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IBM Wave for z/VM: Grouping

  

IBM Wave for z/VM is a one-stop-shop for virtualization management solution that is currently focused on z/VM hypervisor that runs on IBM z Systems. Through a highly rich graphical client IBM Wave provides, on top of the z/VM hypervisor, excellent management, provisioning, automation, and reporting capabilities.

This blog gives a deep view of the added value that IBM Wave provides to z Systems clients who work with z/VM and Linux.

 

True Story!

During a proof of concept, we asked a client for a Linux server to use to install the IBM Wave management server (WAVESERV). At that point, the client was managing Linux guests manually using spreadsheets. After scanning the spreadsheets and finding a server, they were about to begin the install. Just then, one of the VPs spotted that the server was moved into production a week ago, yet the spreadsheets weren’t updated! Luckily no harm was done and the client quickly found a different test server for the installation.

Without easy to use management tools for z/VM, similar scenarios can happen to any client, at any site, at any time. Even during critical production periods! Let's take a look at one of the many features IBM Wave has that can help you avoid problems like this.

 

Overview of grouping

IBM Wave provides an advanced grouping mechanism that provides you with the ability to group servers together and help manage virtual server “farms”. In each group, you can right-click and perform an action on all the servers in the group (no matter the group type).

As a quick example, with a single click you can:

  • Start all the production servers.
  • Stop only the web servers to do maintenance on the databases.
  • Run patches on all the SUSE Linux Enterprise Servers (SLES), and more.

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Figure 1. Basic grouping view

As shown in Figure 1, the basic group view gives you a lot of information in just a single glance at the IBM Wave interface!

  • Is the group empty? 
  • Does the group have z/VM guests in it?
  • What type of guests are in the group?
  • What are the state of the guests in the group?

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Figure 2. Inside a group

Figure 2 shows a group that is half green and half gray, which means that some guests are active and others are inactive. By looking at the Penguin icon, we know that there are Linux servers in the group. The blue wave tells us that there are IBM Wave guests in the group.

 

Group types

There are five types of groups:

  1. Site defined groups (SDG)
  2. Projects
  3. OS distributions
  4. z/VM accounts
  5. Custom Attributes

On the “z/VM User Groups” tab, you can select the group type you want to view. You can assign each guest to one group per group type. For example, guest DEMOA can be part of the SDG named “SPECIAL-SERVERS” while it's still part of Project – “TOP-SECRET”. The grouping mechanism gives you different ways to view the guests.

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Figure 3a. DEMOA in the SPECIAL-SERVERS SDG

Site Defined Groups can be added easily. Right-click on the white space outside of the existing groups, and select “Add new site defined group”.  You can move users between groups by simply holding the CTRL key down, and drag it to a different group. This will also work for other group types as well.

 

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Figure 3b. DEMOA in the Project TOP-SECRET

 

Closer look at group types

There are different aspects within in each type of group. Let’s take a closer look. 

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Figure 4. Group By view of group types

Site Defined Groups  

As described previously, an SDG is a grouping mechanism that arranges the servers to your preference.

 

Projects

Projects have more details about the project such as Contact Name, Phone, Email, and more, which gives you all the information necessary when you must contact the person in charge of the project.

 

OS distribution

OS Distribution provides you with the option to group based on the Linux OS distribution. If you need to run a patch on all SLES 10 servers, you can do it with ease.

 

z/VM Account

For veteran z/VM shops that used accounts to manage servers prior to IBM Wave, IBM Wave provides the z/VM Account group. This way you can keep your current site standards and view them from the IBM Wave GUI.

 

Custom Attributes

If the default grouping types do not meet your needs, you can create your own group type with Custom Attributes. For example, you can create a group type of “Environment” and divide some or all of the server into different Environment group types such as Production, Development, Labs, Test, and more. Another group type you can might have is “Application”.In the Application group, you might have the groups like Web-servers, VPNs, Databases, and LDAPS.

Creating the Custom Attributes:

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Viewing the Custom Attributes in the Group Viewer:

Grouped by "Environments"

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Grouped by "Application"

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Using IBM Wave groups, you have the tools to view and interact with your virtual servers in the way that fits your installation best.

To learn out more about IBM Wave, visit www.ibm.com/systems/z/solutions/virtualization/wave