The technical team at Spectrum Consulting recently finished a Power Systems Audit of a large publicly listed company in NZ. The audit looked at the Power Systems Hardware, Virtualization, AIX Logical Partitions, and the attached IBM SAN / Storage Servers. The environment was absolutely mission-critical to the business, running the core business applications.

The customer didn’t have the skills to implement the SAP on IBM Power Systems solution. They had simply trusted a NZ ‘Tier 1 Reseller’ to implement the solution correctly. After the implementation the customer was not provided with any documentation and therefore had a poor understanding of their environment simply believing it to be setup correct.

During the audit Spectrum discovered three separate configuration errors (Single Points of Failure) in the implementation which could have resulted in major disruption and huge losses for the entire company.

1.) The Virtual I/O server which provided the Operating System disks for the production LPARS had not been mirrored. This meant that the failure of a single hard drive would have taken 4 production systems offline.

2.) The main production LPAR had itself not been mirrored. Again the failure of a single drive would have resulted in the customer’s production system going down. Given this LPAR’s storage was being provided by the un-mirrored Virtual I/O server the risk was doubled!

3.) A production LPAR was mirrored with both copies of the mirror on the same physical hard drive. This poor implementation again meant that the loss of a single hard drive or SCSI adapter would have resulted in the failure of the LPAR.

These systems were implemented almost three years ago and the customer was totally shocked to find their production systems not configured correctly. The customer is grateful that Spectrum undertook the system audit, immediately notifying them of the issues and fixing them promptly.

The customer has engaged with Spectrum to support their IBM AIX / Power Systems environment moving forward…

If you are responsible for IBM Power Systems and would like Spectrum to audit your environment please call us today… +64 9 826 5588

Paul Tomlinson
Managing Director

APARs and PTFs mentioned in this document, when available, can be obtained from the following web site.

http://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/main/pseries/aix

The AIX installation CD-ROMs and the level of AIX pre-installed on new systems may not contain the latest fixes available at the time you install the system, and may contain errors. Some these fixes may be critical to the proper operation of your system. We recommend that you update to the latest service level, which can be obtained from http://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/main/pseries/aix.

When updating to a new Technology Level, it is a good practice to first update the bos.rte.install update in a separate installation session.

The compare_report command, which is documented in the AIX Commands Reference, can be used to determine which available updates are newer than those installed on your system.

Any library or executable that is updated by an interim fix (emgr) or service update, which is in use by an active process, will not be reflected in that process until it is restarted. In addition, any process that is using a library and does a dlopen() of the same library after the library has been updated, could experience inconsistencies.

* Incorrect Build Date in 5300-11-02 oslevel Output

* Firmware Update Required for 7043-150 and 7046-B50

* Port 80 in Use by Web-Based System Manager

* Common 32-bit Kernel Installation Issues

* Update Required Twice

* 5300-06 Fixes Required for Fibre Channel Attached Storage

* 5300-06 Service Pack 1

* Oracle Crashes with ORA-600 Errors

* Minimum Firmware Levels Required for AIX 5.3

* DB2, Informix and SAP May Fail to Start

* Installation of man Command Content for AIX

* oslevel -r Does not Indicate 5300-03 Due to Docsearch

* Memory DLPAR Not Supported with Infiniband

* Reads from Frozen JFS2 Filesystem Hang

* NIM SPOT Resources

Incorrect Build Date in 5300-11-02 oslevel Output
For the 5300-11-02 Service Pack, the oslevel -s command outputs “5300-11-02-1007″, where the actual build date is 1009. This does not cause any functional issues, but differs from what is shown in Fix Central.

Firmware Update Required for 7043-150 and 7046-B50
System firmware level TCP09267, or later, is required for the 7043-150 and 7046-B50 systems, before installing or updating to the 5300-11 or later level of AIX 5.3. The system will not boot AIX without this update.

To determine if the firmware level of your system, use the command:

lscfg -vp | grep -p openprom

The output should be similar to:

Name: openprom
Model: IBM, TCP09267
Node: openprom
Physical Location: P1

Firmware updates can be obtained from Fix Central. Select the following options.

Product Group: System P
Product: Firmware and HMC
Processor type: POWER4 and earlier
Firmware type: System and device firmware

Port 80 in Use by Web-Based System Manager
Starting with the 5300-09 Technology Level, port 80 is used by default by the Web-Based System Manager web server. This will cause other applications, such as WebSphere’s IBM HTTP Server, that use port 80 to fail to start. The Web-Based System Manager web server can be disabled using the following commands.

stopsrc -s http4websm
rmitab webserverstart

This issue will be resolved by the following APARs.
Technology
Level APAR
5300-09 IZ47650
5300-10 IZ47726

Common 32-bit Kernel Installation Issues
The following failures can occur when doing a network installation with a 32-bit network boot image:

* Client will fail to boot in a Logical Partitition with more than 512 GB of memory.

* When installing to a rootvg that is > 1.2 TB, the installation will fail with the message:

ATTENTION: The total size of a disk selected for rootvg is larger than what the running kernel supports. Select a smaller disk size or reboot using media that supports running the 64-bit kernel.

The above errors do not occur when using a 64-bit network boot image.

Update Required Twice
With certain combinations of updates, the update process may have to be run a second time in order to apply all updates in a package. Checking the output of the ‘oslevel -r’ and ‘oslevel -s’ commands for the expected values after an update is recommended. Until the update is run a second time, the output of the oslevel command may not indicate that the package is fully installed.

This problem is known to occur when updating from the 5300-05 Technology Level to the 5300-08 Technology Level. In this case, the ifor_ls.html.en_US.base.cli fileset is not fully updated during the first pass.

5300-06 Fixes Required for Fibre Channel Attached Storage
APAR IY99798 is required for customers connecting fibre channel attached storage to systems running AIX 5.3 with the 5300-06 Technology Level. This problem is known to affect the DS8000 Storage unit and SDDPCM, although it could affect other fibre channel attached storage subsystems.

This APAR is included in the 5300-06-02 Service Pack. Prior to availability from the AIX Support web site, the PTFs may be obtained from:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/iy99798/

5300-06 Service Pack 1
Service Pack 1 is considered a mandatory update for customers installing the 5300-06 Technology Level. To determine if you already have Service Pack 1 installed, use the command:

oslevel -s

The output should include “5300-06-01″. Service Pack 1 can be obtained from the Fix Bundles section of the IBM Support web site.

Oracle Crashes with ORA-600 Errors
After installing AIX 5.3 Technology Level 5 or later, Oracle 9i or 10g may intermittently crash with ORA-600 errors in the Oracle AlertLog. Customers must contact Oracle support to obtain Oracle patch number 5496862.

Minimum Firmware Levels Required for AIX 5.3
The follow are minimum system firmware levels for required for AIX 5.3. You system firmware needs to be at this level, or later, before installing AIX 5.3, or updating to a higher AIX 5.3 Technology Level.

