z/VM

z/VM 6.1 out by end of year

IBM announced yesterday that z/VM 6.1, the newest version of its mainframe virtualization operating system, will be out by year’s end.

The z/VM operating system has become more and more relevant over the past few years as companies have taken advantage of the virtualization appeal of the mainframe to run hundreds, or even thousands, of virtual Linux servers on big iron. There have been estimates that more than half of new mainframe MIPS are on zLinux.

The last version of z/VM, version 5.4, was released in June 2007, so this new version has been a while coming compared to the operating system’s previous release schedule.

The new version, 6.1, will be the first built on a new architectural level set (ALS), which is a fancy way of saying it will only run on the System z10 mainframes and future models. The expected end-of-life IBM support date for z/VM 5.4 is September 2013, so those running z9 mainframes and earlier have a few years to upgrade, find support from a third party, or go without support.

Some highlights from the new release:

• Guest LAN and Virtual Switch (VSWITCH) exploitation of the Prefetch Data instruction to use new IBM System z10 server cache prefetch capabilities to help improve the performance of guest-to-guest streaming network workloads
• Closer integration with IBM Systems Director by shipping the Manageability Access Point Agent for z/VM to help simplify installation of the agent
• Inclusion of post-z/VM V5.4 enhancements delivered in the IBM service stream.

Perhaps just as importantly, IBM says that z/VM 6.1 provides a formation for future z/VM enhancements, including the ability to allow multiple z/VM systems to act as one server image, and to allow live guest relocation from one system to another.

Some links to check out: the IBM announcement letter, preview summary, and z/VM 6.1 FAQ.

The prospect of Windows on an IBM System z mainframe

There’s some hubbub around the Share conference in Austin this week around a session tomorrow morning by Mantissa Corp. The session is titled “x86 Virtualization Technology for System z.” During it, the company’s CEO, Gary Dennis, is expected to unveil technology that would allow Microsoft Windows to run on top of z/VM on a mainframe.

The company hasn’t divulged many details about the product, called z/VOS, though Dennis did say back in the fall that in the first quarter of this year the company planned on delivering a system that allows unaltered x86 operating systems, including Windows, to run under z/VM. In an email, he said that by using a desktop appliance running RDC (Remote Desktop Connection), users will be able to connect to their virtual Windows images running on an IBM mainframe.

He added that Mantissa believes a z10 mainframe could “comfortably run 2,000 copies of Windows desktop systems” while still running regular z/OS workloads.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the session tomorrow morning as I’m leaving Austin today, but I just spoke to Dennis. He wouldn’t reveal any more details but said we could talk next week, so I hope to connect with him on Monday. In the meantime, here’s the full abstract from the Share session tomorrow morning:

Over the last decade IBM has quietly opened a world of virtualization possibilities through changes in the System z instruction set and advances in their chip technology. These changes have made possible x86 virtualization alternatives never imagined. Find out how you can leverage System z to achieve x86 virtualization goals faster and more cost effectively than you ever thought possible. Learn how you can deploy and manage native x86 Windows® and Linux images under z/VM. Gain an understanding of how you can simplify operations and more easily reach virtualization and cost containment goals through:

• JIT deployment of virtualized x86 OS images
• Reductions in deployment costs
• Simplified image and deployment maintenance
• Reduced power and space requirements

Learn more about z/VOS, the system that makes this virtualization alternative possible. Gain first-hand knowledge of:

• How the technology works
• the meaning of Single Pass Virtualization (SPV)
• x86 network, file system and GUI considerations
• z/VM service machine considerations
• Guest x86 machine IPL, clone, checkpoint capabilites
• z/VOS administration

A mainframe on layaway, and other IBM incentives

In a move taken from auto dealerships and furniture companies, IBM is offering a way for mainframe users — or wannabe mainframe users — to get big iron now without having to pay for it until later.

Last week IBM announced the z10 Business Class, a smaller counterpart to its big honcho, the z10 Enterprise Class. The z10 BC starts at about $100,000. It’s far less than a seven- or eight-figure EC, but still, it’s not pocket change in this current economic climate. As part of the announcement, IBM is offering a financing deal. Order one now, and you don’t have to make a payment for 90 days.

Can you see the commercial now? Can you see the different color balloons floating around the mainframe retail store, luring unknowing customers into buying a mainframe? Actually, though, financing deals in the IT world are nothing new, said Mike Kahn of The Clipper Group.

“It’s an incentive to bring business in this year,” he said. “They’re ramping up product and getting it ready to ship. A lot of people would say they don’t have any budget left. The economy is down and they’ve blown their budget for this quarter. They might not have any money this quarter but they might have it next quarter.”

Kahn added that IT vendors often have end-of-the-year deals, where they might throw in extra memory at no cost to try to get product out the door by the end of the quarter. IBM’s move is just another end-of-year deal.

Specialty engines cut in half

The other big financial incentive that IBM announced at the same time was that the specialty engines for the z10 BC would be half price — so about $45,000 instead of almost $100,000.

The specialty engines include the zIIP, zAAP and IFL, which are geared toward running database, Java and Linux applications, respectively. Those less fond of IBM and its mainframe have called them stripped-down z/OS engines, and to an extent, that’s true. Either way, the specialty engines have offered a way to get traditionally non-mainframe applications — Linux and Java especially — running on big iron in a consolidated fashion on top of z/VM, big iron’s virtualization operating system.

