This blog also applies to Power Servers running Linux on Power native on the machine. While you can perform a text based Linux install on the dumb console terminal emulator (see previous AIXpert Blog about the serial cable that you need and the software) as a challenge to survive the Tab navigation, space selection, sometimes the cursor works and occasional Function Key show stopper (SUSE SLES 11) - I would recommend a VNC install. First, you can get back to your desk to run VNC viewer client to complete the install and not stand in the noisy... [More]

Yes this is still the AIX pert Blog but my beautiful POWER8 machines can also run that "odd ball" operating system now called IBM i. That should generate some comments :-)   We have a project to install IBM i 7.2 and then adopt it into PowerVC for Capture and Deploy. This feature is in beta test and selected customers allowed to give it ago. It is planned for full release later this year (that is not an IBM promise). If you are interested in testing PowerVC with IBM i visit:... [More]

AIX Workload Partitions (WPAR) are now certified by Oracle for Oracle 10gr2 Oracle announces Oracle 10gR2 support for Workload Partitions IBM TechDocs Flash: AIX WPAR (Workload Partition) available for Oracle Database        

Tags:  oracle wpar power aix

This is an odd blog - it is about the withdrawal of POWER6 - which was announced in stealth mode! It has come as a shock to some customers. Given POWER7 comes with vast improvements in price performance you might say: Who cares and who would be buying POWER6 anyway?  Well some customers with long term roll-out plans, need consistent equipment for reduced complexity and reduced testing and so still want POWER6 and could get caught out. So if you care, here is my list of withdrawal dates after which you can't buy new machines (nor POWER5 to... [More]

Tags:  systems power6 power

Well it is still early days for this new machine (week 5 from General Availability and there was Xmas in the middle) and I get distracted but concurrently running lots of projects.  In this AIXpert Blog entry I am to make some comments on the S812LC OpenPOWER machine regarding Updating Firmware and then Getting the Front Disk Bays working with the simpler RAID Controller (Feature code EC3Y but I am sure the other fancy RAID Controller would be much the same but with fancier RIAD options like RAID5).   The development... [More]

There were a number of announcements made today by Power Systems including new hardware features, a new platform management console, and new PowerVM virtualization capabilities. Two new Power Systems blade servers were announced, the PS703 and PS704 . The PS703 blade supports up to 16 processor cores in a single BladeCenter slot and the PS704 supports up to 32 cores in a double-wide blade.   The PS703 and PS704 also support a new solid state drive option. The Power 750 Express server has new processor options or 4, 6 or 8 cores per socket... [More]

Tags:  powervm power aix systems

System microcode and HMC versions are becoming increasingly coupled. New microcode requires the latest HMC version. And the latest HMC version may not be fully backward compatible with older microcode. Customers are responsible for maintaining the HMC and system microcode on most pSeries models. To avoid problems, here are "my best practices" for maintaining HMC-microcode. This list intended for mission critical, production systems. Further it is intended for system microcode, rather than adapter microcode. You'll notice that some of the... [More]

Tags:  hmc

Please provide comments on this blog entry - I want to know where I have it wrong? With IBM's massive investment in Linux on Power my brain hurts trying to express the advantages.  This is because the technology is excellent but the bits you want depend on where you are coming from.  So I have tried to break out potential users in to various types. For the record I am an Ab Linux on POWER User type! A - Current AIX and POWER user Already understands the POWER infrastructure, AIX and/or IBM i and are adding a new operating system... [More]

A POWER user asked ATS: "How to replace an old HMC (7042-CR4) for a new model HMC (7042-CR8) with the latest software?" Out of the two of us: my colleague Gareth Coates is by far the HMC expert and so I deferred to him and here is the response.   The HMC documentation and Redbooks don't seem to cover a HMC hardware replacement but it is simple to do - if you just treat it as a software upgrade only to a different machine. Fortunately, if you unplug your old CR4 after the backup then you have a very simple recovery... [More]

Many people in computing, we seem fixated on "percentages" when talking about CPU use - We need to fix that. When a computer has an absolutely fixed number of CPUs on the time scale of a few years the percentages of the box makes a lot of sense. But in a virtualised world we will have to change. For 10 years, we can do Dynamic CPU changes to a LPAR (Virtual Machine). Yesterdays 40% used is today's 80% because the admin guy  added a couple of CPUs over night. If we look at the percentages and see a massive jump and hit the... [More]

This is part 2 of Systems Director licensing or at least working out what you are doing with System Director that requires a license. In part 1, we looked at listing (via the command line) the POWER machines that Systems Director was connected too.   This time we what to find out the machines that Active Energy Manager (AEM) is controlling. Once you have installed AEM it is tempting to start monitoring and controlling all your Power Systems electrical use and temperatures but you should only use AEM if you have a license for AEM for each... [More]

Tags:  energy active systems power powervm aem hmc licence manager aix director

Assuming you have dozens to hundreds of AIX VM's now running on your PowerVC controlled machines at some point you will have to upgrade the AIX version to keep current and ensure security.   PowerVC does not have OS upgrade functions but it does have features that can help make upgrades safe and simpler.  The upgrading of AIX is already handled by tried and tested methods and to be blunt I am not convinced I want PowerVC to do it as I want to visually check the install worked and immediately address any issues to ensure the... [More]

How many Shared Storage Pools in the world? In the recent IBM Edge2015 Technical University conference I had over 160 people join my sessions on SSP. This shows considerable interest on the new features and what is coming next.   The release later in the year has a LARGE new feature that we have been waiting for and a bunch of smaller ones that are useful and increase usability - but I can't say more without a Non Disclosure Agreement :-)    Just want you to know there is lots more on the way. The Q1 2015 new... [More]

Time to review your AIX and VIOS levels?   It is part of my job to work with customers that have hit performance problems or gone critical after a "small" configuration change ("What could possibly go wrong? - Oh nuts!"). Time and time again my first reaction is: "That AIX, VIOS and Firmware version is so old !    What where you thinking? "     Avoid running in Production on your vital Servers software with issues, security holes and bugs that someone hit 2 + years ago, raised a PMR, IBM... [More]