Model Number Product Name Minimum Firmware Level
7017-S70 RS/6000 Model S70 20040716
7017-S7A RS/6000 Model S7A 20040716
7017-S80 RS/6000 Model S80 20040716
7017-S85 pSeries 680 Model S85 20040716
7025-F50 RS/6000 Model F50 L04197
7025-F80 RS/6000 Model F80 CL050203
7025-6F0/6F1 pSeries 620 Models 6F0/6F1 CL050203
7026-B80 pSeries 640 Model B80 NAN04194
7026-H50 RS/6000 Model H50 L04197
7026-H70 RS/6000 Model H70 SST04195
7026-H80 RS/6000 Model H80 CM050203
7026-M80 RS/6000 Model M80 MM050203
7026-6H0/6H1 pSeries 660 Models 6H0/6H1 CM050203
7026-6M1 pSeries 660 Model 6M1 MM050203
7028-6C1 pSeries 610 Model 6C1 CLT04194
7028-6C4 pSeries 630 Model 6C4 3R041029
7028-6E1 pSeries 610 Model 6E1 CLT04194
7028-6E4 pSeries 630 Model 6E4 3R041029
7029-6C3 pSeries 615 Model 6C3 3F041029
7029-6E3 pSeries 615 Model 6E3 3F041029
7038-6M2 pSeries 650 Model 6M2 3K041029
7039-651 pSeries 655 Model 651 3J041029
7040-671 pSeries 670 Model 671 3H041029
7040-681 pSeries 690 Model 681 3H041029
7043-150 RS/6000 Model 150 TCP04195
7043-260 RS/6000 Model 260 SPX04197
7043-270 RS/6000 7043 Model 270 SPH04194
7044-170 RS/6000 Model 170 SPH04194
7044-270 RS/6000 Model 270 SPH04194
7046-B50 RS/6000 Model B50 TCP04194
9112-265 IntelliStation POWER Model 265 CLT04194
9114-275 IntelliStation POWER Model 275 3F041029

Firmware updates are available from:

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/firmware/gjsn

If you experience problems booting your POWER4 system after updating AIX or firmware, then you should verify and correct the value of the real-base firmware variable according to these instructions:

1. Go to the open firmware prompt when the system is booting by typing 8 when a beep is heard or the banner is seen. If applicable, the HMC can also be used to set to boot to SMS menu. From SMS menu type 0 and go to OF prompt.

2. At the prompt, type:
printenv real-base It will display text similar to:

————– Partition: common ——– Signature: 0×70 —————
real-base 2000000 c00000

3. Verify that the number following real-base is c00000. If it is any value other than c00000, then run this command to change it:
setenv real-base c00000 (That is the letter c followed by 5 zeroes.)

4. After updating the real-base variable, reboot system using power switch.

DB2, Informix and SAP May Fail to Start
After installing bos.mp64 at the 5.3.0.40 level, which is included in the 5300-04 Technology Level, 64-bit executables with runtime linking enabled (built with the -brtl flag) may fail to start with an error message simiar to:

exec(): 0509-036 Cannot load program

This problem is known to affect DB2, Informix and SAP, but could also affect other 64-bit applications.
APAR IY83580 resolves this issue.

Installation of man Command Content for AIX
AIX content for the man command is contained in the following filesets:

infocenter.man.EN_US.commands – installed by default
infocenter.man.EN_US.files – not installed by default
infocenter.man.EN_US.libs – not installed by default

To install the infocenter.man.EN_US.files and infocenter.man.EN_US.libs filesets, perform these steps:

1. Insert CD 1 of the AIX 5L Version 5.3 set of CDs into the CD drive of your AIX system.
2. At the AIX command line, type:
smit installp
3. Select Install Software.
4. Press F4 to list the available options and select the CD drive that contains the AIX CD (for example /dev/cd0) and press Enter.
5. At the Software to install press F4 to display a list of all software filesets.
6. Once the list displays, search for infocenter by typing “/infocenter” and press Enter.
7. The following list displays:

infocenter.man.EN_US.commands ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual commands – U.S. English
infocenter.man.EN_US.files ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual files – U.S. English
infocenter.man.EN_US.libs ALL
@ 5.3.0.30 AIX manual libs – U.S. English

8. Move the cursor to the infocenter filesets you wish to install and press F7 next to each fileset name. Press Enter three times to start the install.
To install the infocenter.man.EN_US.files and infocenter.man.EN_US.libs filesets, you will be instructed to insert CD 3 into the CD drive.

oslevel -r Does not Indicate 5300-03 Due to Docsearch
When the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package is installed on a system that was migrated to AIX 5.3 from a previous release of AIX, the ‘oslevel -r’ command may not indicate 5300-03. This problem occurs because bos.docsearch filesets were not removed during the AIX 5.3 migration.

To resolve this, the bos.docsearch filesets should be uninstalled after migrating to AIX 5.3 and before installation of the 5300-03 Recommended Maintenance package. This can be accomplished using the command:

installp -ugX bos.docsearch.rte

Memory DLPAR Not Supported with Infiniband
Memory DLPAR is not currently supported when using the Infiniband Host Channel Adapter. If installed and configured, fileset devices.chrp.IBM.lhca disables memory DLPAR functions on the resident LPAR.

Reads from Frozen JFS2 Filesystem Hang
After application of the 5.3.0.20 level kernels (bos.mp, bos.mp64), which are included on the 5/2005 Update CD and in the 5300-02 Recommended Maintenance package, reads from a frozen JFS2 filesystem will no longer be possible. All reads from a frozen filesystem will be blocked until the filesystem is thawed. Because of this, a filesystem level backup, such as a backup using the backup command or through TSM, will appear to hang until the filesystem is thawed. This restriction will be lifted in APAR IY70224.

Backups using FlashCopy or similar logical volume or device level backups are still possible on a frozen filesystem.

NIM SPOT Resources
NIM SPOT resources at 5.3 and later require approximately 500 MB of free space. When creating a SPOT from a 5.3 LPP_SOURCE with updates, it may be necessary to have 500 MB of free space in the SPOT filesystem. This implies that the user should change the default value from 350 to at least 500 for the SPOT option “Filesystem SIZE (MB)” in SMIT panels nim_mkres_spot_only and nim_mkres_inst.

The service level is available at: GPFS download site

This service level addresses the below issues. This is not a definitive list as other minor corrections have been made which are not listed here.

