System iNetwork

October 20, 2009

IBM Intros New Storage, Virtualization, and Connectivity, Plus New IBM i and RPG in 2010

IBM made a flurry of announcements today, most focusing on new connectivity and support options for storage, solid state drives (SSDs), and enhanced availability, most of which should be generally available within a couple of days. In addition, IBM took advantage of the timing to make a statement of direction for the next version of IBM i, slated for early 2010, which means there's a more than decent chance IBM will officially unveil the next big release of IBM i at the COMMON conference in May.

Perhaps most interesting is that the Power Systems IBM i team has been working with the IBM Rational team to create enhancements to RPG that will let RPG programs easily work a variety of client applications including web services, mobile devices, and XML.

"Today RPG is very much tied to a 5250 output," says Craig Johnson, an IBM Power Systems software product manager for IBM i, PHP, and MySQL. "There are tools like HATS and other third-party tools that take that to web browsers and other things but it's really tied to 5250, and what we're working on with Rational is to break that tie and allow partners, ISVs, and programmers to take RPG to any type of device -- mobile devices, XML, web services, so there's some significant enhancements coming for RPG developers."

There's more, of course, on tap for the next release of IBM i:

• The integrated DB2 database for IBM i will be enhanced with support for XML, which will let clients store and search XML documents. IBM also plans for DB2 for i to support transparent encryption of a specific column in a database table, enabling clients to further protect sensitive information.
  
• PowerHA for IBM i is planned to support asynchronous replication, which will give clients a disk clustering based disaster recovery solution. In addition, PowerHA for i will support LUN-level switching, which provides another high availability option for clients with some IBM System Storage solutions.
  
• IBM i storage management will further leverage SSD technology by automatically moving data that is accessed most frequently to SSDs, designed to help clients improve application performance. (With today's SSD announcements, customers can move hot data to SSDs for maximum throughput, but IBM is looking to automate this next year.)
  
• Additional management tasks for IBM i will be available in web-based Systems Director Navigator for i that IBM plans to include with the IBM i operating system. Additional monitors for IBM i will be added to Systems Director, which will provide an alternative to Management Central for clients with multiple IBM i environments.
  
• IBM i integration with BladeCenter and System x via iSCSI technology will be enhanced with support for software target support, which will support a faster connection between IBM i and x86-based systems while potentially lowering the cost of the solution.
  
• IBM i support for PDF documents will be enhanced to support the transformation of existing spool files to PDF files.
  

Back to the Here and Now

Meanwhile, IBM has released a variety of new enhancements that extend IBM i storage and virtualization options right now, some of which may require the new IBM i 6.1.1 release that provides the support for the enhancements. IBM has:

• Expanded options for storage consolidation with IBM Systems Storage Solutions: IBM is now delivering direct fibre channel support for the DS5100 and DS5300, which are midrange SAN solutions. Previously, IBM only provided direct fibre channel support to the DS8000 and DS6000 before. There's new direct fibre channel support for the DS8700, and the DS5020 and DS8700 are now also supported via PowerVM VIOS (the DS5100 and DS5300 are also supported via VIOS as well).

• Enhanced support for reducing costs with PowerVM I/O Virtualization: IBM has added support for redundant VIOS partitions. Johnson explains, "VIOS is the appliance partition--it serves I/O to other partitions, it can serve I/O to IBM i 6.1 partitions and now it will support redundant partitions, so this is an availability enhancement--they are active-active, so if one were to be taken down, planned or unplanned, the IBM i partition still works through the other VIOS partition." In addition, IBM is adding industry-standard NPIV support for tape libraries, which lets the IBM i partition see specific devices that are attached via VIOS, such as a tape library or specific disk subsystems, like the DS8000, which would let IBM i recognize it as a DS8000 and not generic disk. "This is important for BladeCenter customers," Johnson notes.

