Your company's choice for virtualization : z/VM of course

If you're looking into virtualization and you still think the mainframe is too expensive or if you're eager to virtualize or continue to virtualize with z/VM, then take a look at this study from Solitaire Interglobal. It makes a comparison between z/VM and virtualization solutions on Unix and x86. it's based upon the input of almost 80,000 (mostly larger) customer sites. It takes two angles for looking into it : the business perspective on the one hand and the technical perspective on the other hand. If you want to build a case for z/VM, you might use this as a basis for structuring your arguments.

Let me walk you quickly through some of the topics that are covered. First of all there's the business perspective.

• Customer satisfaction : "The more complex or volatile the environment, the more all
  aspects of customers reported high satisfaction with z/VM".
• Total Cost of Ownership : this reminds me of this other document that unfortuately enough has not been updated since 2004, the Dinosaur Myth, that also proves that when you look at TCO instead of TCA you get a completely different picture.
• Staffing : "Staffing is far more effective with z/VM, the same number of people can support up to 3 times more VM images"
• Availability : "The more virtualized the environment, the more critical the availability becomes. z/VM requires fewer platform and VM reboots than competitive platforms with very little downtime, either planned or unplanned".
• Agility : "z/VM users are reporting faster deployment times by as much as 5 times".

The second part covers the comparison from a technical perspective.

• System Efficiency : "The z/VM platform allows more IT workload to be done with fewer overall resources".
• Security : "z/VM supports all forms of security control and isolation, including those required for highly secure implementations, separating resources for memory, network, I/O and access".

I didn't cover all topics but it gives you a pretty good idea where this study is heading at. If you follow the link, there's a 9-page management summary and of course also the 36-page full report.

As I always say, just check it out !

Migrating to Linux on System z reading material

The picture I used last week came from the redbook : 'Practical Migration to Linux on System z' which was published a couple of weeks ago. This is a well-written publication on migrating/consolidating workloads to Linux on System z. It gives you a high-level tchnical overview on how to tackle such a migration project. Or as the authors state it : "(...) we attempt to present an end-to-end view of the technical challenges and methods necessary to complete a successful migration to Linux on System z". I particularly like the part on the migration analysis starting with z/vm and Linux on system z technical aspects (not too technical) and further focusing on Network analysis, Storage analysis, Application analysis, Database analysis, Backup analysis, Security analysis, Operational analysis and Disaster Recovery and Availability analysis. There are also some example cases.

So for some one who's (even only remotely) considering this kind of migration, this is definitely worth a read.

If you want to go a bit further down this path, you might also be interested in one or more of the following publications :

• The manual Getting Started with Linux on System z (SC24-6194-00). I really want to quote the titles of most of the chapters of this manual as it gives you a wealth of technical information on the topic : About z/VM, Planning for Linux Virtual Servers, Changing the System Configuration, Configuring the Directory Maintenance Facility, Configuring TCP/IP, Restarting z/VM and checking the system, Creating your first Linux virtual Machine and installing linux, Cloning Linux Virtual servers . . .

• Redbook z/VM and Linux on IBM System z The Virtualization Cookbook for SLES 10 SP2. "The publication adopts a cookbook format that provides you with a concise, repeatable set of procedures for installing and configuring z/VM in a logical partition (LPAR), and then installing and customizing Linux".

• Redbook z/VM and Linux on IBM System z The Virtualization Cookbook for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2. Same format, but this time for Red Hat.

• Redbook z/VM and Linux Operations for z/OS System Programmers. I guess the abstract of this book really sums up accurately what it's about : "Although other books have been written about many of these topics, this book gives enough information about each topic to describe z/VM and Linux on IBM System z operations to somebody who is new to both environments. This book is intended for z/OS programmers and system programmers who are transitioning to the z/VM and Linux on System z environments and who want a translation guide for assistance." You can take this translating very literally. Very often z/VM concepts are compared to the z/OS ones in order to make clear how they are similar to or different from z/OS.
  

So, if you're about to start with Linux on System z, you have (to my opinion) some nice starting material gathered here, no matter whether or not you're already familiar with z/VM or Linux (on System z).

Enhanced Virtualization with z/VM

It's been a while since I put up some videos, but on the z/VM Listserv Discussion List Lionel B. Dyck and Bill Munson pointed out these two videos on z/VM and Virtualization.
Especially the reference story on the Marist College gives you great arguments on why z/VM really is the best platform for Virtualization. Just have a look at them !


Enhanced Virtualization


Marist College Client Reference

For those not able to reach Youtube due to company policies, you can find the Marist Video on IBM TV too.