Features and support matrix

All the supported features and matrix of IBM® Cloud Infrastructure Center:

Supported hardware

Support hardware
IBM z16 (all models), IBM z15 (all models), IBM z14 (all models), IBM z13, and IBM z13s
LinuxONE, any version

General features

Features Support
Simplified Install Experience yes
Optimized User Experience yes
Multiple Projects yes

Supported upgrade matrix

Upgraded from Support
1.1.6 yes
1.1.5 yes

Virtual machine management (UI and API)

Features (RHEL,SLES,UBUNTU) guest on z/VM® RHEL guest on KVM RHCOS guest on z/VM RHCOS guest on KVM Remarks
Provision Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes  
Provision Secure Execution Virtual Machine no yes no no  
Start/Stop Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes  
Hard Restart Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes  
Soft Restart Virtual Machine yes yes no yes  
Shutdown Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes  
Delete Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes  
Suspend/Resume Virtual Machine no yes no yes  
Capture (Snapshot) yes yes no yes  
Attach/Detach volume to/from Virtual Machine yes yes no yes  
Boot from volmue yes yes yes no Boot from volume on RHEL KVM supports all the supported persistent storage provider types in the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center; Boot from volume on z/VM supports Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 and IBM Storage® DS8000®
Cold Migration no yes no yes  
Live Migration yes yes yes yes  
Onboarding (inventorize) Virtual Machine yes no yes no  
Get Console Output yes yes yes yes  
Resize Virtual Machine yes yes no yes  
Backup and restore Virtual machine no yes* no no Only support for virtual machines boot from volume of IBM Storage Scale backend

Virtual machine management (API only)

Features (RHEL,SLES,UBUNTU) guest on z/VM RHEL guest on KVM RHCOS guest on z/VM RHCOS guest on KVM
Lock/Unlock Virtual Machine yes yes yes yes
Rebuild Virtual Machine no yes no yes

Persistent storage management

Features Remarks z/VM Support KVM Support
Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 (such as IBM FS9100, FS9200...). The current version of the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center is based on the OpenStack Ussuri release, refer to OpenStack support summary for Storwize cinder driver for the supported storage models and versions. yes yes
Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM Storage® DS8000® IBM Storage DS8000 (such as DS8880, DS8900...). The current version of the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center is based on the OpenStack Ussuri release, refer to OpenStack support summary for IBM Storage cinder driver for the supported storage models and versions. yes yes
IBM Storage Scale The minimum supported version is IBM Storage Scale 5.1.1 Fixpack 1. no yes

Volume management

Features Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM Storage® DS8000® IBM Storage Scale Remarks
Create volume Y Y Y  
Delete volume Y Y Y  
Attach volume Y Y Y  
Detach volume Y Y Y  
Extend volume Y Y Y  
Create snapshot Y Y Y  
Delete snapshot Y Y Y  
Create volume from snapshot Y Y Y  
Create volume from volume Y Y Y  
Create image from volume Y Y Y  
Consistency group and snapshot Y Y Y  
Volume multiattach Y Y N  
Volume backup and restore Y Y Y  
Volume migration N N N  
Volume replication N N N  

Consistency group

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 yes yes
Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM Storage® DS8000® yes yes
IBM Storage Scale no yes

Local storage

For concept about local storage, root disk, data disk and so on, please refer to Terminology

  • Support matrix for Local Storage on z/VM®

disk type root disk data disk swap disk
ECKD Y Y Y
FBA (EDEV) Y Y Y
storage from compute node N/A N/A N/A

  • Support matrix for Local Storage on KVM

disk type root disk data disk swap disk
ECKD N/A N/A N/A
FBA (EDEV) N/A N/A N/A
storage from compute node Y Y Y

Fabric zoning management

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
Brocade switch with Fabric OS v8.2.1 or greater yes yes

FCP multipath template managment

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
Create/Edit/Delete/Show an FCP multipath template yes no

Telemetry features

Features z/VM Support KVM Support More information
Enable/Disable/Start/Stop Telemetry services yes yes How to enable/disable Telemetry services on multi-node cluster

LDAP backend

Item Requirement More information
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server (optional) OpenLDAP 2.4 or higher OpenLDAP
IBM Tivoli Directory Server for z/OS with SDBM backend configured z/OS V2R3 or higher IBM Tivoli Directory Server for z/OS
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server (optional) 389 Directory Server 1.3.10 or higher 389 Directory Server
Windows AD Windows server 2019 or higer Windows AD

Network management

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
FLAT Network yes yes
VLAN Network yes yes
Geneve Network no yes

Security group

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
Security group support no yes