• Enhanced support for breakthrough I/O performance with Solid State Drives (SSD): IBM i customers can now place some data on SSDs in SAN and VIOS configurations. "We can understand the hot data customers have and move the hot data to the SSDs," Johnson says. "And that's what the customers want, to get the hot data onto these devices." This support lets IBM i recognize the SSDs when installed in SANs or in a VIOS configuration. The results? According to IBM, customers can see up to a 40 percent increase in throughput when implementing the IBM invented skip-read-write technology. Still, how can a customer be sure an SSD investment will pay off? IBM is delivering a new SSD Analyzer Tool, which helps you determine if SSDs will provide benefits of significance.

• Optimal integrated disk solution now available for mid-sized clients: IBM is offering a new 380MB Cache SAS Disk Controller with 12X PCIe I/O drawers with SFF disk, which is designed for midsize customers. There's already a 1.5GB version for large customers.

• Enhanced availability option for RAID configurations: IBM's new Dual SAS RAID Adapter support now provides adapter and cache redundancy, letting customers use two adapters so if one fails, the other continues to operate--and this supports the new PCIe 380MB and PCI-X 1.5GB Cache SAS RAID Adapters.

• Support for new I/O devices and options: IBM is offering a higher capacity 139GB SAS SFF Disk Drive; a 12X I/O Drawer for PCIe adapters, no disk; SSD support in a 12X I/O Drawer; and hot spare for mirroring.

Announcing 6.1.1

IBM's new IBM i 6.1.1 release is required for the new SSD VIOS solutions, as well as the direct fibre channel to the DS5100 and DS5300. Plus, IBM is looking to make it possible to upgrade IBM i 6.1 from an image on a customer's network. "We're moving down a path of installing IBM i from an image on a network, and we’re not completely there," Johnson says. "Today we can install LPPs and PTFs from an image on a network, and upgrade 6.1 systems to 6.1.1." This is mostly about breaking the need for DVDs to install the OS, which makes it easier to deploy several systems and partitions.

More, But 6.1 Is Needed

IBM also announced a new i Edition for BladeCenter S with RAID support, so that it now includes RAID SAS Switch Modules and IBM i pre-installation.

In response primarily to vendor requests, IBM has introduced a Temporary File System that significantly improves IFS performance for applications that use temporary data in a file system--IBM says it can help IFS performance improve by 70-80 percent.

IBM has enhanced its IBM i Performance Data Investigator, which is a tool that comes with 6.1 to help customers analyze the performance of their system. New features include graphical health indicators for system resources and integration with Workload Estimator for upgrade sizing (the tool is provided with Systems Director Navigator for i). "It really lets customers grasp their performance stats for their system. It's great for our small and midsize clients who want to quickly look at the performance of their system, but they don't have a person who has a full-time job for this--it's an easy to use tool," Johnson says.

For better availability management, IBM is now offering HA Assist for i, which is a logical replication solution used to replicate objects that are neither supported via IASPs or the Cluster Admin Domain. Obviously, it's used for PowerHA for i environments, and it helps replicate objects that PowerHA for i could not previously replicate.

IBM i Access Support for Windows 7

IBM says its next service pack for 6.1 IBM i Access for Windows will provide support for Windows 7--the service pack is scheduled for release on December 1. Note: there are no IBM plans to support Windows 7 with 5.4 IBM i Access for Windows.

IBM also warns that, as customers plan to adopt Windows 7, they should be aware that the AFP Driver and AFP Viewer components in the 6.1 IBM i Access for Windows client will not be supported on Windows 7 until sometime in 2010. Plus, Windows 7 has a similar security model as Windows Vista; therefore, some IBM i Access for Windows functions require elevated authority (refer to Information APAR II14338 for details). IBM says customers should look for a more complete list of limitations and permanent restrictions when the service pack for 6.1 IBM i Access for Windows is available in December. However, IBM also notes that support for 6.1 IBM i Access for Windows can be acquired for IBM i 5.4 or late by ordering 5722XW1 (IBM i Access Family) refresh feature 2649. For more, IBM is pointing customers to http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/software/access/planning.html.

Posted by cmaxcer at October 20, 2009 4:53 PM