PowerVM Editions overview
Learn about the editions of the PowerVM® Editions hardware feature.
The PowerVM Editions hardware feature includes the following editions:
- PowerVM Standard Edition
- PowerVM Enterprise Edition
- IBM® PowerVM, Linux Edition
The following table describes each component of the PowerVM Editions feature and the editions in which each component is included.
| Component | Description | Editions |
|---|---|---|
| Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) | You can use the graphical interface of the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) management partition on some servers that are not managed by a Hardware Management Console (HMC). |
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| Live Partition Mobility | You can migrate an active or inactive AIX®, Linux, or IBM i logical partition from one system to another by using Live Partition Mobility. |
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| Management | Management tools such as HMC, IVM, and PowerVC help to aggregate and manage resources by using a consolidated logical view. |
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| Micro-Partitioning® technology | You can allocate processors to partitions in increments of 0.01, which allows multiple partitions to share the processing power of the system. When the firmware is at level 7.6, or later, micropartitions can be defined as small as 0.05 of a processor and can be changed in increments as small as 0.01 of a processor. A maximum of 20 micropartitions can be created per core. |
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| N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) | NPIV is a standard technology for Fibre Channel networks. With NPIV you can connect multiple partitions to one physical port of a physical Fibre Channel adapter. |
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| Partition suspend and resume Note: The Suspend/Resume feature for logical partitions is supported on POWER8® processor-based servers when the firmware is at level 8.4.0,
or later.
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A running AIX, Linux, or IBM i logical partition can be suspended along with its operating system and applications. When a partition is suspended, the state of the partition is saved on persistent storage, and the server resources that were in use by that partition are made available for use by other partitions. At a later time, the operation of the suspended partition and its applications can be resumed. |
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| PowerVM Active Memory™ Sharing | You can share memory among partitions in a shared memory pool, by using PowerVM Active Memory Sharing. |
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| PowerVP™ | Power Virtualization Performance (PowerVP) is a performance monitoring solution that provides detailed and real-time information about virtualized workloads that are running on Power Systems™. You can use PowerVP to understand how virtual workloads use resources, to analyze performance bottlenecks, and to make informed choices about resource allocation and virtualized machine placement. |
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| PowerVM NovaLink | PowerVM NovaLink is a software interface for virtualization management that you can install on a PowerVM server. PowerVM NovaLink enables highly scalable modern cloud management and deployment for critical enterprise workloads. You can use PowerVM NovaLink to provision large numbers of virtual machines on PowerVM servers quickly and at reduced cost. |
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| Remote restart | Remote restart is a high availability option for logical partitions. When an error causes a server outage, a partition that is configured for remote restart can be restarted on a different physical server. Sometimes, it might take longer to start the server, in which case remote restart function can be used for faster re-provisioning of the partition. This can be done faster than restarting the server that failed and then restarting the partition. |
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| Shared processor pools | You can assign priorities to partitions, and the hypervisor allocates processing power as needed by the applications. This feature provides automatic nondisruptive balancing of processing power between partitions assigned to shared pools, which results in increased throughput and the potential to reduce processor-based software licensing costs. This feature is supported on POWER6®, POWER7®, and POWER8 processor-based servers. |
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| Shared storage pools | Shared storage pools provide distributed storage access to all VIOS logical partitions in the cluster. On VIOS Version 2.2.0.11, Fix Pack 24, Service Pack 1, you can create a cluster of only one VIOS partition that is connected to the same shared storage pool. On VIOS Version 2.2.1.3, or later, you can create a cluster that consists of up to 16 VIOS partitions. |
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| Single Root I/O Virtualization | Single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) is a Peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) standard architecture that define extensions to PCIe specifications to enable multiple logical partitions running simultaneously within a system to share PCIe devices. The architecture define virtual replicas of PCI functions known as virtual functions (VF). A Partition can connect directly to an SR-IOV adapter VF without going through a virtual intermediary (VI) such as a POWER Hypervisor™ or Virtual I/O Server. This provides for a low latency and lower CPU utilization alternative by avoiding a VI. |
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| Thin provisioning | Thin provisioning helps reduce the amount of unused storage that is allocated to applications or users. Allocation of actual space on the storage subsystem is deferred until the data is written to disk. |
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| Thick provisioning | Thick provisioning helps reserve storage space for virtual disks, thus ensuring that no failures occur because of lack of storage space. |
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| VIOS | You can share physical I/O resources on the server between client partitions by using VIOS. |
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| Virtual Network Interface adapter(vNIC) | A logical partition to which single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) logical ports are assigned cannot be migrated. To overcome this limitation, a virtual Network Interface Controller (vNIC) can be assigned to a logical partition. A vNIC is a type of virtual adapter that can be configured on client logical partitions to provide a network interface. Each vNIC client adapter is backed by an SR-IOV logical port that is owned by the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS). When the HMC is at version 8.6.0, or later, the firmware is at level 8.6.0, or later, and the VIOS is at version 2.2.5.0, or later, a dedicated vNIC can have multiple SR-IOV logical ports on different physical ports as backing devices, and they can be hosted by the same or different Virtual I/O Servers. |
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