During the announcement, IBM officials said they are gearing the z10 BC to be a big consolidation play, where users take a bunch of their x86 Linux servers and stuff them onto the mainframe. Reducing the cost of the specialty engines could help it work.

 ”They believe this is a real opportunity for them and customers to rethink what they’re doing with these more open applications,” Kahn said.

Kahn added that if you’re running a z9 Business Class with specialty engines, and you decide to upgrade to the z10 Business Class, IBM will give you the upgraded specialty engine at no charge.

“That’s like if somebody says they’ll take old used tires off my car and give me better tires,” he said. “I could use a few of those deals in my life.”

Obvious mainframe headline of the day

Here it is: “Virtual Systems of Tomorrow Could Take Cues from Today’s Mainframes.” No way, you think? Seeing as the virtual systems of today took cues from yesterday’s mainframes, it makes sense that the trickle-down effect will continue.

This story, from Virtualization Review, basically outlines what most mainframers already know: that the mainframe had virtualization first, and that it continues to innovate server virtualization.

Those are the macro points, and they are obvious. But the story does do a good job delving into the micro points as well - the dirty details. Mainly with the help of Gordon Haff, a great analyst at Illuminata, the story’s author goes over several features of mainframe virtualization today that are either becoming, or will become, the x86 virtualization of tomorrow. Here’s a list:

• Embedded hypervisors such as VMware’s ESXi and Citrix’s XenExpress are similar to Start Interpretive Execution (SIE), a specialized virtualization instruction that IBM “first enabled on its System/370 mainframes back in the early ’80s.”
• The move in x86 server hardware toward larger, more highly virtualized systems with more and more processor cores is much like a large mainframe, which can host hundreds of virtual server images.
• Virtualized Ethernet. Haff: “[L]arge numbers of Linux guests [running on z/VM] don’t need to communicate with each other over a standard network interface. Oh, they think that’s what they are doing. However…the traffic never enters any physical networking hardware.” It’s where x86 virtualization from VMware and XenServer are going, he added.

Where’s z/VM?

As I reported on SearchDataCenter.com, a new feature of the next version of z/VM will allow mixing and matching of ICFs, IFLs, zIIPs and zAAPs onto a single LPAR, presumably to help users prevent memory from being wasted and to help in test/dev environments. An important question, however, is where is the new version?

Here’s a quick timeline of the last few releases of z/VM:

• z/VM 4.3: April 30, 2002
• z/VM 4.4: May 13, 2003
• z/VM 5.1: Sept. 24, 2004
• z/VM 5.2: Dec. 16, 2005
• z/VM 5.3 (current version): Announced Feb. 6, 2007; available June 29, 2007

The pattern is that z/VM releases have come every year to year-and-a-half. So I would expect that the next version of z/VM (whether it be called 5.4, 6.1 or something else) will likely come this fall, or possibly even as early as the end of this month. I would expect it sometime in September.

IBM vs. Sun: The mainframe cage match

I must admit. As a tech journalist, it’s always fun to watch two vendors go at each other’s throats. That is what has been happening recently between IBM and Sun employees, as they argue over the virtualization benefits of the new System z10.

It all started with a column that Jon Toigo wrote in the Mainframe Executive magazine called “Enterprise Manager: Virtualize This!” Now, let’s be clear about one thing: Toigo is not fond of x86 virtualization using VMware. That was made clear in the article, and is something he’s made clear before. Last fall, he said during a Data Center Decisions conference session (TechTarget runs Data Center Decisions) that VMware is “shoddy” and full of bugs. He recommended running a mainframe instead. Not everyone at the conference agreed with Toigo’s assessment, including other speakers.

Needless to say, Jeff Savit was not impressed. A principal engineer at Sun Microsystems, Savit wasn’t convinced by Toigo’s article. In fact, he said Toigo got a lot wrong:

If you stipulate that another platform can run only 1/4 the work that it can actually run, and omit the very substantial costs on the other platform - z, and believe grossly exaggerated claims about its capabilities, and fail to mention features of other platforms that provide comparable or superior features that z cannot do (VMotion anyone?), well, you’re going to be a few orders of magnitude off.

That set off people in the comments space, one of which was Toigo, who said he would get to the bottom of some of the claims he made in the article, such as being able to virtualize up to 1,500 x86 servers using the mainframe’s LPAR technology. The mainframe can host thousands of virtual servers, but within z/VM, not LPARs, as Mark Post wrote in the comment section of Toigo’s article. Post is an engineer at Novell who focuses on zLinux.

In addition to reading the comments to Savit’s post, you’ll also want to read a post by Tony Pearson, an IBM storage consultant, and the comments that went with that, as well as the most recent addition to the literature, a post by IBM senior IT architect Joe Temple, over at the Typepad Mainframe blog.

And don’t forget the popcorn.

I suspect that readers of this blog will tend to side with the IBMers, but Savit’s post is well thought out, and it’s not like he’s unfamiliar with mainframes, either. Before coming to Sun, he was a VP at Merrill Lynch overseeing their mainframe virtualization.

I think all parties provide a good example of how to properly argue over the Internet. None of them resorted to “your mother” jokes, or asking one another what they’re going to do when the 24″ pythons run wild on you. I kind of wish they did, though. But that’s just me being greedy.