Preview: IBM z/VM 6.3 - Smarter Computing with efficiency at scale
IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa Software Announcement ZP13-0027February 5, 2013
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| At a glance |
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IBM® z/VM® V6.3 extends the mainframe virtualization platform to help you reshape and derive more value from your experiences. z/VM V6.3 is designed to offer:
- Improved economies of scale with z/VM support for 1 TB of real memory
- Better performance for larger virtual machines
- Quadruples memory scalability while continuing to maintain nearly 100% resource utilization
- Reduced LPAR sprawl for additional horizontal scalability
- Considerably more virtual machines can be consolidated into a single LPAR, depending on workload characteristics.
- Reduced administrative expense for managing a smaller number of large capacity z/VM host servers
- Better performance for larger virtual machines
- Improved performance with HiperDispatch
- More efficient utilization of CPU hardware resources underneath multiple layers of virtualization running multiple and diverse workloads
Today's z/VM provides a highly secure and scalable enterprise cloud infrastructure and an environment for efficiently running multiple diverse critical applications with support for more virtual servers than any other platform in a single footprint. Enhancements that provide improved scalability and better price performance strengthen z/VM as a foundation for optimized workload deployment with reduced costs per virtual server.
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| Overview |
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The IT industry is in the midst of an important technological shift driving growth and innovation - built on the confluence of large amounts of data, cloud, mobile devices and social business. This environment presents an opportunity for organizations to reshape the value they deliver through the customer experience.
Your workloads continue to grow in size, putting significant pressure on the resource requirements of individual virtual machines. To address pressure on memory resources, z/VM V6.3 supports 1 TB of real memory, which may increase server consolidation ratios and continues to provide support for more virtual servers than any other platform in a single footprint. With the introduction of new functionality to increase memory scalability limits, z/VM V6.3 provides the capability to scale with efficiency both horizontally and vertically, supporting your growing demands.
To address your increasing workload demands for processor cycles and for quicker access to memory, z/VM V6.3 delivers HiperDispatch function that can improve workload throughput by optimizing processor cache utilization. HiperDispatch attempts to redispatch a virtual server repeatedly on the same physical CPU, or on a collection of physically adjacent CPUs, to increase the chances of obtaining data from the processor cache, instead of incurring time delays by having to go to main memory for data.
Strengthening the affinity between dispatched work and logical and physical processors increases the probability of cache hits and improved performance. As processor configurations become larger, this enhancement mitigates the performance loss of large scale configurations by reducing the random dispersal of work across unrelated processors.
HiperDispatch is expected to deliver a CPU performance boost depending on a workload's characteristics. Memory-intensive workloads , running on large numbers of physical processors (16 to 32) , are most likely to achieve the highest performance gains.
These select highlights of z/VM V6.3 contribute to the foundation of a highly secure and scalable enterprise cloud infrastructure and an environment for efficiently running multiple critical applications. Examples of new solutions well suited for this environment are:
- Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities® , providing integrated city management with maximum flexibility and scalability on zEnterprise
- IBM Smarter Infrastructure for Social Services, ensuring protection for citizen information with a single source of secure data and flexibility in deployment
- IBM IT Asset Management for Government, helping government agencies improve the productivity and efficiency of their critical assets
For the most current information on z/VM V6.3, refer to the z/VM website at
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| Key prerequisites |
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z/VM V6.3 is planned to run on these IBM System z® servers:
- IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12)
- IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196)
- IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114)
- IBM System z10® ( z10™ EC, z10 BC)
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| Planned availability date |
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Third quarter, 2013
Previews provide insight into IBM plans and direction. Availability, prices, ordering information, and terms and conditions will be provided when the product is announced.
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| Description |
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IBM z/VM V6.3 updates
Memory management
The z/VM memory management algorithms are redesigned to enable support for real memory up to 1 TB. These enhancements are intended to improve efficiency for the overcommitment of virtual to real memory for guests and to improve performance. Some benefits of these memory management changes:
- Improved efficiency in the management of memory overcommitment.
- Less need to use multiple LPARs by supporting more virtual machines in a single image and larger virtual machines in a single image, reducing system management complexity.
- When multiple LPARs make sense for other reasons (for example, application availability) the Single System Image feature provides a way to reduce system management complexity.
Preparing for the increased memory scalability will depend on your current hardware configuration for memory and CPUs. Depending on the workload you plan to run, you may need to add additional capacity to take full advantage of the 1 TB support provided in z/VM V6.3. This may mean adding additional memory and CPUs to your existing configuration or adding additional books to your system. To assist with planning for z/VM V6.3, additional information may be found at
New information will be added as it becomes available.
HiperDispatch
HiperDispatch is intended to improve efficiency in the use of CPU resources. This enhancement can help to improve performance and allow you to get more business value from your existing IBM System z servers, perhaps by consolidating z/VM workloads in to fewer (larger) z/VM LPARs.
HiperDispatch improves CPU efficiency by causing the Control Program to run work in a manner that recognizes and exploits System z machine topology to increase the effectiveness of physical machine memory cache. This includes:
- Requesting the LPAR hypervisor to handle the partition's logical processors in a manner that exploits physical machine topology
- Dispatching virtual servers in a manner that tends to reduce their movement within the partition's topology
- Dispatching multiprocessor virtual servers in a manner that tends to keep the server's virtual CPUs logically close to one another within the partition's topology
HiperDispatch also improves CPU efficiency by automatically tuning the LPAR's use of its logical CPUs to try to reduce multiprocessor effects. This includes:
- Sensing and forecasting key indicators of workload intensity and of elevated multiprocessor effect
- Autonomically tuning the z/VM system to reduce multiprocessor effect when it is determined that HiperDispatch can help to improve CPU efficiency
The supported processors limit for z/VM V6.3 remains 32, but with improved multiprocessor efficiency.
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| Statement of general direction |
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IBM Tivoli® intends to provide monitoring and management support with OMEGAMON® XE for z/VM and Linux™ for the enhanced Single System Image and Live Guest Relocation capability.
IBM's statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice at IBM's sole discretion. Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.
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| Product number |
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Type model Program name 5741-A07 z/VM V6.3
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| Announcement countries |
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All European, Middle Eastern, and African countries.
Trademarks
z10 is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
IBM, z/VM, Smarter Cities, System z, System z10, Tivoli and OMEGAMON 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.
Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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