Understanding data portability for Power Virtual Server
IBM Power Virtual Server in IBM data center
IBM Power Virtual Server Private Cloud in Client location
On IBM Cloud, data portability refers to a set of tools and procedures. You can use data to transfer data from IBM® Power® Virtual Server to on-premises or on a different service provider that supports the Power architecture to implement a similar workload or to process data.
Power Virtual Server is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering. As a Power Virtual Server user, you own the data, operating system images, and configuration parameters. The Power Virtual Server architecture follows Power deployments within infrastructure to facilitate data portability. The Power Virtual Server architecture is identical to a certified private cloud infrastructure. The infrastructure is designed such that the Power Virtual Server can maintain key enterprise software certification and support.
Responsibilities
Power Virtual Server provides interfaces and instructions to guide you to copy and store your content on your selected location. The content can include data that is stored on logical volumes, operating system images, and configuration parameters.
You are responsible for the following actions:
- Use of the exported data
- Use of the configuration to enable data portability to other infrastructures
- Create and execute the plan to set up the infrastructure on a different service provider that has capabilities similar to the Power Virtual Server services
For more information about the responsibility assignment matrix for Power Virtual Server, see High-level architecture.
Migrating data
To migrate data from one infrastructure to another, you must create a plan and have a strategy to achieve the expected performance. Complete the steps that are defined in the following topics to migrate Power workloads to a Power Virtual Server:
- Planning a workload migration to IBM® Power® Virtual Server
- Migration strategies for AIX
- Migration strategies for IBM i
- Additional migration strategies
- Using third-party tools for migration
- Back up and restore
You can use Power Virtual Server to capture full or specific copies of the logical volumes or data sets. By using IBM FlashCopy® feature and Power Virtual Server APIs, you can create delta snapshots, volume clones, and restore your disks. For more information, see Snapshots, cloning, and restoring.
Exported data formats
Power Virtual Server provides mechanisms to capture and export a virtual machine (VM). For more information about the available options to capture and export a VM, see Capturing and exporting a virtual machine (VM).
Data ownership
The data that is exported to your on-premises resources or on service providers resources is classified as customer content. Customer ownership and licensing rights are applicable to the exported content as stated in the IBM Cloud Service Agreement.