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IBM Power® Virtualization Center version 2.1.0 comes with many new features and enhancements. We are more than delighted to listen to our client requirements and implement the same along with our benchmark innovation strategies that take PowerVC to the next level every release.

Functional enhancements
Changes in hardware and software support

PowerVC high availability and scale architecture

Earlier versions of PowerVC followed the All-in-One (AIO) deployment model that involved installing packages and setting up services corresponding to stateless (OpenStack based services like nova, cinder, etc.) and stateful services (MariaDB, RabbitMQetc) on a single system; thus, not following the distributed approach that OpenStack supports. While All-in-one deployment model keeps PowerVC deployment simple and highly manageable, the model denies PowerVC the scale and high availability that it might achieve with a multinode model. For details, see PowerVC high availability and scale architecture.

PowerVC support for P10

PowerVC 2.1.0 supports managing a Power10 host via HMC or NovaLink.

Functional enhancements

PowerVC 2.1.0 features

Listed below are the key features implemented in the 2.1.0 release.

Direct install or upgrade to 2.1.0: You can now directly install PowerVC 2.1.0. For upgrade, if you have any previous version of PowerVC 2.0.x installed, take a backup, copy the backup file to a custom location, and then uninstall the existing version. Reboot the system and install or upgrade to PowerVC 2.1.0. It is recommended to use a fresh system or a VM to install PowerVC.
OpenStack upgrade: PowerVC 2.1.0 release is built on OpenStack Yoga.
Python upgrade from 3.6 to 3.9 (ID: PVC-I-391): PowerVC 2.1.0 supports Python 3.9.
Support for PowerVC installation on RHEL 9: PowerVC 2.1.0 installation is supported on RHEL 9.0.
Offline upgrade for PowerVC control plane: In a multinode (HA) environment, all nodes can now be updated while services are offline. Update happens simultaneously on all nodes. For details, see PowerVC offline upgrade.
PowerVC Topology overview (VM > Hosts > VIOS > Fabrics > Storage): Starting PowerVC version 2.1.0, the Topologyfeature provides you with a holistic view of resources in a project. A simple search for any given virtual machine in a project and PowerVC generates an end-to-end path from VM to storage and further to volume in one click. In addition to viewing the resource connections, you can click on a component to view more details. This visualization at the resource level helps you to debug and detect errors. For details, see Topology overview.
Column customization in PowerVC GUI (ID: PVC-I-245): Click the customization icon and then select or deselect the columns as required. Click up or down arrows to customize the appearance of columns. This feature is enabled for VM List, Image list, Host list, Volumes list, and Storage template pages. PowerVC retains the customization preferences for specific users until further modifications.
HPE storage integration (ID: PVC-I-106): Starting PowerVC version 2.1.0, HPE storage is supported as an integrated driver. You can now add an HPE storage driver by using the GUI and work with it. For details, see Planning for HPE storage.
Configure non-hscroot user for HMC registration (ID: PVC-I-250): The admin user can configure a non-hscroot user with task privileges similar to that an admin user on HMC but only those that are required for registering and handling REST calls coming from PowerVC. For details, see Configure non-hscroot user for HMC registration.
Time based purging of powervc-log-management logs (ID: PVC-I-362): Starting PowerVC 2.1.0, you can set up automatic log rotation based on age (time elapsed). For details, see PowerVC log management.
Dump restart a virtual machine (ID: PVC-I-280): Starting 2.1.0 release, PowerVC supports restarting a virtual machine by generating core dump file(s). The VM restart with core dump is useful when you want to restart a VM that has crashed.
Sudo user support for install, backup, restore, and upgrade operations: In an environment that demands high security measures in place, the systems admin can create sudo user in PowerVC 2.1.0. A sudo user has roles and privileges similar to a root user but with a limited scope for PowerVC operations. For details, see Configure sudo user.
Allow VIP in different subnet and update install snapshots: Starting PowerVC version 2.1.0, you can create PowerVC Ops Mgr inventory file using the advanced option. This allows you to create node IP and a VIP from a different subnet. For details, see Create VIP and node IP from different subnet.
Scale up to 5 node control plane cluster: By using PowerVC Operations Manager, you can create a single node or a three node control plane cluster and then extend the cluster up to 5 nodes.
Host group customization CLI: You can customize host group name for Hitachi using powervc-config hitachi group-name-format. For details, see CLI commands.
GUI support for Global Mirror Change Volume (GMCV): Starting PowerVC version 2.1.0, you can register and manage GMCV volumes by using PowerVC GUI or API.
Reset state of volume and volume snapshot: PowerVC GUI allows you to reset task state of a volume or a volume snapshot.
PowerVC image import API: PowerVC image import API can now be used to import raw images and the OVA images created using powervc-image CLI.
PowerVC resource manager command: The powervc-resmgr command allows you to manage PowerVC resources such as instance snapshots, groups, group snapshots and resources associated with volume.
Legacy support: Using OpsMgr, perform legacy install of PowerVC 2.1.0 with a single node during which you do not need RHEL HA license anymore. For details, see Legacy install of PowerVC.

Changes in hardware and software support

Changes in guest OS support: Support for RHEL 8.6, RHEL 9.0, and CoreOS guest OS has been added. For details, see Guest operating system support.