additional details about compilers, multicluster operating system support, supported file systems for Symphony high availability (HA), plug-in reference platforms, and supported databases and browsers in the Supported System Configurations document on the IBM Symphony Knowledge Center. Visit
Following is a partial list of third-party packages known to work with Platform Symphony on Power. In some cases, integration is explicitly supported by the vendor, but in other cases, integration is achieved through the scriptable symexec interfaces included in Platform Symphony on Power. Symexec enables workloads to be called using the Platform Symphony service-oriented middleware without explicitly requiring that applications be linked to Platform Symphony client- and service-side libraries.
- Murex
- Microsoft Excel
- Sungard Front Arena
- Sungard Adaptiv
- Algorithmics® Algo Risk®
- Oracle Coherence
- Milliman MG-Alfa
- Milliman MG-Hedge
- PolySystems
- Moody's Analytics Enterprise Risk Solutions (Fermat)
- Numerix
- Calypso
- MathWorks MATLAB
- Quantifi
- Towers Watson MoSes
- Misys Sophis
- Misys Summit
- Misys Kondor
- GGY Axis
- Openlink
- Open Source R
- Apache Hadoop
- HortonWorks HDP
- Cloudera CDH
The program's specifications and specified operating environment information may be found in documentation accompanying the program, if available, such as a readme file, or other information published by IBM, such as an announcement letter. Documentation and other program content may be supplied only in the English language.
Compatibility
Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 is fully compatible with Platform Symphony on Power, V6.x and previous supported versions. This means that clients running applications developed using earlier versions of the Platform Symphony APIs can deploy their application on the most up-to-date version of Platform Symphony on Power.
For example, if you have qualified your applications using the client- and server-side components and libraries included in Platform Symphony on Power, V6.1, those applications can be run as they are, without recompilation on Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1. Application profiles specific to each grid service govern the version of the API being used, making it possible for applications using multiple API versions to coexist on the same grid at the same time.
Limitations
Customers deploying Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 should be aware of the following limitations:
- AIX running on IBM Power Systems hardware is supported via Platform Symphony on Power client-side integrations only. AIX support is limited, and AIX platforms can be clients only to a Platform Symphony managed grid.
- Platform Symphony on Power clusters have been tested to support up to 128,000 service instances (usually each service instances is mapped to a core) on a single cluster with up to 5000 servers. This does not mean that a single client application can use 128,000 services instances concurrently; rather it means that multiple applications running simultaneously can use up to 128,000 services instances. Platform Symphony on Power supports scalability to 40,000 services instances (cores) per individual application.
- .NET applications written to use the Platform Symphony APIs using Platform Symphony on Power, V6.1, will not automatically run in a Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 environment. This is a limitation imposed by the .NET publisher's policy strictly enforced by the .NET framework. You can avoid this problem by either recompiling the applications with the latest version of the Platform Symphony SDK or by modifying configuration files to override the publisher's policy and ignore differences in version numbers.
- For clients running MapReduce workloads with Platform Symphony on Power and Apache Hadoop and HDFS, a Hadoop distribution is not actually included with Platform Symphony on Power. The Platform Symphony documentation includes details on how to install and configure various different Hadoop implementations for Platform Symphony on Power including IBM BigInsights, Cloudera CDH, and Apache Hadoop.
Other limitations are discussed in the Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 release notes and documentation found on the IBM Platform Symphony Knowledge Center at the time of product release.
Performance considerations
Platform Symphony on Power is specifically designed to help organizations meet their application performance goals by taking advantage of inherent opportunities for parallelism in a variety of application types. Because application parallelism is the key driver of performance in grid applications, efficiency emerges as the major consideration when determining how much faster an application can be expected to run when deployed on a Platform Symphony grid.
For example, if you need to run a workload consisting of 1,000 tasks that each takes ten seconds on average to complete, you would expect this workload to take 10,000 seconds or a little under three hours on a single processing element. If a 100-node grid were assembled that was 100% efficient, you would expect this same workload under ideal circumstances to run 100 times faster, and complete all 1,000 10-second tasks in just 100 seconds. Platform Symphony on Power has been tested in a 5,000 core environment to deliver application efficiency in excess of 95% for what are termed "embarrassingly parallel" applications.
Observed performance varies based on a large number of factors including:
- The nature of the application and the degree to which work can be parallelized.
- The nature of the application integration; for example, API-based integrations generally perform better than scripted integrations.
- The size and composition of the grid.
- The performance of individual management hosts and compute hosts.
- The capacity and nature of the network connecting grid nodes.
