IBM Power Systems, IBM PowerVM and Oracle offerings: a winning combination The smart virtualization platform for IBM AIX, Linux and IBM i clients using Oracle solutions Fostering smart innovation through the IBM and Oracle alliance Delivering superior economics by consolidating Oracle applications running on IBM AIX, IBM i or Linux to a single server Virtualizing processor, memory and I/O resources to increase asset utilization and reduce infrastructure costs Delivering new services faster by dynamically adjusting server capacity to meet changing workload demands Performance redefined Everyone knows what performance meant for IT in the past. Built on the foundation of IBM POWER7 processor technology, IBM Power Systems servers and blades continue to excel and extend industry leadership in these traditional benchmarks of performance for Oracle software running on a UNIX platform. But the IT landscape is evolving rapidly. And, as processes become more interrelated and complex, IT is being called upon to solve challenging new problems and measure them in new ways. Today s IT projects must be measured against business performance with emphasis on higher service levels and delivering results in a more cost effective manner. IBM has the systems, AIX operating system, and expertise to help clients implement Oracle projects that make their IT an enabler of innovation and a catalyst for business change. Delivering higher quality services by moving running workloads between servers to maximize application availability and minimize planned downtime
Deliver services faster, with higher quality and superior economics Today s IT performance means delivering services faster, with higher quality and with superior economics. The emerging measures of IT performance are around agility and the ability to help the business capitalize on new opportunities. IT is expected to do more with less and find the lowest cost solutions possible. New measurements focus on building an infrastructure that can support rapid changes in business volume and manage business risk more effectively all while providing higher service levels to users. The IBM and Oracle alliance Since 1986, IBM and Oracle have partnered to create smart, serious innovation that s helping to shift the world. More than 140 000 joint clients benefit from the strength and stability of the Oracle and IBM alliance, which offers technology, applications, services, and hardware solutions that mitigate risk, boost efficiency, and lower total cost of ownership. IBM s service organization, IBM Global Business Services, is an Oracle Certified Advantage Partner and has a proven track record with over 5000 experienced professionals who have completed over 7500 Oracle projects. IBM and Oracle continually enhance the alliance to ensure they are helping companies respond quickly to constantly shifting market conditions and client demands. This is accomplished through the delivery of industry-specific hardware and software solutions, optimized to the client s environment. Power architecture Today s businesses require a new approach to process the vast amount of data created from connected devices and their users. This big data must be analyzed and insights delivered in real-time to be effective. Systems must be optimized to each unique workload to deliver maximum competitive advantage. POWER7 processors provide the foundation for designing workload optimized systems in conjunction with software and expert domain knowledge. To achieve workload optimizing technologies. For example, Intelligent Threads technology dyna.26o23lly switches the processor threading mode to deliver optimal perfor - mance for different workloads. TurboCore mode also offers the option to optimize the system for frequency and cache utilization delivering the maximum per core performance for database and transaction workloads. IBM PowerVM and IBM Power Systems virtualization without limits infrastructure investments, but also to provide more flexibility, higher application with PowerVM offers a complete set of virtualization solutions that can help IBM and Oracle clients achieve extremely high levels of sustained utilization while delivering greater flexibility in deploying virtual machines.
PowerVM consists of hardware and software features that allow an IBM Power System server to virtualize computing resources to be shared across many user workloads. A feature like PowerVM Live Partition Mobility enables active partitions to be moved between servers and virtually eliminates planned application downtime while Micro-Partitioning supports up to ten partitions per processor core and can dynamically shift processor, memory, and I/O resources between partitions to match changing workload requirements. PowerVM delivers industrial strength virtualization for AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems running on Power Systems servers. It offers a secure virtualization environment, built on the advanced resiliency features and industry-leading performance of the Power Systems platform. The following is a partial list of the PowerVM features. Note that not every PowerVM feature is certified with each combination of Oracle products running on IBM supported operating systems. When planning a deployment, confirm that the desired PowerVM function is certified with a given Oracle product. PowerVM Micro-Partitioning supports up to ten dynamic logical partitions per processor core. Depending on the Power server, you can have as many as 254 independent partitions each with its own processor, memory, and I/O resources within a single physical Power server. Processor resources can be assigned at a granularity of 1/100th of a core. Consolidating systems with PowerVM can help reduce operation costs, improve availability, ease management, improve service levels and allow businesses to quickly deploy applications. Multiple Shared Processor Pools provide the automatic, non-disruptive balancing of processing power between partitions assigned to shared pools to help increase throughput. It also provides the ability to cap the processor core resources used by a group of partitions, potentially reducing processorbased software licensing costs. Note: This feature is available exclusively on POWER6 and POWER7 processor-based systems. Shared Dedicated Capacity means that spare CPU cycles from dedicated processor partitions can be allocated to a Shared Processor Pool. The dedicated partition maintains absolute priority for dedicated CPU cycles. Enabling this feature may help to increase system usage, without compromising the computing power for critical workloads in a dedicated processor. Note: This feature is available exclusively on POWER6 and POWER7 processor-based systems. Active Memory Expansion is a new technology for expanding a system s effective memory capacity. Active Memory Expansion employs memory compression technology to transparently compress in-memory data, allowing more data to be placed into memory and thus expanding the memory capacity of POWER7 systems. Utilizing Active Memory Expansion can improve system utilization and increase a system s throughput. Note: This is feature is available exclusively on POWER7 processor-based systems with AIX Version 6.1 TL04 SP2 and above.
The Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is a special-purpose partition that can be used to virtualize I/O resources to AIX, i, and Lin25o02 client partitions. VIOS owns the resources that are shared w8th clients. A physical adapter assigned to the VIOS partition can be shared w8th other partitions. VIOS can help reduce costs by elimin2523tin20 the need for dedicated network adapters, disk adapters and disk drives, and tape adapters and tape drives in each client partition. W8th VIOS, client partitions can easily be created for test, development or pro - duction purposes. N Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) providesred34ect access to Fiber Channel Adapters from multiple client partitions, simplifyin20 the deployment and man - a20ement of Fiber Channel SAN environments. Note: This feature e: Tatoir31a-zX34r dlnn35iixdirbia m 2erV67atdmm 2erV.z,naehsETAEMCA/Span </MCID161 >BDCABTA/T1_01TfA9009280567.025.6207TmA(N-ETAEMCA
In general, the certification of new IBM technologies requires comprehensive testing and is a thorough process. This is especially true with Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). Oracle separately tests each feature of PowerVM with Oracle Database and Oracle RAC and issues support statements for these product combinations on a feature-by-feature basis. As of June 2011, several tests are in progress and more testing is planned as IBM and Oracle keep adding new features to their respective solutions. Be sure to consult your IBM representative or with the IBM Oracle International Competency Center at ibmoracl@us.ibm.com for the latest certification status for specific features of PowerVM with an Oracle solution. Table 1 provides an overview of the PowerVM features that are certified, or are in the process of being certified, with the Oracle Database. If a PowerVM capability is not listed in the table, then at this time that capability has no committed test plan. This may be because both companies agree that there is no business reason to provide the support or because the specific feature does not require any special test. It would then be considered supported as part of the regular operating system. PowerVM Feature Operating System Single Instance RAC Comments Dynamic LPAR AIX Yes Yes Note (1) Micro-Partitioning AIX Yes Yes Note (1) Multiple Shared Processor Pools AIX Yes Yes Note (2) VIOS AIX Yes Yes Note (3) LPM AIX Yes Yes Note (3) WPAR AIX Yes In discussion Active Memory Expansion AIX Yes Yes Note (3) Table 1. PowerVM features and Oracle certification (1) Verify with Oracle s My Oracle Support Web site and the general notes for Oracle Database on IBM s AIX Power Systems. (2) There is no separate certification required for multiple shared pools. Oracle supports use of these for sub-capacity pricing. (3) Check the My Oracle Support Web site for the detailed and updated status of certification.
When planning an Oracle implementation with IBM PowerVM, consider the entire operating environment when verifying the support status. In some cases, a given PowerVM feature may not be supported with all combinations of IBM and Oracle software. For example, the Virtual I/O Server feature of PowerVM enables many different types of connections (such as virtual Ethernet, virtual SCSI, and virtual LAN). The support status for these features can vary depending on the version of AIX in use, the Oracle Database version, whether or not Oracle RAC is used, and whether or not other subsystems, such as IBM PowerHA or IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS ), are used. The combination of supported products changes constantly as testing is completed. Given the complexity of the support issues, we recommend consulting the IBM Oracle ICC at ibmoracl@us.ibm.com for the latest support information. Sizing IBM PowerVM with Oracle running on IBM Power Systems Sizing PowerVM on IBM Power Systems servers follows the same procedure as sizing Oracle solutions on IBM servers. The first step is to complete a sizing questionnaire for the specific Oracle product that will be used, such as Oracle E-Business Suite or Oracle s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. The next step is to submit the completed questionnaire to IBM. You can obtain a sizing estimate customized for your environment from the IBM Techline ISV Solution Sizing Team which provides worldwide sizing support. Access this organization through your IBM or IBM Business Partner representative. To start the sizing process, download a questionnaire from: ibm.com/erp/sizing
For more information To find out more about joint solutions from IBM and Oracle, please contac inan IBM sales representative at 1-866-426-9989, or visit: ibm.com/solutions/oracle For more information about the IBM Power Systems family, visit: ibm.com/systems/power For more information about PowerVM, visit: ibm.com/systems/power/software/virtualization
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