* Fix problem where mmrestripe command might not correctly detect I/O errors during the first phase of restripe.
* Correct the resetting of config parameters to default on a subset of the nodes.
* Replace usage of the lsvg command with getlvodm.
* Fix function checkIntRange error message when checking negative numbers.
* Clear the tiebreaker disk parameter after mmexportfs all.
* Fix ioctl opcode conflict with FIGETBSZ on Linux kernel 2.6.31 and later.
* Fix fsck to avoid incorrectly reporting and fixing of filesystem corruptions in a heterogeneous cluster.
* If the file system is internally forced to unmount (file system panic), invoke the preunmount user exit if one is installed.
* Avoid confusion when using a local fcntl lock versus an NLM one.
* Give customers using mmbackup more flexibility by allowing alternate install location for TSM.
* Fix determining filename length when filename contains invalid UTF8 characters.
* Fix data corruption when using mmap.
* Fix assert due to invalid fcntl acquire sleep element found on the kernel queue.
* Keep FS descriptors off of excluded disks even if they come online.
* Fixed a race condition by serializing the xattr object in inode properly.
* Fix hang between node failure thread and events exporter request handler thread.
* Fix mmapplypolicy to estimate correctly the number of GPFS storage pool bytes freed by migrating to an external/HSM pool. Introduce MM_POLICY_MIGRATION_STUBSIZE environment variable to allow users to directly control size for migration.
* Fix mmbackup to avoid giving file name length and file size to TSM for inclusion in backup list.
* Fix async recovery to let mounts succeed while also processing deffered deletions.
* Fix assert failure on FS manager node when unmountOnDiskFailure=yes and a disk fails after 3.2.1.14-16 installed.
* Prevent HSM and NFS from asking to open inodes that are system metadata nodes.
* Don’t let socket get stuck in reconn_cleanup state following repeated breaks that occur just after connection handshake completes.
* Reduce the pagepool usage by inode allocation segments during FS manager initialization or recovery.
* Fix a problem with cutting traces in a CNFS setup.
* Fix filesystem panic when a failed disk holds a FS descriptor and returns unexpected error codes.
* Fix problem with mmlsfileset when expanding inodes is running concurrently.
* Ignore un-supported permission flags passed to gpfs_i_permission on SLES11.
* Fix for a SIGSEGV on Windows caused by a race in accessing the ACL file.
* Fix a condition where mm commands can exit with errors if CWD is unavailable.
* Fix for a rare failed assert in the main process thread on Linux.
* Fix a race condition where node may be deleted right after it started up.
* Fix code to correct backward compatibility of non-blocking token request between gpfs 3.2 and gpfs 3.3.
* Make trace recycle timeout message more descriptive and avoid recycle file being overwritten when trace recycles next time (Linux nodes only).
* Succedent tscrfs command will unset some flags unexpectedly even if it cannot get the permission to run. It will cause a daemon assert. Clear flags only if the command has set it before.
* When open of the directory fails and not all fields are set, don’t call back into GPFS to do close (release). This may cause an invalid assert due to attempting to reference uninitialized fields.
* Fix signal 11 due to bad RDMA index and cookie received from the TcpConn in verbs::verbsClient_i.
* Fix remote startup on Windows.
* Fix a race condition between an mmexpelnode and mmchmgr.
* Correctly cleanup tmp files on remote nodes.
* Fix a problem in mmdf where number of free inodes may become negative.
* Fix race condition that occurs due to disk failure during clmgr election while using tiebreaker disks.
* Fixed inode expansion code which can cause restripe to fail with an assert. This problem only happens when restripe and inode expansion run concurrently.
* Several sample script and configuration files are now included with the GPFS for Windows installation. These can be found in %SystemRoot%\SUA\usr\lpp\mmfs\samples. Only the files appropriate for use on Windows are included; additional samples are available with UNIX installations.
* Fix assert “offset < ddbP->mappedLen” when reading dirs.
* Fix allocation manager problem that caused pool to not be deleted when it should have been.
* Initialize allocSize variable during the initialization phase of file repair to prevent assert.
* Fix a rare bug that occurs during nsd config change along with earlier disk issues to another deleted nsd.
* Fixed a GPFS on Windows failure that can occur on systems with a large number of cores (e.g. 8 or more) running a workload with thousands of threads. When this error occurs, /var/adm/ras/mmfs.log.* shows “logAssertFailed: tid >= 0 && tid <= MAX_GPFS_KERNEL_TID”. The fix for this problem removes any assumption on the maximum thread ID.
* Fix a problem that can lead to loss of an intermediate SSL key file.
* Fix mmbackup to accurately reflect the error encountered on the TSM server.
* Fix a problem with interpreting the syncnfs mount option.
* Fix fsck so that it reports duplicate fragments and its count correctly and also prevent a possible fsck crash due to count overflow.
* Added %myNode as callback parameters.
* Fix an assertion during mount that could happen when quota management is enabled and snapshot is being used.
* Fix fsck so that it detects problems and fixes them without encountering struct assert errors even if the ‘assertOnStructureError’ config option is turned on.
* This update addresses the following APARs: IZ67659 IZ67660 IZ67661 IZ67662 IZ67663 IZ67664 IZ67665 IZ67666 IZ67667 IZ67723 IZ67746 IZ68028.

Doc number: 4931 Published date: 20100130

IBM Certified Systems Expert – High Availability for AIX Technical Support and Administration (PowerHA)

IBM Certified Specialist – System p Administration

IBM has enhanced the AIX operating system (OS) Release and Service Strategy as part of an ongoing effort to improve the manageability and stability of the AIX operating system for our clients. The enhanced strategy will provide clients with:
• Longer support for each AIX Technology Level update (formerly known as Recommended Maintenance Levels)
• Improved serviceability for AIX throughout the life of each Technology Level
• Support for some new hardware on existing Technology Levels

The previous paragraph came from the IBM AIX Operating System Release Service Strategy paper, which should be read before reading this paper.
This paper will go deeper into some of the changes, give some best practice scenarios and discuss some of the more advanced function available.
Enhanced Service Strategy Releases

The AIX enhanced service strategy will start with AIX 5.3 TL6 and continue with AIX 6.1. AIX 5.2 will not use the new service strategy; TL10 is the last technology level available on 5.2 and we will continue to provide service packs until the end of support.

Contents of a Service Pack

Service packs contain fixes for:
• Customer reported problems (APARs) that cannot wait until the next TL
• Critical problems found by development or test teams
• Very, very limited number of changes to support new hardware. Examples: A new device driver, a new ODM entry to allow for configuration of a new class or type of device, small changes in the kernel to recognize a new processor speed, etc. The only changes that are allowed in an SP are limited to minimal corrections that do not change behavior or add new functionality. The development team employs a fix rating system to
enforce this. New function, both for hardware exploitation and software features, is only shipped in Technology Levels or new releases.
While AIX TL’s contain RSCT and CSM fileset updates, those filesets are not updated in the AIX Service Packs. The reason for this is scheduling. The RSCT and CSM teams line up their schedules to meet the AIX TL schedules, but do not do the same for Service Packs. The fixes are placed into the next TL. Occasionally, usually with applications or products that rely more heavily on CSM or RSCT, you may be required to download a fix directly from the RSCT or CSM download sites. This situation may be more suited for your environment because it does not require application of a specific AIX SP, only the individual fix for CSM or RSCT. We are continuing to explore possibilities here to simplify the maintenance of AIX and its components.