- The amount of data sent and retrieved along with each call to a service.
- The configuration of host computers running critical services such as the application session managers (referred to as SSM in the Platform Symphony architecture).
- Whether sessions are deemed "recoverable" or "unrecoverable" (unrecoverable sessions run slightly faster, but lose the ability to resume execution where they left off in the event of a failure of the node running the session manager.
- Considerations on the SSM host (sometimes referred to as broker host) such as virtual memory consumed and the speed of storage also impact performance as task counts become high. In cases where Platform Symphony on Power is managing millions of tasks and exhausts memory in the SSM, the session manager itself needs to start recording transaction details to persistent storage in order to avoid oversubscribing virtual memory.
IBM has amassed a significant amount of experience characterizing the performance of different types of applications in grid computing environments and can help customers realistically assess the types of performance gains that they can expect.
IBM Electronic Support
The IBM Support Portal is your gateway to technical support. This includes IBM Electronic Support tools and resources, for software and hardware, to help save time and simplify support. The Electronic Support tools can help you find answers to questions, download fixes, troubleshoot, automate data collection, submit and track problems through the Service Request online tool, and build skills. All these tools are made available through your IBM support agreement, at no additional charge. Read about the Electronic Support portfolio of tools
Access the IBM Support Portal
Access the online Service Request tool
Planning information
Clients who want to run both Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 and IBM Platform LSF on Power, V9.1 on the same grid environment, and share resources between the two environments, should seek configuration assistance from IBM. While documentation is included in the Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 distribution that explains how to do this, IBM can offer useful guidance.
Similarly, IBM can offer assistance to clients who want to augment an IBM Infosphere BigInsights installation with Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1. Platform Symphony replaces several of the grid management and service monitoring facilities inside BigInsights.
Customer responsibilities
While the installation and upgrade procedures for Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 have been tested carefully, as with any installation or upgrade, it is prudent to ensure that backups exist and prepare for the installation or upgrade in advance.
To facilitate this process, the Platform Knowledge Center, provided with Platform Symphony, includes web-based and PDF documentation for Upgrading your Platform Symphony cluster that outlines the specific steps that should be taken in planning and executing a cluster upgrade.
For clients planning a new installation, the document Installing Your Platform Symphony Cluster should be reviewed carefully. This document provides a thorough explanation of the steps involved in installing Platform Symphony on Power on Windows or Linux or UNIX environments.
Installability
When installing or upgrading your Platform Symphony on Power cluster, the functionality of prior versions of Platform Symphony on Power is preserved. For example, cluster configurations, application definitions, resource sharing profiles, and all historical data can be migrated to your Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 cluster.
Applications running on previous Platform Symphony on Power versions can be migrated to version 7.1 without modification. Applications can be run on the same Platform Symphony on Power compute node which exists in two or more clusters.
Packaging
Platform Symphony on Power, V7.1 is distributed on DVD media and is available for electronic download. Included are:
- IBM International Program License Agreement in multiple languages
- Release notes
- Installation or User's Guide
- Required files
This program, when downloaded from a website, contains the applicable IBM license agreement and License Information, if appropriate, and will be presented for acceptance at the time of installation of the program. For future reference, the license and License Information will be stored in a directory such as LICENSE.TXT.
This program, when downloaded from a website, contains the applicable IBM license agreement and License Information, if appropriate, and will be presented for acceptance at the time of installation of the program. For future reference, the license and License Information will be stored in a directory such as LICENSE.TXT.
Security, auditability, and control
Platform Symphony on Power uses the security and auditability features of the system in which it is installed. The customer is responsible for evaluation, selection, and implementation of security features, administrative procedures, and appropriate controls in application systems and communication facilities.
Back to top
|
|
| Ordering information |
|
5765-SS7 - Platform Symphony - Standard Edition for Power, V7.1 Basic license one-time charge Feature Feature description number Per processor core with 1 year software maintenance 0001 Per block of 250 processors (1) 0002
5765-SA7 - Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition for Power, V7.1 Basic license one-time charge Feature Feature description number Per processor core with 1 year software maintenance 0002 Per block of 250 processors (1) 0001 Per proc core trade-up from Sym Std with 1 year SWM 0004 Per 250 proc core trade-up from Sym Std with 1 year SWM 0003 (1)The feature for a block of 250 processors is provided for convenience with large orders. A quantity of one for this feature will order a license for 250 processors.
Customization feature
Description Feature number IBM Electronic Software Delivery for initial software orders 3453
This software license includes Software Maintenance, also referred to as Software Subscription and Technical Support.
