What's new in version 2.0.0
IBM® Power® Virtualization Center version 2.0.0 comes with a completely new UI, 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.
PowerVC version 2.0.0 UI enhancements
IBM Power Virtualization Center version 2.0.0 introduces all new user interface that is designed based on Carbon framework. Carbon is IBM's open source design system for products and digital experiences. With the IBM Design Language as its foundation, the system consists of working code, design tools and resources, human interface guidelines, and a vibrant community of contributors. For details, see Introducing PowerVC version 2.0.0 UI.
Functional enhancements
- Install - support for RHEL 8.2 and SLES 15
- Support for PowerVC installation is available on RHEL 8.2, RHEL 8.3, SLES 15 SP1 and SLES 15 SP2. For details, see Hardware and software requirements. RFE ID: 97922.
- Upgrade to PowerVC version 2.0.0
- You can upgrade the existing 1.4.4.x PowerVC RHEL7 based installation to version 2.0.0, against the management platforms of your choice (RHEL8 or SLES15). For details about supported platforms, see Hardware and software requirements. You can upgrade to PowerVC version 2.0.0 through backup restore procedure. If you have any of the PowerVC supported versions 1.4.4.0, 1.4.4.1 or 1.4.4.2 installed on your system, you must take a back up and then restore the same on a PowerVC version 2.0.0 installed system. For NovaLink hosts, you must re-OS to latest supported distros. For details, see Upgrading to PowerVC 2.0.0.
- Python3 support for PowerVC installation
- Aligned with the Python and OpenStack community, starting version 2.0.0 release, PowerVC has support for only Python3 on management and NovaLink nodes. For details, see Upgrading to PowerVC 2.0.0.
- Backup or Restore support between RHEL8 and SLES15 management nodes
- With PowerVC version 2.0.0, a backup taken from RHEL8 based PowerVC instance can be restored on a SLES15 based PowerVC instance and vice versa. Support to backup data against PowerVC installation on either of the supported platforms, RHEL8 or SLES15, and to restore on the other RHEL8 or SLES15. For details, see Backing up IBM Power Virtualization Center data.
- Persistent memory virtualization
- You can enable
Persistent Memory Virtualization
feature for a virtual machine. When the virtual machine is deployed with a persistent memory volume, during VM restart the persistent memory volume is retained reducing the boot time. For details, see Persistent memory virtualization for virtual machine. - Virtual machine snapshot and restore
- Virtual machine (instance) snapshot allows you to take consistent snapshot of the volumes attached to a virtual machine. You can create multiple snapshot copies for a single virtual machine. You can also choose to select one or more volumes while creating instance snapshots. These instance snapshots can be further used to restore the virtual machine at any point in time. For details, see Virtual machine snapshot or restore.
- Clone virtual machine
- Clone virtual machine feature allows you to create new identical virtual machine. You can create copy of an existing virtual machine with same CPU, memory, availability priority, volumes, etc. For details, see Clone virtual machines.
- DRO policy enhancements
- IBM PowerVC Dynamic Resource Optimizer (DRO) continuously monitors the resource utilization of physical hosts and virtual machines in a cloud environment. Starting PowerVC version 2.0.0, DRO can monitor CPU, Memory Utilization, and shared processor pool. You can select the CPU and Memory Utilization Policy for the DRO to optimize hosts by monitoring both CPU and Memory utilization of the hosts. For details, see Dynamic Resource Optimizer. RFE IDs: 122715,129004
- Retype
- By using this capability, you can change the current storage template of a volume to a target storage template. You can change the volume properties like QoS, provisioning, SLO/workload, etc. You can also choose to migrate the volume to another pool specified in the target template. For details, see Retype.
- Consistency groups
- A consistency group is a set of volumes that can be used to create a point in time snapshots, or to create a consistency copy of volumes. PowerVC consistency groups feature uses OpenStack generic volume group APIs. For details, see Consistency groups.
- Clone volumes
- Clone volume feature allows you to create a consistent copy of volumes that are available or attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Clone volumes.