AIX Service Strategy Details and Best Practices

Changing the names of the service packs
Starting with TL6, Service Packs will be labeled with their release date, using the YYWW
format, where:
YY = 2 digit year
WW = 2 digit week
An example: AIX 5.3 TL6 SP3 was released in 2007 and the 32nd week of the year, therefore:
5300-06-03-0732
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘———————YYWW
‘ ‘ ‘—————–SP3
‘ ‘————TL level
‘–AIX release

The ‘oslevel –s’ command was updated to report this new name. The nice thing about this is not only can you tell when the SP was released, but you will also know which SP to move to on a new TL. When moving up to a new TL, you must move to a SP that is the same or later than your current SP. The SP number itself (IE SP3) will not be the same, because the Service Packs will be numbered consecutively as they are released, but the dates will tell you where you need to be on the new TL. In general, it is recommended that you apply the latest Service Pack when moving to a new TL.

Service pack names will be changed to reflect the release dates:
VR00-TL-SP-YYWW 5300-07-04-0812

We will line SP’s up so the upgrade path will be clear
AIX Service Strategy Details and Best Practices

Applying individual PTF updates after a Service Pack will not be shown with the ‘oslevel –s’ command. Instead, use ‘oslevel –s –g 5300-06-03-0732’ to show what filesets are greater than the specified service pack. The installp command was changed, as were the updates themselves, to not allow a system to apply any updates that are ‘younger’ than what is currently installed. This would cause regression. When moving to a new TL, we recommend moving to the latest SP, that way you are guaranteed it will pass the installp regression test.

Using the example above, if you are currently at TL7 SP8 (5300-07-08-0845), then you would not be allowed to install TL8 SP2 (5300-08-02-0830), because 0845 was released after 0830, and therefore will have fixes and hardware enablement that 0830 does not have.

The oslevel –s command will now print out the new SP format, but the other options will not change.
# oslevel
5300
# oslevel –r
5300-06
# oslevel –s
5300-06-03-0736

The installp command will also stop an update entirely if it sees any updates that are older (released before) in the list it is trying to apply. This is to make sure that part of a SP is not installed, if that was not your intention. If you see a message from installp about not being able
to install a fileset update because of regression, then go to a newer SP (the latest) and try the install again.

Changing the M in VRMF
Starting with AIX 5.3 TL7, any filesets that are updated will get a new ‘M’ in the VRMF. For example, if the bos.rte.lvm fileset was updated, its update in TL7 would be 5.3.7.0 and the first update, in SP1, will be 5.3.7.1. The fileset updates won’t necessarily correspond to the SP
because an update for fileset bos.rte.install might not come out until SP3, but it would be called bos.rte.install 5.3.7.1. Likewise, if bos.rte.lvm had not changed since SP1, it would still be bos.rte.lvm 5.3.7.1 in SP3.

Technology Levels Must be Applied as a Group
Technology Levels must be applied as a group, using the ‘smitty update_all’ or ‘install_all_updates’ commands. Installing a Technology Level is an “all or nothing” operation.
Initially, the plan was to add requisites to glue the TL together, but this was not done because of the complications of circular requisites. But, installing a partial Technology Level will not be recognized from a support standpoint. Before applying a TL, you should always create a backup and plan on restoring that backup if you need to rollback to your previous level. Or, use alt_disk_install or multibos as a way to get back to your previous level. Technology Level updates should always be committed because they cannot be rejected. Committing the updates saves space in the / and /usr file systems and also makes it easier to track and reject service pack PTFs.

After the TL has been successfully applied and tested, another backup should be taken for disaster recovery situations.

Recommendation to apply the whole SP instead of just individual PTFs
For planned maintenance windows, customers are encouraged to apply Service Packs as a group, to simplify inventory and make it easier to report levels to service representatives and auditors. Fix Central and SUMA will now download the entire SP for a specified APAR (search function).
This was also done to simplify the ordering process.

For more information on Fix Central changes, see the paper:
Fix Central changes supporting AIX Service Strategy at

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/best/home.html.

Even though the entire SP is downloaded, individual fileset updates or APARs can still be applied with SMIT (‘smitty install_by_fix’) or from the command line (installp or instfix). There is nothing in the Service Pack that glues all the updates in a Service Pack together. While
most of the testing that occurs in the regression test lab is done as a group, applying individual updates is still fully supported. For unplanned application of fixes (like security or HIPERs), changing the minimum amount of code is certainly the desired outcome.

For example:
• An interim fix was just released for a security issue and it requires an update from a
service pack.
• The service pack would require a reboot of the system whereas applying just the
individual PTF would not.

In these cases, just applying the individual APARs/PTFs may be the best solution. Service Packs, because they will always require a reboot, are recommended for planned maintenance windows or if the application of the fix will require a reboot anyway.

Service Pack schedules
Because there will be more Technology Levels shipping new fixes and because the Service Packs will be lined up to come out at the same time (with the same YYWW), the SP release schedules will be increased to approximately every 12 weeks. Occasionally, if a very critical problem is found (high severity security, for example) and it cannot wait for the next SP, a ‘standalone PTF’ will be released and will be made available via APAR search on Fix Central.

The PTF will be included in the next Service Pack.
Technology Level Lifecycle and Support With a valid Software Maintenance Agreement (SWMA), customers can continue to open PMRs to ask questions and report problems with AIX 5.2, AIX 5.3 and AIX 6.1. However, if a code defect is identified (i.e. an APAR is created) then the release and TL must be in the ‘New Fixes Available’ period to request a fix. This applies to both interim fixes and Service Pack updates.

More information about the System p Product Lifecycle dates can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/support/systemsp/lifecycle

AIX Service Strategy Details and Best Practices

New Fixes Available – NOTE: All future dates are subject to change.
* New Fixes will be made available until two years later or when the new TL is offered. In some cases this may
mean slightly less than two years of support, in some cases it may mean slightly more. AIX will only make new
fixes available for up to four Technology Levels for each release at any given time.
** For 5.2, the date for ‘Fixes Available Until’ and End of Support are the same date.
When selecting a TL for upgrade, keep the ‘New Fixes Available’ period in mind. The
recommendation is to move to the latest TL and the latest SP when performing an upgrade, to get
the longest period of support.
Interim Fix Guidelines/Policy for Maintenance
Interim fixes are fixes made available to our customers to offer relief for a problem until the
customer is able to update to a Service Pack or Technology level that contains the fix. The
general rule is that a customer can request an interim fix for Technology Levels that are in the
‘New Fixes Available’ period; it will then be evaluated by development. Development will
make every attempt to supply an interim fix, however, there may be some that cannot be supplied
due to complexity.
Here are the guidelines that the Service team will be following:
• If a client is at the latest level and finds a problem – they can request an Interim Fix
• If a client finds a problem that is already in a later SP – they will be asked to install the
latest SP (or, at a minimum, the Service Pack that includes their fix or individual PTF that
contains the fix)
• If it is a critical problem and/or the client can’t install a SP – an interim fix can be
requested, however it is recommend they move to the latest SP during their next
maintenance window
• If a client finds a new, unique problem at any level that is making new fixes available -
they can get an Interim Fix on their current level (if it’s possible)
• If a client finds a new unique problem on a prior SP and has multiple Interim Fixes
installed, which are included in a later SP – they must move to the latest SP before getting
another Interim Fix
• If a client has multiple Interim Fixes and only some of them are in a later SP – they may
be asked to move to the latest SP and another Interim Fix will be bundled with their prior
Interim Fixes on the latest SP
• Clients should update to the SP that contains the fix as soon as they are able
Certified Interim Fixes
Interim fixes are offered to customers as a faster way to get temporary relief for a problem.
Interim fixes are shipped in ‘emgr’ format instead of installp format. Interim fixes are also
tracked via the ‘lslpp –L’ and ‘emgr –l’ commands.
Some interim fixes get additional functional and regression testing before they are released.
These interim fixes are usually intended for a wider audience than other interim fixes, which are
specific to a single customer.
Examples of certified Interim Fixes are security fixes that are released thru a vulnerability
advisory or subscription notification.