Extending coverage for a total of three years from the date of acquisition may be elected. Order the program number, feature number, and quantity to extend coverage for your software licenses. If maintenance has expired, specify the after license feature number.
There is no change to existing Software Maintenance features.
Charge metric
Program name PID number Charge metric
Platform
Symphony -
Std Ed for
Power 5765-SS7 Per processor core
with 1 year SWMA
1-year SWMA: 5660-SSE Per processor core
Registration
and Renewal
1-year SWMA: 5661-SSE Per processor core
After-license
3-year SWMA: 5662-SSE Per processor core
Registration
3-year SWMA: 5663-SSE Per processor core
Renewal
3-year SWMA: 5664-SSE Per processor core
After-license
Platform
Symphony -
Adv Ed for
Power 5765-SA7 Per processor core
with 1 year SWMA
1-year SWMA: 5660-PSA Per processor core
Registration
and Renewal
1-year SWMA: 5661-PSA Per processor core
After-license
3-year SWMA: 5662-PSA Per processor core
Registration
3-year SWMA: 5663-PSA Per processor core
Renewal
3-year SWMA: 5664-PSA Per processor core
After-license
Processor Core (or Processor)
Processor Core (or Processor) is a unit of measure by which the program can be licensed. Processor Core (or Processor) is a functional unit within a computing device that interprets and executes instructions. A processor core consists of at least an instruction control unit and one or more arithmetic or logic unit. With multicore technology, each core is considered a Processor Core. Entitlements must be acquired for all activated Processor Cores available for use on the server.
Notes:
- Some programs may require licenses for the program and what is being managed. In that case, the following applies. In addition to the entitlements required for the program directly, licensee must obtain entitlements for this program sufficient to cover the processor cores managed by the program.
- Some programs may be licensed on a managed basis only. In that case, the following applies. Instead of the entitlements required for the program directly, licensee must obtain entitlements for this program sufficient to cover the processor cores managed by program.
System Program Order (SPO)
System Program Order (SPO): An order for SPO 5692-LOP or 5692-A6P is mandatory for shipments of program distribution. The individual licensed program orders are for registration and billing purposes only. No shipment occurs under these orders.
To receive shipment of machine-readable materials, the order needs to include either SPO 5692-LOP or SPO 5692-A6P, and the required feature number. The individual licensed program order (for example, 5765-SS7) must still be ordered but will be for registration and billing purposes only and will not result in shipment of materials.
Program Feature number Program/Function name number 5692-LOP Platform Symphony - Standard Edition, V7.1 2513 5692-LOP Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition, V7.1 2514 5692-LOP Platform LSF Std f Platform Symphony V7, V9.1.1 2515 5692-A6P Platform Symphony - Standard Edition, V7.1 2316 5692-A6P Platform Symphony - Advanced Edition, V7.1 2317 5692-A6P Platform LSF Std f Platform Symphony V7, V9.1.1 2318
Back to top
|
|
| Terms and conditions |
|
The information provided in this announcement letter is for reference and convenience purposes only. The terms and conditions that govern any transaction with IBM are contained in the applicable contract documents such as the IBM International Program License Agreement, IBM International Passport Advantage Agreement, and the IBM Agreement for Acquisition of Software Maintenance.
Licensing
IBM International Program License Agreement including the License Information document and Proof of Entitlement (PoE) govern your use of the program. PoEs are required for all authorized use.
This software license includes Software Subscription and Support (also referred to as Software Maintenance).
Agreement for Acquisition of Software Maintenance
When a customer orders a license to the program other than via Passport Advantage, the IBM Agreement for Acquisition of Software Maintenance (Z125-6011) applies for Subscription and Support (also referred to as Software Maintenance) and does not require customer signatures.
These programs are licensed under the IBM Program License Agreement (IPLA) and the associated Agreement for Acquisition of Software Maintenance, which provide for support with ongoing access to releases and versions of the program. IBM includes one year of Software Subscription and Support (also referred to as Software Maintenance) with the initial license acquisition of each program acquired. The initial period of Software Subscription and Support (also referred to as Software Maintenance) can be extended by the purchase of a renewal option, if available. These programs have a one-time license charge for use of the program and an annual renewable charge for the enhanced support that includes telephone assistance (voice support for defects during normal business hours), as well as access to updates, releases, and versions of the program as long as support is in effect.
License Information number
L-PXAC-9JFAGD
The program's License Information will be available for review on the IBM Software License Agreement website
Limited warranty applies
Yes
Limited warranty
IBM warrants that when the program is used in the specified operating environment, it will conform to its specifications. The warranty applies only to the unmodified portion of the program. IBM does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation of the program or that IBM will correct all program defects. You are responsible for the results obtained from the use of the program.
