Virtualization In PowerPC

[Jose R R]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 9:00 AM, mark <m.roth2006 at rcn.com> wrote:
> Jose R R wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 5:56 PM, Victor Sanchez.
>> <victor.sanchez at entercs.com.mx> wrote:
>>>
>>> I just noticed that there are not Virtualization packages in the Red hat
>>> enterprise 5.3, does this mean that Redhat is not givin support for
>>> virtualizatin in this arquitecture? anyone knows? .
>>
>> If you are talking about IBM Power-based systems, then those are  an totally
>> different breed of powerful beasts than the relatively weakling x86
>> creatures.  For an initial overview of those, please Google "IBM power
>> partition"  --you can take it from there, carnal.
>>
> Are you saying they've dropped Xen? I'd be real surprised it that was the
> case... unless they've made a deal with VMware.
>
>        mark

You forgot KVM (and others), IBM does not reduce its business
perspective to only the above virtualization enablers, Mark.

Xen, VmWare, or as a matter of fact KVM, are for X86 architectures.
In IBM Power systems where all/most implement logical partitioning at
the hardware (CPU) level, you can install any Power compatible os
(RHEL/SLES/Debian, etc.) in each individually carved logical
partition.  The newer Power6 can even emulate x86 environments where
you can install your own X86 based operating systems; yes, even those
of an proprietary nature --like the ubiquitous family from the
monopoly.

Evidently, when x86 server sprawl starts to get out of hand (or even
before that, if you are in an proactive organization), consolidating
your IT resources into IBM Power6 systems will simplify your systems
management.  These latter systems scale much better for, besides
possessing CPUs multiple times faster than the best current X86
offering, their overall architecture has been designed with the
enterprise needs in mind --along with cost effectiveness in the long
run since these architectures implement energy management functions by
design, for  instance.

The low end of IBM Power6 are even well within the budget of small and
medium business organizations that regard IT assets as an long term
investment in themselves.  Load balancing, migrating, or failover of
logical partitions and live virtual machines containing critical
business resources in enabled IBM Power systems environments is
nothing to make a media hype about.

Oh, an afterthought on x86 architectures, Mark.  IBM researchers were
working on an version of KVM "...that will not require [x86] hardware
virtualization support."[*]  Hence, if that effort is successful, KVM
would be on an equal footing with Xen and would be in an serious
position to challenge Xen for prominence/adaptation to the current
Cloud Computing paradigm.  The open source unrestricted access, and
multiple independent implementations by so varied free/open/hybrid
commercial vendors of these open source technologies give them an edge
over what VmWare or MS HyperV can offer.

[*](< http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/092407-linux-virtualization.html?nlt
>)


-- 
Jose R R
http://www.metztli-it.com
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With the exception of IBM Lotus Symphony on GNU/Linux, I usually
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