Security Fixes
Security fixes for security vulnerabilities are published thru advisories. Customers will continue
to be notified of security fixes by notices from IBM Subscription services at:

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/subscriptions/pqvcmjd

The security fixes published in the vulnerability advisories are posted here:
ftp://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security
In the past, security interim fixes were offered for a longer period than other fixes to allow
customers time to transition to the current levels. But, because the enhanced service strategy
allows new fix availability for a longer period (even longer than the previous security fix policy
of 3 total TLs), security fixes will be made available for the same time period as all other new
fixes (see chart above). This offers consistency to the service strategy in regards to types of fixes
offered in the New Fixes Available period.
To assist our customers with the transition to AIX 5.3 Technology Levels that support the
enhanced service strategy, we will continue to generate 5.3 TL5 security interim fixes until 5.3
TL9 is shipped in 2H08 (approximately 10/2008). AIX 5.2 TL8 and AIX 5.2 TL9 support of
security interim fixes will continue until 6/2008. AIX 5.2 TL10 will continue to be supported
via Service Packs and interim fixes until end of support in April, 2009.
APAR Numbers for each TL
In the past, if a problem existed in two releases, only one APAR number was created for each
release. Starting with AIX 5.3 TL7, a new APAR number will be created for every Technology
Level where the problem is fixed. When PTFs were only made available on the current TL, only
one APAR number was required. Now that multiple service streams exist per release, an APAR
must be created for each one where a new fileset update (PTF) will be shipped.
If you’ve been given an APAR number for a particular problem, do a ‘Fix Search’ in Fix Central
to verify the APAR number with the Technology Level. The search will return results for the
other ‘sister’ APAR numbers, APAR numbers for the same release (e.g. 5.3) but different TLs,
and also ‘cousin’ APARs for other releases (e.g. 6.1). The search will also show availability of
the APAR and allow signup for a subscription notice if it has not been released.
For more information on searching for APAR and fixes, see the Fix Central paper at:

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/best/home.html.

New Automatic Interim Fix Removal Function
Because of the issues with multiple APARs numbers in a release (APARs differ per TL as
described above) installp was not able to map the fixes it was shipping to the interim fixes that
were installed. Starting with 5.3 TL10 and 6.1 TL3, installp and emgr have been enhanced to
map the APARs and automatically remove interim fixes if the fix is present in the TL, SP or PTF
that installp is applying.
Interim fixes will now be packaged with a reference number. That number will allow installp to
map it back to APARs for all the Technology Levels where the fix was shipped.
When installp performs a preview install/update or an actual update, information will be
provided to list any interim fixes that will be automatically removed. Preview installs are always
highly recommended, even if you don’t currently have any interim fixes applied. But, if you do,
AIX Service Strategy Details and Best Practices
06/10/2009 10
then installp will list any interim fixes that are installed and that will be automatically removed
or any interim fixes that are installed and cannot be removed because the corresponding fix was
not available in the updates you were installing. In this later case, the install will fail stating
there are filesets locked by emgr, like it has in the past.
For example, the information about interim fixes that will be removed will appear directly after
the build date verification in the installp (apply or preview) output:
+—————————————————————————–+
BUILDDATE Verification …
+—————————————————————————–+
Verifying build dates…done
The updates being installed contain the following interim fix labels,
which will be removed prior to installing the updates:
IZ39706
IZ23965
NOTE: Rejecting an update that contains an interim fix will not
re-install the interim fix on the system.
……
Please note that if an interim fix is removed as part of the installp update, and then that update is
later removed (rejected), the interim fix that was previously installed will NOT be re-installed.
You would need to manually install the interim fix again at that point. So, always make sure you
have a copy of your interim fix, use alt_disk_install or create a mksysb image before the update
for recovery.
Because this is new function, a decision was made to not ship it in Service Packs on the ‘older’
Technology Levels. But, for this particular case, we will allow and support installing one
individual fileset from a TL. The bos.rte.install 5.3.10.0 update may be installed on 5.3 TL7,
TL8 or TL9 by itself, and the bos.rte.install 6.1.3.0 update may be installed on TL1 or TL2 by
itself. This will give you the new automatic interim fix removal function but will not require you
to go all the way to 5.3 TL10 or 6.1 TL3.
You may also download the bos.rte.install fileset update individually from Fix Central by
searching on bos.rte.install.
From the http://www-933.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/ main site, choose:
Product Group – System p, Product – AIX, Version – 5.3, Fix Type – Fix Search

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/fixsrch/FixSearch?release=53

Enter search items: fileset bos.rte.install
Then, in your search results you should select “Fileset information for: bos.rte.install”.
You will be taken to all the bos.rte.install fixes. Choose the latest update for your release so
you’ll get any additional fixes or function included. All the updates are cumulative, so you can
apply to any level since GOLD. You will need to uncheck the download options of ‘Include
requisites’, ‘Include fixes that correct regressions’ and ‘Replace superseded fixes with the latest’.
If you leave these options checked, then the entire TL will be listed for download.