IBM provides you with access to IBM databases containing information on known program defects, defect corrections, restrictions, and bypasses at no additional charge. For further information, consult the IBM Software Support Handbook found at
IBM will maintain this information for at least one year after the original licensee acquires the program (warranty period).
Money-back guarantee
If for any reason you are dissatisfied with the program and you are the original licensee, you may obtain a refund of the amount you paid for it, if within 30 days of your invoice date you return the program and its PoE to the party from whom you obtained it. If you downloaded the program, you may contact the party from whom you acquired it for instructions on how to obtain the refund.
For clarification, note that for programs acquired under any of IBM's On/Off Capacity on Demand (On/Off CoD) software offerings, this term does not apply since these offerings apply to programs already acquired and in use by you.
Other terms
Volume orders (IVO)
Yes. Contact your IBM representative.
IBM International Passport Advantage Agreement
Passport Advantage applies
No
Software Subscription and Support applies
Yes. All distributed software licenses include Software Subscription and Support (also referred to as Software Maintenance) for a period of 12 months from the date of acquisition, providing a streamlined way to acquire IBM software and assure technical support coverage for all licenses. Extending coverage for a total of three years from date of acquisition may be elected.
While your Software Subscription and Support is in effect, IBM provides you assistance for your routine, short duration installation and usage (how-to) questions, and code-related questions. IBM provides assistance via telephone and, if available, electronic access, only to your information systems (IS) technical support personnel during the normal business hours (published prime shift hours) of your IBM support center. (This assistance is not available to your end users.) IBM provides Severity 1 assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the year. For additional details, consult your IBM Software Support Handbook at
Software Subscription and Support does not include assistance for the design and development of applications, your use of programs in other than their specified operating environment, or failures caused by products for which IBM is not responsible under this agreement.
IBM Operational Support Services - SoftwareXcel
No
System i® Software Maintenance applies
No
Variable charges apply
No
Educational allowance available
Yes. A 15% education allowance applies to qualified education institution customers.
Back to top
|
|
| Statement of good security practices |
|
IT system security involves protecting systems and information through prevention, detection, and response to improper access from within and outside your enterprise. Improper access can result in information being altered, destroyed, or misappropriated or can result in misuse of your systems to attack others. Without a comprehensive approach to security, no IT system or product should be considered completely secure and no single product or security measure can be completely effective in preventing improper access. IBM systems and products are designed to be part of a comprehensive security approach, which will necessarily involve additional operational procedures, and may require other systems, products, or services to be most effective. IBM does not warrant that systems and products are immune from the malicious or illegal conduct of any party.
Back to top
|
|
| IBM Electronic Services |
|
Electronic Service Agent™ and the IBM Electronic Support web portal are dedicated to providing fast, exceptional support to IBM Systems customers. The IBM Electronic Service Agent tool is a no-additional-charge tool that proactively monitors and reports hardware events, such as system errors, performance issues, and inventory. The Electronic Service Agent tool can help you stay focused on your company's strategic business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing day-to-day IT maintenance issues. Servers enabled with this tool can be monitored remotely around the clock by IBM Support, all at no additional cost to you.
Now integrated into the base operating system of AIX V5.3, AIX V6.1, and AIX V7.1, Electronic Service Agent is designed to automatically and electronically report system failures and utilization issues to IBM, which can result in faster problem resolution and increased availability. System configuration and inventory information collected by the Electronic Service Agent tool also can be viewed on the secure Electronic Support web portal, and used to improve problem determination and resolution by you and the IBM support team. To access the tool main menu, simply type smitty esa_main, and select Configure Electronic Service Agent. In addition, ESA now includes a powerful web user interface, giving the administrator easy access to status, tool settings, problem information, and filters. For more information and documentation on how to configure and use Electronic Service Agent, refer to
The IBM Electronic Support portal is a single Internet entry point that replaces the multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services and support. This portal enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources for assistance in resolving technical problems. The My Systems and Premium Search functions make it even easier for Electronic Service Agent tool-enabled customers to track system inventory and find pertinent fixes.
Benefits
Increased uptime: The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to enhance the Warranty or Maintenance Agreement by providing faster hardware error reporting and uploading system information to IBM Support. This can translate to less wasted time monitoring the symptoms, diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM Support to open a problem record. Its 24x7 monitoring and reporting mean no more dependence on human intervention or off-hours customer personnel when errors are encountered in the middle of the night.
