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Learn about the editions of the PowerVM® Editions hardware feature.
The PowerVM Editions hardware feature includes the following editions:
The following table describes each component of the PowerVM Editions feature and the editions in which each component is included.
| Component | Description | Editions |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) | You can use the graphical interface of the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) management partition on some servers that are not managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC). |
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| Live Partition Mobility | You can migrate an active or inactive AIX®, Linux, or IBM® i logical partition from one system to another by using Live Partition Mobility. |
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| Logical partition suspend and resume | A running AIX, Linux, or IBM i logical partition can be suspended along with its operating system and applications. When a logical partition is suspended, the state of the logical partition is saved on persistent storage, and the server resources that were in use by that logical partition are made available for use by other logical partitions. At a later time, the operation of the suspended logical partition and its applications can be resumed. |
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| Management | Management tools like HMC, IVM, and VMControl help to aggregate and manage resources by using a consolidated, logical view. VMControl is an advanced Systems Director plug-in that provides advanced heterogeneous virtualization management. |
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| Micro-Partitioning® technology | You can allocate processors to logical partitions in increments of 0.01, which allows multiple logical partitions to share the processing power of the system. When the firmware is at level 7.6, or later, micropartitions can be defined as small as 0.05 of a processor and can be changed in increments as small as 0.01 of a processor. A maximum of 20 micropartitions can be created per core. |
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| N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) | NPIV is a standard technology for Fibre Channel networks. With NPIV you can connect multiple logical partitions to one physical port of a physical Fibre Channel adapter. |
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| PowerVM Active Memory™ Sharing | You can share memory among logical partitions in a shared memory pool, by using PowerVM Active Memory Sharing. |
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| PowerVP™ | Power Virtualization Performance (PowerVP) is a performance monitoring solution that provides detailed and real-time information about virtualized workloads that are running on Power Systems™. You can use PowerVP to understand how virtual workloads use resources, to analyze performance bottlenecks, and to make informed choices about resource allocation and virtualized machine placement. |
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| Shared processor pools | You can assign priorities to partitions, and the hypervisor allocates processing power as needed by the applications. This feature provides automatic nondisruptive balancing of processing power between logical partitions assigned to shared pools, which results in increased throughput and the potential to reduce processor-based software licensing costs. This feature is supported on POWER6® and POWER7® processor-based servers. |
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| Shared storage pools | Shared storage pools provide distributed storage access to all VIOS logical partitions in the cluster. On VIOS Version 2.2.0.11, Fix Pack 24, Service Pack 1, you can create a cluster of only one VIOS partition that is connected to the same shared storage pool. On VIOS Version 2.2.1.3, or later, you can create a cluster that consists of up to 16 VIOS partitions. |
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| Single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) | SR-IOV is a PCI-Express standard for I/O virtualization. An SR-IOV capable adapter can be assigned to a logical partition to run in the dedicated mode or assigned to the hypervisor to run in the shared mode. When the adapter is assigned to the hypervisor and is configured in the shared mode, the adapter is shared by multiple operating systems at the same time. |
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| Thin provisioning | Thin provisioning helps reduce the amount of unused storage that is allocated to applications or users. Allocation of actual space on the storage subsystem is deferred until the data is written to disk. |
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| Thick provisioning | Thick provisioning helps reserve storage space for virtual disks, thus ensuring that no failures occur because of lack of storage space. |
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| VIOS | You can share physical I/O resources on the server between client logical partitions by using VIOS. |
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The following table describes the PowerSC™ feature
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| PowerSC | With HMC Version 7.7.4, or later, and POWER7 processor-based servers with firmware at level 7.4, or later, you can enable Virtual Trusted Platform Module (VTPM) on an AIX logical partition. You can configure logical partitions on each server by using the HMC, with each logical partition having its own unique VTPM. The VTPM software implementation checks system boot process, and in association with the AIX Trusted Execution technology provides security and assurance of the boot image on the disk, operating system, and application layers. Trusted Firewall is a feature of PowerSC and you can enable Trusted Firewall in PowerVM. Trusted Firewall is supported on VIOS Version 2.2.1.4, or later. With the Trusted Firewall feature, you can perform inter-VLAN routing functions by using the Security Virtual Machine (SVM) kernel extension. By using Trusted Firewall, logical partitions that are present on different VLANs of the same server can communicate by using the Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA). A logical partition that is enabled for VTPM has the Trusted Boot capability. Trusted Boot is an offering that is supported on the Power® Security and Compliance (PowerSC) Standard Edition. Trusted Boot is a feature of PowerSC. You can enable Trusted Boot in PowerVM. Trusted Boot uses the Virtual Trusted Platform Module (VTPM) software implementation on an AIX logical partition. |