It is also recommended to watch the bos.rte.install fileset to pick up any fixes or new function.
You can always update the bos.rte.install fileset to a lever higher than your current TL, so if new
function ships in a later TL, you can obtain it without updating your entire system.
All interim fixes shipping will have a reference field that allows installp to map the APARs to
the interim fix. When the interim fix is installed (if you have the new bos.rte.install fileset
applied) then a message will be printed by emgr to alert you to the fact that automatic removal is
enabled:
+—————————————————————————–+
Processing APAR reference file
+—————————————————————————–+
ATTENTION: Interim fix is enabled for automatic removal by installp.
To verify that your interim fix has a reference number, you can check the contents of the
/usr/emgrdata/DBS/aparref.db file:
# cat /usr/emgrdata/DBS/aparref.db
IZ39706|:|220
This file contains a list of interim fix labels with their corresponding reference number values.
Later, we’ll update the emgr –l command to show this reference number. So, again, it’s a good
idea to get the latest level of bos.rte.install to make sure you have all the latest fixes and
enhancements.
The bos.rte.install 5.3.10.0 or bos.rte.install 6.1.3.0 or higher update must be installed in order to
get the automatic interim fix removal function. If this fileset update is installed along with other
PTFs, in a Technology Level, for example, it will automatically re-invoke itself and it will then
perform the mapping and automatic removal, if applicable.
Hardware Support with a Service Pack
When new hardware is released, the required TL’s or SP’s will be published in the release notes
and RFA (Release For Announce). If the TL is still in the ‘New Fixes Available’ period, then
the latest SP will have the hardware support.
If new boot media is required for an existing TL, then it will be made available for web
download (ISO image) via the PRPQ process.
If you currently have the TL in your environment, then updating to the required SP and creating
a mksysb backup media or image (NIM) will allow boot and install of the new hardware
systems.
Moving to a New TL
You should move to a new TL:
• If your existing TL is out or is about to go out of the New Fixes Available period

• You want to use new function and/or features in a new TL. Hardware exploitation, such
as large page space or new software function, such as multibos, will only be released in a
TL.
• You are going to test a new level for distribution into your production environment and
want to get the longest period of new fixes available. In this case, you should move to
the latest TL.

Staying Current
If you are currently running on a TL where new fixes are being made available, then any SP will
be supported for your interim fix needs. But, the risk in not updating to a service pack that
contains your fix during a planned maintenance window is that you will require another interim
fix to the same file. See the Interim Fix Guidelines for more information.
Updating twice a year to a new SP or TL is recommended to stay current.

Maximum Stability Model
Realizing that customers appreciated and relied on the CSP for planning their maintenance, and
realizing that having a specific SP to recommend to customers that want to maintain the most
stable environment and do not plan on moving up to a new SP before moving to a new TL, we
would recommend using the SP that roughly would be delivered in the same time frame as the
CSP. We would recommend planning around SP3.
This is not to say that other Service Packs in the TL are less stable than SP3, but because the TL
has been out a few months and any major issues have usually been identified by that point in
time, and there is still more than a year left for service, SP3 is a good one to target and our
recommendation for maximum stability. This recommendation is meant as guidance for
planning. Individual situations may require applying earlier or later SP’s, depending on
circumstances.

Additional Information
The IBM Service and Support Best Practices for UNIX® servers Web page at
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/best includes additional information on the
AIX Release and Service Strategy, and best practices for managing the AIX and System p™
servers.
The Fix Level Recommendation Tool (FLRT) is a planning tool to help administrators
determine what key components of your System p server are at the minimum recommended fix
level. It can be found at: http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/flrt/home.
Summary

The new AIX service strategy will offer customers more options for maintenance in their
environment. Two years of new fixes per TL will help simplify and reduce cost for maintenance.
Supporting new hardware on existing TL’s will reduce complexity in customer environments.

Virtualization
Introducing the next generation of virtualization management with VMControl Enterprise Edition
Extending IBM i SAN, integrated storage, and storage virtualization options
Enabling lower cost consolidation & virtualization with Fibre Channel over Ethernet

Business Resiliency
Manage risk and reduce cost of meeting changing business demands with DB2® pureScale
Making multi-site DR solutions more affordable with PowerHA SystemMirror

Management
Simplifying AIX® management, security & virtualization administration
Accelerating Power Blades growth with high performance I/O options

Energy Efficiency
Improved monitoring/control of server energy use with Active Energy Manager 4.2

IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition

IBM introduces the next generation of virtualization management
• VMControl is the virtualization management component of IBM Systems Director
• Now available in three Editions – Express, Standard and Enterprise
• Clients select edition based on virtualized infrastructure needs

VMControl provides a single view of multiple virtualization technologies
• VMControl manages virtualization across all IBM Systems
• Support for PowerVM™, z/VM®, VMware, Hyper-V and KVM virtualization

VMControl Enterprise Edition introduces management of system pools
• System pools are grouped computing resources managed as a single entity
• VMControl Enterprise Edition allows clients to manage system pools
• Delivers enabling technology for cloud computing and a dynamic infrastructure

IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition is a workload optimized approach to computing that is designed to drive down costs and improve service. A system pool is a pool of virtualized system components (servers, stor- age, and network) managed as a single entity. IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition provides the management of virtualized workloads. This includes the ability to make dynamic virtual server adjustments and move virtual servers around within system pools providing efficiency and increased resilience for planned and unplanned downtime. IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition manages a pool of virtualized systems resources with the simplicity of managing a single system.

IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition extends the virtual server life cycle management and image management capabilities introduced in IBM Systems Director VMControl V2.1 with support for System Pools. IBM Systems Director VMControl encapsulates the complexity of hardware and virtualization technology, and shifts management to a workload-centric focus via virtual appliances. Virtual appliances are virtual machine images containing the entire software stack (that is, operating system and applications) for a business solution. Virtual appliances use the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) for packaging, delivery, and deployment of preconfigured, ready-to-run solutions, and they enable clients to more easily:
• Manage virtual servers and storage within the data center: It does this by simplifying the configuration using industry best practices for virtualized servers and storage, and by providing the means to address both single servers and pools of virtualized systems in a consistent manner.
• Manage virtualized appliances within the data center: It does this by providing the means to discover and federate distributed and heterogeneous image repositories; by enabling the creation of image libraries that organize and catalog virtualized images; and by enabling the deployment, capture, and customization of virtual appliances across IBM platforms.
• Manage running virtualized workloads: It provides for increased system utilization, availability, and improved energy efficiencies through pooling and automation. It enables workload resilience for planned and unplanned downtime.

In the data center, there is an emerging shift from managing virtualization to using virtualization to manage. Historically, the IT industry has treated virtualization and managing virtualization as a
hardware task, and has focused on the low-level controls within the hardware and virtualization technologies to partition and allocate resources to virtual machines. The workload, image-centric approach is designed to provide:
• A single, consistent solution for IBM systems
• Improved time-to-value for new solutions
• Automation for repeatable accuracy and consistency
• Higher utilization and efficiencies
• Ability to reduce energy costs
• Improved availability for business application workloads
• Support for an ecosystem around delivery of cloud services

The goal of platform management has evolved from the initial complexities of managing scale-out sprawl to physical consolidation, then to realizing abstraction and pooling through virtualization. The mantra of “virtualize more, manage less” has evolved the platform from physical servers to virtual servers to system pools. A system pool is a pool of virtualized system resources (servers, storage, network) that can be managed as a single entity with the simplicity of managing a single system.