- Set prefix for cloned volumes
- You can configure
powervc-config
storage and set the preferred prefix to be used when clone volumes are created. For details, see Commands. - Pure Storage
- PowerVC supports Pure Storage as an integrated driver. You can now add a Pure Storage driver by using the GUI and work with it. For details, see Planning for Pure Storage. RFE ID: 111465.
- PowerMax updates
- Port group load balancing: You can choose to select a list of port groups on the storage template. When a virtual machine is deployed using this storage template, the port group with least number of masking views will be used to form the masking view. This only applies to the first volume of a specific connectivity type (NPIV, vSCSI) being attached to a virtual server (NPIV) or VIOS (vSCSI) as subsequent volumes will get assigned to existing masking views.
- Host name format: You can set the template for short host name customization for PowerMax storage provider.
- Port group template: You can set the template for port group customization for PowerMax storage providers.
- Assign storage template on GUI after onboard volume
- From PowerVC GUI, you can select the volumes from the same storage backend and assign a new storage template to the volumes that do not have any storage templates assigned.
- Storwize updates
- Support for
Disable
fast formatting on IBM Storwize®: You can configure the volume to disable fast formatting using storage template. RFE ID: 139929 - Support for configuring FlashCopy® rate on IBM Storwize: You can configure FlashCopy rate using storage template.
- Performance has been enhanced for deploy, live capture of a VMs, reflecting health status of a newly deployed VM (RMC time) RFE ID: 123306.
- Support for
- Option to configure Cisco switch timeout
- You can now set the Cisco fabric retry time out. The calls to the Cisco switches are retried with exponential increasing intervals for the time specified in this configuration. For details, see Commands. RFE ID: 142245.
- Hitachi GAD
- Live capture support is now provided for Hitachi GAD. For details, see Planning for Hitachi Global-Active Device (GAD). RFE ID: 137837
- Support for DB purge
- PowerVC now supports removal of records from the databases tables which are being soft deleted. This helps you to automatically purge database tables which are soft deleted. For details, see Database maintenance.
- Performance tuning CLI
- PowerVC applies scale tuning parameters to management and NovaLink nodes. These settings are intended for high scale environment. For details, see Commands.
- Deploy from VM list page
- In the previous versions of PowerVC, you could deploy a VM from the Images page. In PowerVC version 2.0.0, you can choose to deploy a VM either from the VM list page or from the Image list page. RFE ID: 136201.
- Eye icon for password check
- The eye icon on the UI login screen helps you to recheck if you have entered a correct password. RFE ID: 132973.
Changes in hardware and software support
- Snapshot and restore API
- These APIs help you to perform snapshot or restore operations on the volumes that are attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Virtual machine snapshot and restore API.
- Retype and retype validation API
- You can retype a volume by using the OpenStack
retype
API. PowerVC supports retype validation API to ensure that the target templates listed for retype of a volume are the most eligible templates for the selected volume. For details, see Supported OpenStack Block storage (Cinder) APIs and Retype validation. - API to register a secondary storage for global mirror for a primary storage provider
- You can use PUT API to register a secondary storage for global mirror for a primary storage provider. For details, see Storage controller registration.
- Clone volume API
- The clone volume API lets you create a consistent copy of volumes that are available or attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Clone volume API.
- Clone virtual machine API
- The clone virtual machine (VM) feature allows you to create new identical virtual machine. For details, see Clone virtual machine API.
- Persistent memory virtualization API
- You can enable
Persistent Memory Virtualization
feature for a virtual machine. When the virtual machine is deployed with a persistent memory volume, during VM restart the persistent memory volume is retained reducing the boot time. For details, see Persistent memory virtualization API. - Changes in guest OS support
- Support for SLES 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2, RHEL 7.9, RHEL 8.0, RHEL 8.1, RHEL 8.2, and RHEL 8.3 guest OS has been added. For details, see Guest operating system support.
Security enhancements
- Package signing
- The RPMs and repo for Debian packages shipped as part of PowerVC installer are Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG) signed, and these signatures are verified during PowerVC installation. For details, see Package signing.
- Support for TLS1.3 and HTTPv2
- TLS1.3 (along with support for TLS1.2) and HTTPv2 is added for all PowerVC service REST APIs.