General

Common question and answers related to IBM Fusion HCI.

  1. What is the official name of the hardware offering?

    IBM Fusion HCI is the name of the hardware. Three additional software parts get installed to complete a solution:

    • Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform
    • IBM Fusion HCI Management Software
    • IBM Fusion HCI Storage Software
  2. Does IBM Fusion HCI support both Red Hat OpenShift and VMware?
    Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization supports both native VMWare images and converted OpenShift VM images. IBM Fusion HCI is a perfect platform to run both Virtual Machines and Containers. Acquire guidance on what virtual workloads work best on OpenShift with IBM Fusion HCI. For more information about Red HatOpenShift Virtualization, see OpenShift documentation.

  3. Can IBM Fusion HCI with OpenShift Virtualization be used to migrate clients off VMware?
    Yes, IBM Fusion HCI with OpenShift Virtualization can be used to migrate you off VMware. For more information about migration, see https://access.redhat.com/products/migration-toolkits-virtualization.
  4. Differences between the IBM Fusion HCI and IBM Fusion versions?
    IBM Fusion can be deployed two different ways:
    • IBM Fusion is an operator that is installed on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
    • IBM Fusion HCI is an entire rack of devices (servers, switches, and so on) which will have Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and IBM Fusion software installed on it.
    User experience varies because of those different deployment models:
    • IBM Fusion HCI has hardware-centric experience and features (monitoring, troubleshooting, adding drives/nodes), whereas forIBM Fusion, those actions take place in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
    • The storage management experience between IBM Fusion HCI and IBM Fusion will vary. IBM Fusion HCI lets you define multiple storage classes but you can only have one file system.
  5. What is the difference between IBM Fusion HCI and Cloud Pak System? Is IBM Fusion HCI a replacement for Cloud Pak System?
    IBM Fusion HCI provides a cost-effective computing platform, comprised of storage rich servers and network hardware, for OpenShift container-based workloads. It is easy to deploy, simple to maintain, and easy to scale-out capacity as workload demand grows. IBM Fusion HCI is purpose-built for modern container-based workloads and makes it easy for Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) teams to achieve cloud operating models in their private datacenters. As IBM Fusion HCI is purpose-built for modern container-based workloads, it eliminates unnecessary baggage and operational complexity of systems that were designed for last-generation VM based workloads. The Cloud Pak System is designed to run VM based applications on VMware.
  6. Where can I learn more about IBM Fusion HCI and IBM Fusion?

    You can see IBM Documentation at IBM Fusion documentation.

  7. Can we use Fusion Advanced with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine VE and OpenShift Kubernetes Engine (OKE)?
    Yes
  8. What is supported to run IBM Fusion HCI in a customer supplied rack?
    There is a recommended option of purchasing IBM Fusion HCI without a rack. You can bring your own rack but must ensure that the rack meets the necessary specifications and requirements for the IBM Fusion HCI. If you are interested in using the own racks, contact your IBM Sales representatives for this offering.

  9. What is the reasoning behind having 6 PDUs for all config? Why do you have to configure 6 PDUs in econfig?

    IBM Fusion HCI no longer ships 6 PDUs instead only the number of PDUs that are needed are shipped. The number of PDUs that need to be energized depends on the specific rack configuration.

    For more information, see Hardware overview.

  10. IBM Fusion HCI has which OS (Red Hat core OS or RHEL)?
    IBM Fusion HCI uses CoreOS as the base platform to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Clusters.

  11. IBM Fusion HCI comes with preinstalled Red Hat OpenShift or do we have to deploy it?
    It has a automated installer to deploy Red HatOpenShift at customer site.