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: December 12, 2009

IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager™ 4.2

Improved energy efficiency to help reduce data center costs/upgrades
Improved monitoring/control of server energy use
• Enhanced 3rd-party facilities equipment support (more sensors and meters supported)
• Alerts surfaced for servers affected by a power or cooling failure
• Control and set energy caps for both AC and DC power

Balance workloads across servers to fit electrical power and thermal profiles
• Create and display relationships between all servers, and the power and cooling equipment supporting them
• Collect data to plan what servers to power off and when

AEM V4.2 builds upon AEM V4.1 and offers improved integration with facility providers such as Emerson Network Power, Eaton, and APC. In addition, AEM V4.2 will support new IBM server platforms, including updated POWER6 firmware levels and System z10 BladeCenter Extension.

Features and enhancements in AEM V4.2 include:
• Energy management of updated firmware levels for POWER6 servers: These servers continue to provide premier energy management functions.
• Energy monitoring of the IBM System z10 BladeCenter Extension (zBx): This includes the ability to monitor the power of the System z10 BladeCenter Extension, as well as monitoring the overall system as a group.
• Enablement to aid in when to power on and off POWER technology-based servers: By collecting data such as the time to IPL and standby power, administrators can better plan what servers to power off and when, in order to save power.
• Ability to monitor more types of equipment through AEM integration with Emerson Network Power SiteScan: Sensor readings that help determine environmental conditions can now be polled from SiteScan.
• Ability to monitor additional meters and sensors from APC’s InfraStruXure Central: AEM can automatically collect this vital information and allow IT equipment to be associated with it.
• Ability to retrieve power topology information from Eaton’s Power Xpert and Foreseer applications: Users with data centers supported by these infrastructure management applications can now understand how systems can be affected by power.
• Ability to manually create relationships from systems to cooling and power units in data centers: Because the relationships between IT equipment and the uninterruptible power supplies and power distribution units (PDUs) that support them cannot always be detected automatically, users can now create these relationships. The cooling devices that support specific IT equipment can also be specified.

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: Dec 11, 2009

Introducing DB2 pureScale with PowerHA pureScale Technology

Ten days ago, IBM announced a new software technology called DB2 pureScale, running on IBM Power Systems, that helps clients increase their database transaction capacity while reducing the risk and cost of growing their IT systems. The new DB2 feature delivers the continuous availability and virtually unlimited computing power required to meet growing business demands.

With pureScale, companies can now buy only what they need to handle increasing amounts of data by simply adding servers to their DB2 pureScale systems. DB2 also offers the flexibility of adding and removing capacity with the option of paying for only the days clients need the additional software to handle peak workloads.

By incorporating new PowerHA pureScale technology, DB2 pureScale dramatically reduces the amount of communications required within the system – resulting in significantly less computing power wasted on overhead. Capacity growth achieved with DB2 pureScale does not require changes to applications or database tuning. This application transparency reduces risk and cost as clients grow computing power without service interruption. It also complements the capability delivered in DB2 9.7, which enables applications originally written for other database software, such as Oracle Database, to enjoy the benefits of DB2 with little or no changes.

DB2 pureScale will initially be available on Power 550 Express and Power 595 systems in December.

PowerHA pureScale Technology Enables Efficient and Continuous Operations
DB2 pureScale includes PowerHA pureScale technology to…

Reduce system overhead by minimizing inter-node communications
• Centralized database locking and caching minimizes inter-node communications, maximizing productive use of computing power
Reduce cost of systems communication with direct memory access
• Remote Direct Memory Accesses virtually eliminates processor context switching for IP network communications within the system
Maintain business continuity by minimizing impact of node failure
• Data and lock status are immediately accessible to all nodes, ensuring consistent application performance
Also exploits Power Systems 12X GX adapters to deliver low latency & high performance interconnect

PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX V6.1

PowerHA SystemMirror Standard Edition targeted at data center high availability solutions
PowerHA SystemMirror Enterprise Edition adds support for multi-site high availability and disaster recovery solutions
• Enterprise Edition extends options for multi-site storage resiliency
• Today: IBM DS8000® & SVC, Metro Mirror & Global Mirror
• Now: Adding new support for EMC SRDF
GLVM configuration wizard
• Easier to set up a cross site DR configuration
PowerHA with Dynamic LPAR
• Automatically rebalances processor resources after failover to partitioned backup system

PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX V6.1 is the next generation of the popular PowerHA for AIX V5.5 and is available in two packages: PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Standard Edition and PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition. The PowerHA SystemMirror Standard Edition offering is optimized for data center operations and includes the Smart Assist feature. The PowerHA SystemMirror Enterprise Edition includes the Standard Edition plus the function previously packaged as the PowerHA Extended Distance (XD) feature. It is optimized for both data center and multiple site HA/DR operations.

There are three priced tier options within each of the editions: small, medium, and large. The PowerHA SystemMirror offering is being restructured to better align ordering with other IBM Power Software offerings,
• PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX is designed, tested, and integrated by IBM to provide the most robust, easy-to-use HA/DR clustering solution for AIX environments.
• Widely implemented around the globe, PowerHA SystemMirror provides monitoring, detection, and automation for both the data center and multiple site deployments.
• PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX is the IBM Power Systems strategic solution for business resiliency and, as in this release, continues to be enhanced for function, robustness, and usability.

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: October 23, 2009, for IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Standard Edition V6.1, and IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition V6.1

Enhancements for IBM i

Today we announced significant enhancements to our current IBM i 6.1 release. In addition, we previewed our next major IBM i release planned for delivery in the first half of 2010. As always, this new release contains new features and capabilities that are based on customer requirements articulated in collaboration with our advisory councils, representing COMMON, COMMON Europe, ISVs and the Large User Group. Highlights of this new IBM i release include:

• Enhanced DB2 with native support for XML, enabling clients to store and search XML documents, and encryption of a column in a database table to further protect sensitive information
• PowerHA support for asynchronous replication, providing a disk clustering-based disaster recovery solution
• Further exploitation of solid state disk (SSD) technology to automatically move the most frequently accessed data to SSDs for higher application performance
• IBM Rational product enhancements to RPG-enable programs simply to work with a broad range of client applications, including web services, mobile devices and XML.
• Additional IBM Systems Director Navigator web-based management tasks, such as performance and system monitors
• Integration of IBM i with IBM BladeCenter and IBM System x via iSCSI technology to support faster, software-based connections between IBM i and x86-based systems at lower cost
• Support for transformation of saved spool files to PDF files.

With our clearly defined roadmaps for POWER processors and the IBM i operating environment, IBM’s commitment to our i clients is solid and unchanged. We are making substantial investments in the future of i as an important, strategic element in the IBM product portfolio.

