New options for Linux on power open source technology

Today's open source technology is growing faster, in the Internet, mobile, cloud computing and big Data has a wide range of applications, Linux is growing better, and traditional small machines are declining. IBM's timely proposed Linux on power, compared to the traditional X86 solution, has a certain advantage. On the one hand, it solves the challenges faced by X86, such as insufficient memory capacity, performance bottleneck, cost control, complexity of architecture and so on, on the other hand, it improves IOPS, reduces latency, lowers cost and improves resource utilization and productivity.

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Of course any technology requires a suitable scenario, and the application of Linux on power in a traditional enterprise will also face some problems and challenges.

One, migration of code conversion issues

One of the first problems with Linux on Power in the enterprise is how to migrate some open source to a small machine platform. Some of the development languages used by the application system, such as some jave, Python, and PHP, are more efficient to migrate, and soon don't require much code refactoring, but like C and C + +, there are a lot of problems. Includes the API interface of the program, as well as the software support aspect. In addition, as you know, the X86 is a small byte, on power is the large section, this byte-order conversion problem. There are hardware, some features of the board, such as our NBU backup needs to pass a QLogic card, this driver on the support of some problems. So how can you minimize the effort when migrating? At the same time not to add too much code conversion to the application? Another, is the stability and performance after migration?

Now that the Linux on power product line is growing, IBM has a lot of input in the open source community, especially with vendors, like Red Hat, and the great collaboration with the Bantu, and now has a very good solution on the issue of byte-order conversion. In fact, IBM in order to improve the Linux on power, in the open power, is the entire ecological chain, the upstream and downstream including a lot of board manufacturers also constantly add in. In doing so, a lot of hardware jave, will continue to migrate over, some other IC manufacturers will also be some jave corresponding updates, which can greatly solve the problem of some hardware support.

With the Linux on power series, like Linux, as it expands, many open source, like MongoDB, RDS, or the Docker community, IBM will invest. Let these open-source technology in Linux on power such a version of the deep integration, some programs for better optimization, better adaptation, which greatly solves the problem of the product is not rich enough. The same program in the X86 platform, on the power platform, performance differences are completely different, in fact, objectively speaking in the power platform this performance will be much better. After IBM partnered with Linux vendors such as Redhat, SUSE, Redflag, and Turbo, the Linux on power platform will become more available and more performance-driven.

Ii. differences between POWERKVM and x86 KVM

POWERVM since Power5, released in 2004, is a very mature virtualization solution on IBM's small machine. POWERVM has many management software, such as IVM for standalone virtualization, the HMC for data center virtualization management, and POWERVC for cloud computing scenarios. The POWERKVM was started in 2014 by IBM into the Power architecture, the current maturity and POWERVM compared to a slightly immature, but thanks to the characteristics of open source, the development is very fast. In terms of performance, one of the leading features of POWERKVM technology is to support the new micro-core mode, which allows each POWER8 physical core to run 4 VMs simultaneously, which is different from the time-sharing mode of KVM technology. The micro-core mode allows 4 virtual machines to gain the computing power of the physical core One-fourth independently of each other. In other words, the micro-core mode allows POWERKVM to run more VMS and carry more business, without noticeable performance loss. POWERKVM provides physical resources, such as CPU, memory, and IO devices, directly to the partition, so that performance is the same on both basic and bare metal. Consistent with X86-KVM functionality and experience, the POWERKVM can achieve more than 95% smooth migration of applications, and leverage IBM's unique "micro-core mode" to enable the system to host more virtual machines and application workloads on a non-lossy CPU basis, achieve higher application consolidation, reduce server hardware spending, Save budget and reduce costs. In addition, KVM support has now been added to IBM Power Architecture, so IBM power Systems can be virtualized using open source virtualization standards. KVM has been an open-source hypervisor for different architectures for some time now and KVM has been ported to IBM Power architecture for tuning. Linux distribution vendors, both SUSE and Red Hat Guest systems, can be easily deployed in an enterprise PowerKVM environment. IBM has also developed OPAL with engineering quality levels that can be used to run KVM on servers based on next-generation IBM power processors. As a result, IBM stretched out its smart hand, providing its customers with KVM as a trusted source of virtualization technology on Power Systems.

Third, Power's support for OpenStack

When it comes to OpenStack, and by the way OpenStack and VMware Compare, OpenStack is a little bit more than VMware, a little bit more abstract, VMware may be more of an operating system level, but now VMware is also extending outward, Do software-defined storage, do software-defined networks, do a variety of combinations of virtualization. OpenStack collectively combines this piece together and then manages these layers in a couple. Now overall a trend is to go to the user experience layer, so there are many organizations like OpenStack are doing a very good framework, can put you under like KVM or POWERVM, and these complex super command things to you simplify.

Power Virtualization Center (Vc,virtualization Center), developed based on the OpenStack framework, supports POWERVM and POWERKVM to provide more complete virtualization of power systems and the management of related supporting resources such as storage , combined with IBM's OpenStack contribution, will make power systems easier to integrate into the global cloud environment. The IBM Cloud Management Suite SCE (SmartCloud Entry), which upgrades updates for the power environment, also provides users with a complete view of the cloud management and the associated cloud management capabilities. Powersystems System-level solutions developed specifically for Linux-based Scale-out cloud environments, as well as upgraded Powersystems cloud solutions, further enhance the power system's implementation capabilities in the Scale-out area, Includes public clouds and private cloud domains.

In traditional enterprises or large state enterprises (energy, electricity, steel), its IT infrastructure after many years of development, hardware and software and applications have a lot of their own characteristics, both complex and diverse and very personality. It used to be a lot of Aix or HP gadgets, and the applications that ran on it were more central, and the power platform was often high. However, after entering the internet era, more and more enterprises including SOEs are beginning to Internet, or using the model of Internet enterprises to transform their IT systems, improve performance and reduce costs, energy saving is an important goal. X86 platform with the rise of the internet has developed rapidly, on the one hand because of the low cost of X86, on the other hand, the application of Linux support is also very rich. Of course, the low cost of X86 a problem is that the probability of failure is also greatly increased. Is there a better solution than AIX on power if there is a need for enterprise-class applications that require higher performance and stability, or is it necessary to run on the power platform? That's Linux on POWER.

For users or customers, the main problem in migrating applications from X86 to Linux on POWER is the transformation of application code migration and the richness of supported open source technologies, which are key to solving these two problems. In fact, the hardware platform to choose which is not the primary problem, the key is the overall software environment to build. Building a comprehensive platform ecosystem of Linux on power, integrating resources from basic hardware, operating systems, middleware, databases, to top applications, to create a thriving power ecosystem is what power is desperate to do.

For the future development of the power system platform, it is not easy to give a clear judgment clearly, because the things involved are dynamic, and the more open things, the more likely the variables are, the more unpredictable the outcome, the more we can only look ahead in the general direction. We should see open source is not the exclusive X86, with the Linux on power excellent hardware platform and the huge investment in open source software, IBM can provide a more stable, open, excellent performance of the scale-out platform for cloud computing, big data, mobile, social, security and other emerging load users, Their choice is not just X86, but the new Linux on Power will give users a fresh choice.

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New options for Linux on power open source technology