  12. What would happen if a customer deletes the IBM Fusion HCI or IBM Fusion operators from Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform console > Installed operator page?
    It is not recommended to delete the operator. If you delete, then it leaves the appliance in an inconsistent mode. Contact IBM support for further assistance.
  13. Is KEDA (Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling) supported with IBM Fusion HCI?
    Yes, you should be able to use KEDA on IBM Fusion HCI. In general, see the following document on using KEDA with Red Hat OpenShift, and IBM Fusion HCI is based on an Red HatOpenShift on Bare Metal cluster - https://developer.ibm.com/patterns/scaling-an-event-driven-architecture-with-kafka-on-openshift/

  14. How to configure or order IBM Fusion services (IBM Data Cataloging, Global Data Platform, Backup & Restore, Fusion Data Foundation)?
    Yes, you can install IBM Fusion services from the IBM Fusion HCI user interface. For the procedure to install, see Installing services.

  15. Do the AFM nodes for IBM Fusion HCI run as containers or bare metal AFM servers?
    The AFM nodes are compute nodes in the Red Hat OpenShift cluster that host the containers running the code that implements AFM. For more information about how IBM Storage Scale handles AFM, see Sharing data.

  16. Does IBM Fusion HCI support the usage of NFS protocol RWM protection in 3-site configuration?
    IBM Storage Scale AFM DR does not support 3-site configuration. You can configure IBM Storage Scale stretch cluster with three copies if you have low latency networks available between three sites. Alternatively, you can configure two sites by using IBM Storage Scale Stretch cluster configuration over low latency network and configure AFM-DR over NFS RWX for the 3rd site.

  17. If the GPU enhanced nodes are not sufficient, then is there another option apart from acquiring another IBM Fusion HCI appliance? (Like adding GPU worker nodes outside the IBM Fusion HCI rack?)
    No.

    But you can have multiple IBM Fusion HCI appliances having Red Hat OpenShift Clusters. You can then manage these two OpenShift Container Platform clusters using Red Hat Advanced Cluster Manager.

  18. IBM Visual Insights will run on Maximo Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform instead of IBM Power but it requires GPU. Will IBM Fusion HCI include GPUs?
    IBM Fusion HCI can be ordered with 6 NVIDIA A100 GPUs. If required, you can order another 2 GPU units.

  19. What to do if we see a red icon for some of the widgets in the IBM Fusion HCI infrastructure overview user interface page?

    The red icon indicates a problem with that component and it needs attention. Refer to the widget page or to the events page for further details. For more information about infrastructure overview and events, see Monitoring hardware from IBM Fusion HCI user interface and Analyzing events in IBM Fusion HCI. If the problem persists, then contact IBM support for assistance.

  20. On top of the embedded Prometheus monitoring, can the user go further with monitoring integration of their systems. Can they use Alert manager to extract data and send it to an external monitoring tools? Which other options are available to centralize the IBM Fusion HCI appliance on a standard customer monitoring platform?
    For every metric that is seen in Prometheus, you can configure the OpenShift alert manager to create alerts and send them to destinations supported by alert manager. As IBM Fusion feeds events into OpenShift event manager, they show up in any integration that you use to monitor OpenShift events. For more information, see Monitoring and logging by using any monitoring tool.
  21. What configurations are available for IBM Fusion HCI? Can the hardware be ordered in different configurations? Can the hardware be upgraded in the field?

    Yes, the hardware can be upgraded in the field. For more information about upgrade, see Upgrading node firmware and Upgrading switch firmware.

    The base and minimal configuration consists of a 42U rack, dual TORs, dual management switches, and 6 dual-socket servers each populated with two 7.68 TB NVMe drives or 3.84TB drives.

    64 core servers with 1024GB of RAM are also available for the base.

  22. What are the minimum and maximum number of nodes?
    This procedure installs and configures all the default nodes (Three controllers and three compute nodes). If you ordered additional nodes, then they get installed as well. The maximum number of nodes in a rack is 16 and the minimum is 6 nodes.