AIX 6

Management
• AIX Enterprise Edition updated with new capacity management features
• New AIX Runtime Expert to provide simplified management of AIX tuning & configuration
• AIX topas/nmon enhanced to monitor clusters of AIX LPARs across multiple servers
• Performance Management for Power Systems agent now included in AIX 6 & AIX 5
Security
• New IBM Compliance Expert Express Edition
- Helps clients in retail, finance and defense manage compliance with PCI and DoD STIG standards
Virtualization
• Workload Partitions Manager™ V2.1
- Now integrated with IBM Systems Director to simplify management infrastructure
- Relocate WPARs that use on SAN devices with Live Application Mobility

PowerVM and the AIX 6 operating system are enhanced to provide additional flexibility and manageability. AIX 6 Technology Level 4 enhancements include Live Application Mobility with SAN devices in Workload Partitions (WPARs). Live Application Mobility, the capability to relocate a Workload Partition from one AIX system to another with no application downtime, is enhanced to support WPARs that use SAN devices. This new capability provides businesses with additional flexibility to configure WPARs with traditional SAN storage devices while preserving the capability to relocate WPARs to provide additional application availability, workload management, and energy savings. Before this enhancement, Live Application Mobility was only supported with WPARs that used NFS file systems. This capability requires AIX 6 Technology Level 4 and the Workload Partitions Manager V2.1.

PowerVM enhancements include:
• Improved server utilization and shared I/O resources to help reduce total cost of ownership and make better use of IT assets
• Improved business responsiveness and operational speed by dynamically re-allocating resources to applications as needed to better match changing business cycles or handle unexpected surge in demand
• Simplified IT infrastructure management by making workloads independent of hardware resources, thereby enabling clients to make business-driven policies to deliver resources based on time, cost and service-level requirements

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: October 23, 2009

IBM WORKLOAD PARTITIONS MANAGER V2.1

Workload Partitions Manager (WPAR Manager) V2.1 replaces the previous version of WPAR Manager and provides improved usability and new capabilities:
• IBM Systems Director-based: The WPAR Manager is now delivered as a plug-in to IBM Systems Director instead of as a stand-alone application. This new integration improves the usability of the WPAR Manager by integrating WPAR administration with the other management capabilities provided by IBM Systems Director.
• Live Application Mobility for WPARs with SAN devices: This new capability provides businesses with additional flexibility to configure WPARs with traditional SAN storage devices while preserving the capability to relocate WPARs to provide additional application availability, workload management, and energy savings.
• Faster Live Application Mobility for WPARs: Live Application Mobility has been significantly enhanced to provide for faster relocation operations. This enhancement can reduce the amount of time the applications are in transit and are not responding to end-user requests, in some cases to only a few seconds.

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: November 20, 2009

IBM Compliance Expert Express Edition V1.1

Simplifies IT compliance with industry security standards
• Automatically sets many AIX security settings to match common compliance standards
• Includes profiles with recommended system settings for:
- The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 2
- The US Department of Defense Security Technical Implementation Guide for UNIX
• Simple command line interface minimizes training and administrative workload
• Reports show whether the system configuration matches the compliance standard
• Support for AIX 6 and AIX V5.3 on current Technology Levels
• Lowers cost of system administration for compliance standards
• Facilitates standardization with minimal training
• Manages risk with easy-to-use reports as a base for compliance audits

IBM Compliance Expert Express Edition is a new offering that describes the requirements for meeting a set of IT governance best practices. Different compliance standards may focus on requirements needed to operate IT in specific industries. This offering is designed to help clients reduce the cost of meeting regulatory compliance standards by automating the AIX system security configuration.

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: October 23, 2009, for IBM Compliance Expert Express Edition V1.1

Enterprise Systems Resiliency on the Power 570 & Power 595

The roadmap to continuous availability just got wider!
Concurrent maintenance previously available…
Single processor components
Single memory components
Power supplies and regulators
Disk drives and PCI adapters
RIO & 12X I/O drawers
Additional components now available…
Multiple processor and memory components
12X I/O drawer permanent removal
Power 595 Service Processors

Linux® on Power Announcement Highlights

Support for Symantec Veritas Storage Foundation & Storage Cluster Server
– ideal for Symantec clients migrating from SUN to Linux on Power
Support for Red Hat RHEL 5.4 and Novell SLES 10 SP3
PowerVM Lx86 V1.3.2
– adds support for RHEL 4.8, 5.4 and SLES 10 SP3
– enables broader range of x86 applications, with SSE & SSE2 x86 instructions
– provides general performance improvements
Preinstall Linux on Power blades through Power 570
– provides support for SLES 10 SP2
– adds support for SLES 10 SP3, and SLES 11
- IBM Installation Toolkit for Linux V4.0
– provides support for SLES 10 SP2, RH 4.8 and 5.3
– adds support for RHEL 5.4, SLES 10 SP3, SLES 11

Power Blades Grow

• A new generation of interconnects can help clients lower costs and improve service with unmatched investment protection
• Blazingly fast I/O performance with 10Gb Fibre Channel over Ethernet support on all JS blades
• Delivering the most robust solution for IBM i with a new version of i Edition for BladeCenter® S featuring RAID
– Integrates SAS switching and RAID controller function
• Continued enhancement of high-performance Blade I/O
– NPIV Enablement for 8Gb Fibre Channel
– QLogic 10GbE FCoCEE expansion card (JS12/JS22/JS23/JS43)
– BNT 10GbE switch module (BCH)
– 10GEnet pass thru module
– Brocade 10 & 20 Port 8Gb SAN Switch ModuleS(BCS, BCH)
– Brocade 8Gb SFP+ Optical Transceiver (BCS, BCH)
– Voltaire 4X IB QDR Switch Module (BCH)
– QDR Infiniband QSFP Cable (BCH)

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: Oct 30, 2009 except for feature 0518

Expanding I/O Options

- Support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet on POWER6 is ideal for virtualization and consolidation, helping simplify cabling and lower adapter costs
– Runs both Ethernet and Fibre Channel traffic
New diskless 19”, 10 slot PCIe drawers provide lower cost
option for clients
– Ideal for SAN customers with multiple Fibre Channel adapters
New, high capacity, small form factor disk drives
– Use ½ the energy of 3.5” disk drives and can be more densely packaged to save floor space
New 160 GB & 500 GB USB removable disk drive provides durable alternative to tape drives for high utilization solutions such as retail application logging
Solid State Drives enhanced with PCIe drawer configuration flexibility
and enhanced throughput

PLANNED AVAILABILITY DATE: October 30, 2009

Power Deployment Ready Services

Optimized services to help clients focus on their business.
- Minimize risk with assembled and tested systems
- Reduce time to install and manage
- Typically one delivery
- Many services orderable through configuration tool
- More time on your core business

Capabilities:
- Component Integration
- Rack Integration
- OS Preinstall
- 3rd Party Hardware/SW Install
- Box Consolidation
- Remote Access
- Partitioning
- Customized OS/firmware
- Unit Personalization
- Asset Tagging

New IBM Support Portal

If you have a technical problem or question about an IBM technology, you need to find the right answer… fast! The new IBM Support Portal has been designed to help you do just that. The Support Portal consolidates all of the IBM hardware, software, and services technical support tools and resources into one, global, centralized place. Designed based on client input and feedback, the goal of the Support Portal is to simplify your online support experience, reduce the time it takes you to find the right information, and alert you to information that can help you avoid problems. Learn more (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/electronicsupport/portal.html)