Security: The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to be secure in monitoring, reporting, and storing the data at IBM. The Electronic Service Agent tool is designed to securely transmit either via the Internet (HTTPS or VPN) or modem to provide customers a single point of exit from their site. Communication is one way. Activating Electronic Service Agent does not enable IBM to call into a customer's system.
For additional information, refer to IBM Electronic Service Agent
More accurate reporting: Because system information and error logs are automatically uploaded to the IBM Support center in conjunction with the service request, you are not required to find and send system information, decreasing the risk of misreported or misdiagnosed errors. Once inside IBM, problem error data is run through a data knowledge management system and knowledge articles are appended to the problem record.
Customized support: Using the IBM ID entered during activation, you can view system and support information in the My Systems and Premium Search sections of the Electronic Support website at
My Systems provides valuable reports of installed hardware and software using information collected from the systems by Electronic Service Agent. Reports are available for any system associated with your IBM ID. Premium Search combines the function of search and the value of Electronic Service Agent information, providing advanced search of the technical support knowledgebase. Using Premium Search and the Electronic Service Agent information that has been collected from your system, you are able to see search results that apply specifically to your systems.
For more information on how to utilize the power of IBM Electronic Services, contact your IBM Systems Services Representative, or visit
Back to top
|
|
| Prices |
|
Information on charges is available at
Choose the option entitled Purchase/upgrade tools.
One-
time
Type- charge
model feature
Order type number number
Per processor core with 1 year software maint 5765-SS7 0001
Per block of 250 processors (1) 5765-SS7 0002
Per processor core with 1 year software maint 5765-SA7 0002
Per block of 250 processors (1) 5765-SA7 0001
Per proc core trade-up from Sym Std w1 yr SWM 5765-SA7 0004
Per 250 proc core trade-up from Sym Std 1 yr SWM 5765-SA7 0003
Pricing terms
Prices in the following PDF prices link are suggested list prices on day of announcement for the U.S. only. They are provided for your information only. Dealer prices may vary, and prices may also vary by country. IBM list price does not include tax or shipping and is subject to change without notice.
IBM Global Financing
IBM Global Financing offers competitive financing to credit-qualified customers to assist them in acquiring IT solutions. Offerings include financing for IT acquisition, including hardware, software, and services, from both IBM and other manufacturers or vendors. Offerings (for all customer segments: small, medium, and large enterprise), rates, terms, and availability can vary by country. Contact your local IBM Global Financing organization or visit
IBM Global Financing offerings are provided through IBM Credit LLC in the United States, and other IBM subsidiaries and divisions worldwide to qualified commercial and government customers. Rates are based on a customer's credit rating, financing terms, offering type, equipment type, and options, and may vary by country. Other restrictions may apply. Rates and offerings are subject to change, extension, or withdrawal without notice.
Financing from IBM Global Financing helps you preserve cash and credit lines, enables more technology acquisition within current budget limits, permits accelerated implementation of economically attractive new technologies, offers payment and term flexibility, and can help match project costs to projected benefits. Financing is available worldwide for credit-qualified customers.
For more financing information, visit
Back to top
|
|
| Order now |
|
To order, contact the Americas Call Centers or your local IBM representative, or your IBM Business Partner.
To identify your local IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, call 800-IBM-4YOU (426-4968).
Phone: 800-IBM-CALL (426-2255)
Fax: 800-2IBM-FAX (242-6329)
Email: callserv@ca.ibm.com
Mail: IBM Teleweb Customer Support
ibm.com® Sales Execution Center, Americas North
3500 Steeles Ave. East, Tower 3/4
Markham, Ontario
Canada
L3R 2Z1
Reference: RE001
The Americas Call Centers, our national direct marketing organization, can add your name to the mailing list for catalogs of IBM products.
Note: Shipments will begin after the planned availability date.
Trademarks
BigInsights, Power Systems, PowerLinux, GPFS, POWER8 and Electronic Service Agent are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM, Symphony, Power, Passport Advantage, InfoSphere, PureSystems, LoadLeveler, LSF, AIX, PartnerWorld, POWER6, POWER7, Algorithmics, Algo Risk, System i and ibm.com are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.
Oracle and Java are trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
Terms of use
IBM products and services which are announced and available in your country can be ordered under the applicable standard agreements, terms, conditions, and prices in effect at the time. IBM reserves the right to modify or withdraw this announcement at any time without notice. This announcement is provided for your information only. Additional terms of use are located at:
For the most current information regarding IBM products, consult your IBM representative or reseller, or visit the IBM worldwide contacts page