  23. Can two IBM Fusion HCI racks be clustered in an active-active configuration?

    We are calling this configuration ‘Metro sync DR’. To achieve synchronous replication between the racks, the racks must reside within a metropolitan area (for low latency) and must be connected by a high-bandwidth, high-quality network link. For the exact specification, see Upgrade and upsize considerations in Metro-DR.

  24. Can three IBM Fusion HCI racks be clustered in a multi-zone configuration? What are the RPO characteristics?

    We are calling this configuration as ‘High-availability cluster’, also known as AFM DR in the IBM Storage Scale community. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) depends on several factors: the latency and bandwidth of the link connecting racks across zones as well as the size and quantity of the transactions that need to be replicated.

  25. Is IBM Spectrum® Storage Scale Erasure Code Edition (ECE) deployed as a container?

    Yes. IBM Storage Scale Erasure Code Edition (ECE) is deployed container native and managed through an operator.

  26. Can IBM Fusion HCI support traditional VMs and containers on the same system?
    Yes, IBM Fusion HCI can support running containers and VMs is side-by-side on the same system with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization. OpenShift Virtualization comes with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
    Note: The OpenShift Virtualization is a technology based on KubeVirt.

  27. Can user run content from Red Hat Marketplace on IBM Fusion HCI?
    Yes, user can run content from Red Hat Marketplace on IBM Fusion HCI.

  28. What Cloud Paks will run on IBM Fusion HCI?
    For existing Cloud Pak support, see IBM Cloud Paks support for IBM Fusion.

  29. Can IBM Fusion HCI support Windows?
    Yes, IBM Fusion HCI can support both Windows and Linux virtual machines with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.

  30. Is support available for "protocol"?
    Protocol is the ability to access data in IBM Storage Scale via a mechanism other than native Scale. The IBM Storage Scale supports NFS and SMB.

  31. If a IBM Fusion HCI deployed spans 3 racks, then can the control nodes be deployment across the 3 OpenShift Container Platform clusters?
    When the 3 racks are initially setup, all control nodes are in the first rack (basically, you set up and configure the first rack,and then add the other two). After the initial installation is complete, control nodes can be dispersed over 3 racks.

    In expansion, the control nodes remain in one rack. The reason because the cluster is already created and you cannot change the control nodes. In expansion rack, the control nodes remain in one rack because the cluster is already created and you cannot change the control nodes.

  32. Can IBM Fusion HCI be used to expand an existing cluster?
    If you use an existing HCI rack, then the new rack can be extended with an existing OpenShift Container Platform cluster. It is called the expansion rack.
  33. Do we support single OpenShift Container Platform cluster across multiple IBM Fusion HCI racks?
    Although there are restrictions, you can cluster 3 racks together in one big OpenShift Container Platform cluster.

  34. What is the minimum size of the Client environment? (3/4 x86 bare servers dedicated to containers)?
    The minimum size of a IBM Fusion HCI is currently 6 nodes in a rack. The rack can scale up to 16 nodes, and 3 racks can be interconnected.

  35. What is the max power draw and cooling figures for IBM Fusion HCI especially with the newly announced hardware?

    Use the StorM tool to calculate the power consumption of a particular configuration.

  36. Is mixing of 9155-C10 / 9155-C14 compute nodes supported (for example: 3 x 32 core servers + 3 x 64 cores servers)? Also, in StorM is there a possibility to choose only one GPU server?
    Yes, mixing of 9155-C10 / 9155-C14 servers is allowed. The only server requirement is a minimum of 6x 9155-C10 or 9155-C14 servers with storage to form the base storage cluster. All servers, including GPU servers, can be purchased in increments of one after the base minimum server requirement (mentioned in this topic) is met.

  37. Can I add an expansion rack to an existing IBM Fusion HCI rack?
    Yes, you can add a new rack to an existing rack using multi-rack capability.
  38. Can I deploy more than one rack in single IBM Fusion HCI cluster?
    Yes, you can deploy two or three racks as a single cluster IBM Fusion HCI using a multi-rack set up.