Maxed Out
Because the System i can run at redline speed all day long . . .
January 30, 2008
IBM Sharpens BladeCenter with i5/OS
The hints first hit last summer, spilled a bit this fall, and now, i5/OS on a blade is real. As part of its V6R1 announcements yesterday, IBM released details about its i5/OS blade offerings and plans, which brings up two stories -- the basic offering and the details behind it.
The Basics
V6R1 of i5/OS now supports the existing JS22 blade, which is a four-core, 4GHz POWER6 blade that was previously announced last fall for AIX and Linux on POWER. The JS22 can run in a BladeCenter H chassis, which in turn can support up to 14 POWER and x86-based blades. The BladeCenter H connects to a SAN for storage, most notably the DS4700, DS4800, DS8100, or DS8300 -- i5/OS still does not support the DS4700 and DS4800, but a partition-management system (VIOS) new to the System i now does (more on this below).
IBM says it will support the relatively new -- and popular -- BladeCenter S chassis, which is geared for smaller businesses. The BladeCenter S can handle up to six blades and up to 12 disks, all in the same box.*
How'd IBM Do It?
Last fall, when the JS22 blade was first announced, IBM tipped its hand over adding i5/OS support for the blade, but it did not do so at the same time it released the blade for AIX and Linux on POWER. The reason? As it turns out, V6R1 doesn't exactly run directly on the blade, and part of that is due to storage. With a blade, there's not a lot of internal hard disk to match the same way that a System i has built-in disk ready to hold DB2. So i5/OS needs a method for getting to disk, and that method is virtualization with VIOS -- a virtual IO server.
"This is how System p does its storage virtualization," said Craig Johnson, IBM's i5/OS product manager, in a pre-announcement interview last week. "You have a VIOS partition as partition number one, and you serve out storage to AIX and Linux today. So what we're doing on POWER6 systems with V6R1 is that VIOS can serve i5/OS as well as AIX and Linux."
Johnson likens VIOS to an appliance partition. "All it does is serve out IO to other partitions," he noted. To create those partitions, you would use a built-in tool called Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM), and it's basically an alternative to using HMC for LPAR management. VIOS is a real partition, based on AIX, and it uses CPU and memory -- but it's not used for running applications. It's only there to serve out storage.
"If VIOS is turned off, then your i5/OS partition is turned off as well. These partitions are tied to each other," Johnson explained.
As for the JS22 blade, it runs the POWER6 hypervisor with the first partition being VIOS, which will "own" the fibre, ethernet, and SAS adapters, which are virtualized to i5/OS in the second partition. You can have multiple partitions on the blade, including AIX and Linux partitions.
"The theoretical maxium is 40 partitions, 10 per core, on the blade. We don't expect anyone to do that, but it's capable of doing that," Johnson said.
The System i Sweet Spot
"What we expect, and where we've seen interest from our customers, is around consolidating their five, 10, or 20 Intel servers along with their System i in the BladeCenter environment," Johnson noted.
"So the BladeCenter is almost like consolidating your infrastructure, your ethernet switches, and fibre switches -- the blade is your server. It's got your cores and memory and your ethernet adapter to go to the ethernet switch to get to the network. Your storage is a SAN," he explained.
Storage Area Networks (SAN), by the way, are being increasingly adopted in enterprises that need to consolidate storage and backup and also have encryption methods for securely holding data governed by compliance regulations.
The defining point about the BladeCenter S isn't so much its small size and easy-to-plug-in power requirements but rather its 12 integrated disk drives that give it a semblance of being an integrated box that has "internal" storage. The BladeCenter S is more complicated than a System i, of course, but using it is more compelling than managing several servers in a small business that has typically added servers and workloads on an ad hoc basis. This is IBM's basic message, and it seems to be resonating well with non-System i companies.
For smaller System i-based organizations that also have Intel servers -- and maybe a Unix or Linux need -- a BladeCenter S may be a great solution. For companies that may be fighting presidents, CEOs, or CIOs for System i mindshare, a way to keep an i5/OS investment may be through an IBM BladeCenter. Of course, upper managers who already appreciate the System i can also see the benefits of BladeCenters -- and a traditional System i.
Despite a long-held lead in total cost of ownership, SMB System i customers have been running into cost-of-acquisition issues for new System i boxes, software, and upgrades. Sometimes the cost issues are real and sometimes just perceived, but as I see it, BladeCenters will level the playing field and lead to more transparent pricing. How will the cost of the JS22 blade shake out when you compare the same number of AIX users against the same number of i5/OS users? Compared to Linux? And for the database? So what's the sacrifice that may come from more direct comparisons?
Answer: Integration and simplicity. On a practical level, customers will need new sets of skills to effectively manage a BladeCenter. As for the all-in-one integration of the traditional System i . . . I think in the SMB space, at least, market pressures bend it toward BladeCenters.
* Personally, I think the BladeCenter S and its derivatives will be the core offerings for IBM SMB efforts. IBM and its partners will lead with the BladeCenter S, and if it's too small, end up upselling a more expansive BladeCenter solution or System i or System p. The BladeCenter encourages an IBM hardware/software/storage lock-in, and it has direct blade competition from HP, Sun, and upstart Dell -- and that direct competition, ironically, makes it easier to sell than the System i, which faces only indirect competition.
Posted by cmaxcer at January 30, 2008 11:51 AM
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