Data Network Uplink Devices

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
OSA-Expresses yes yes
HiperSockets N/A yes

OSA-Expresses/HiperSockets functionalities

Mode z/VM Support KVM Support
Bridge port N/A yes
VNIC characteristics N/A yes (have hardware requirements, as of IBM z15™ or IBM® LinuxONE III, with OSA Express 7, 6, or 5; IBM z14™ or IBM® LinuxONE II for HiperSockets)

Cloud capabilities

Features Support
Approvals and Expirations yes
Deploy Templates yes
Email Notifications yes
Self Service Portal yes

Openstack API

Features z/VM Support KVM Support
Standard Openstack API yes yes

Supported hypervisor

hypervisor version
z/VM 7.2, 7.3
KVM (RHEL) 8.6, 8.8

Supported management node and compute node version

The supported Linux system version that you can install management node and the compute node on.

node version
Management node RHEL 8.6, 8.8
Compute node RHEL 8.6, 8.8

Note: The IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center chooses the Red Hat Enterprise Linux release with the Extended Update Support as the supported Linux system for management and compute. Refer to RHEL release for further information.

Supported virtual machine operating system

  • Supported virtual machine operating system on z/VM

Distro version ECKD FBA Persistent storage
RHEL 7.9 Y Y Y
RHEL 8.2 Y Y Y
RHEL 8.4 Y Y Y
RHEL 8.6 Y Y Y
RHEL 8.8 Y Y Y
RHEL 9.0 Y Y Y
RHEL 9.2 Y Y Y
RHCOS 4.10 Y N Y
RHCOS 4.11 Y N Y
RHCOS 4.12 Y N Y
RHCOS 4.13 Y N Y
UBUNTU 20.04 Y Y N
UBUNTU 22.04 Y Y N
SLES 15 SP1 Y Y N
SLES 15 SP2 Y Y N
SLES 15 SP3 Y Y N

Note: SLES 15 SP2 cann't be installed directly on FBA disk type on z/VM for some known issue. To make an image using FBA as root disk type for SLES 15 SP2, you need to install SLES 15 SP1 on FBA disk first and upgrade to SLES 15 SP2, then capture this server into an image to be deployed by IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center

  • Supported virtual machine operating system on KVM

Distro version Local Storage Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM SVC, Storwize family and FlashSystem 9x00 Fibre Channel Protocol for IBM Storage® DS8000® IBM Storage Scale
RHEL 7.9 Y Y Y N
RHEL 8.2 Y Y Y Y
RHEL 8.4 Y Y Y Y
RHEL 8.6 Y Y Y Y
RHEL 8.8 Y Y Y Y
RHEL 9.0 Y Y Y Y
RHEL 9.2 Y Y Y Y
RHCOS 4.10 Y Y Y Y
RHCOS 4.11 Y Y Y Y
RHCOS 4.12 Y Y Y Y
RHCOS 4.13 Y Y Y Y

Supported browser

Browser Version
Chrome latest
Firefox latest

Supported multi-node cluster features

Feature Three Nodes Active Two Nodes Active One Node Active Notes
Compute node management Y Y* N Add/Remove/Update compute node* Contact IBM support if you want to want to manage compute node while there are only two active nodes.
Network management Y Y* N Add/Remove/Update network* Contact IBM support if you want to want to manage network while there are only two active nodes.
Persistent storage management Y Y* N Add/Remove/Update storage provider* Contact IBM support if you want to want to manage persistent storage while there are only two active nodes.
Image management Y Y N Create/Upload/Export/Import images.
Virtual machine management Y Y N  
Security group management Y Y N  
Volume management Y Y N  
Consistency group management Y Y N  
FCP multipath template management Y Y N Create/Delete/Edit FCP multipath templates.z/VM only
Fabric zoning management Y Y N  
Telemetry features Y Y N Telemetry features that based on Ceilometer, Panko, Gnocchi.
LDAP backend Y Y N  
Cloud capabilities Y Y N  
Multiple projects managment Y Y N Manaaging project(including quotas,policies) and assigning user roles to the project.
Environment checker Y Y N  
Service Management Y Y Y* Start/Stop/Restart the services.*The mutli-node cluster enters standby mode while having two nodes down, need to unstandby nodes before operation.
Backup Y N N  
Restore Y N N  
OpenStack CLI Y Y N  
Management CLI Y N N CLIs like icic-config.
Operation manager Y Y* Y* *Can only perform operations such as replacing a node, resynching a node while having one or two nodes down.
License management Y Y N  
Diagnostic log collection Y Y Y