Tailoring for Solution Integration
Because Linux is able to run side by side with other operating systems on eServer series, it can obtain advantages from cooperating with them on the platforms where they can provide supplementary functions to those the Linux application provides. An overview of Linux operation on the eServer series is found in the new Red Book
"Linux Handbook: A Guide to Linux Solutions and Resources."
Common technology threads that run across the eServer platforms are
- robust server hardware platforms
- running Linux in a Logical Partition (LPAR)
- virtualized resources (I/O for iSeries, virtual machine for zSeries)
- data access, sharing, management and backup
- workload management
- configurable security
An overview of these capabilities across the eServer series and how Linux works in their context can be found in the eServer Linux presentation from the 2003 DeveloperWorks Live! conference. Specific implementations of these on the servers can be found in the series-specific Linux sections.
Series-specific Tailoring
If you have a Linux solution you are bringing to an eServer platform, tailoring your solution to a new platform may be as simple as reviewing the topics below and ensuring you
have thought about what the solution would "look like to a customer of that series." On the other hand,
there may be several things you want to do to provide instant familiarity for your application to
series users. They may have certain
expectations for some of the 'tailoring' topics outline here. Some topics consider the application look and feel.
Others topics deal with installation and operation. The ultimate objective of this list is to leave you
with confidence that your solution will appeal to the series customers and to use series facilities that can bring higher value to your solution on eServer series platforms.
If you have a solution on one or more eServer series, and you are considering adding new capabilities that use Linux to that solution, some of the information below also addresses Linux basic aspects and how they might be addressed in conjunction with your current solution operation and appearance.
Licensing
The licensing that is most famliar to Linux industry participants is the GNU General Program License (GPL). It is used for many of the open source applications that are used in several industries like Life Sciences as well as for many web-based technologies that are prevalent in Linux environments. Commercial software often follows other licensing methods. If your situation involves integrating multiple license types, you will want to study the provisions of both very carefully.
Installation and packaging
Probably the more pervasive packaging model in the Linux industry is Red Hat Package Manager (rpm). Debian also has a package specification. Some industry tools unify these under one user interface to simplify the end users' view of packaging and installation.
Non-linux IBM eServer operating environments have other platform-specific means of installing software. There are also cross-platform tools that are used by ISVs across eServer systems for installing their applications. When a Linux application is being integrated with other applications, it may be useful to explore how the installation can be integrated smoothly.
Operations and User Interfaces
There two main types of operational interfaces on Linux systems today, text-based commands, and a graphical interfaces. Both can be extended to provide application operations and user interfaces.
In addition, a number of scripting facilities are available on the server to facilitate automating system
operations.
The two most popular desktop environments on Linux are:
A longer list of available desktop environments can be found at Freshmeat.
For system administration, the major commercial Linux distributions from Red Hat and United Linux use a number of different commands to administer the system starting with installation and continuing through management of the system resources and the networking. The Linux Standard Base addresses some utilities that assist with system administration, but many more interfaces are provided by the distributors than are in the current standard.
Scripting tools facilitate solutions developers and customer writing operational scripts that can automate application use and minimize operator interaction, lowering cost of operations for a particular application. Scripting tools include:
- typical Linux shells (bash, ksh, csh, sh)
- PERL, PYTHON, and typically administrative scripting languages
Linux workload scheduling and performance
Work scheduling for Linux systems has traditionally been done by using practices similar to the UNIX environment via crontab Linux structures. Enhanced work scheduling continues to be a topic for future Linux enhancement.
Individual series have also published performance and scheduling tips that are specific to Linux running on the series. Sizing guides templates for ISVs to use to advise customers of effective resource assignments to achieve good performance are available for POWER (iSeries and pSeries) systems and zSeries systems.
IBM also operates
customer benchmark centers
specifically designed to prove real-world scalability. These facilities
operates on a cost-recovery basis. You can bring in your application and prove that a specific
configuration, with a specific level of processor, will perform as required for a customer
situation. It's a particularly powerful selling tool, as there is no guesswork involved.
Thousands of actual concurrent "users" can be set up in a laboratory environment.
Security
Security is a top priority for IBM and that priority is reflected
in each of the eServer series and its hardware; however, the term security is far-reaching and
means different things to different people based on their background
and environment. But through this diversity, there are commonality and aspects of security
that you should be interested in.
A helpful aid for generally tailoring the security of your systems is at
IBM Security
Planner. The IBM Security Planner helps you plan a basic security policy for each of the operating
systems that IBM eServers support. The planner will ask you a series of questions about your
business environment and your security goals. Based on your answers, the planner provides you
with a list of recommendations for setting password rules, resource access rules, logging and
auditing rules, and other, OS specific, security settings. The Security Planner now also
provides network security recommendations for each OS. Learn the basic concepts of
designing network security including: network architecture, firewall and other network
security technologies, TCP/IP security, and intrusion detection.
An example of a common security facility across IBM operating environments is Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM), sometimes referred to as single sign-on. EIM is an IBM eServer infrastructure that allows administrators and application developers to solve the problem of managing multiple user registries across their enterprise. This infrastructure provides a common set of APIs that can be used across platforms to develop applications that look up the relations hips between user identities and a single EIM identifier that represents a user in the enterprise. You can find more information about EIM at the IBM eServer Information Center.
National Language Support, internationalization, and unicode
Support for worldwide customers to work in their native languages has been a priority for IBM eServer systems for many years.
Industry terms relating to this functional area -- internationalization
(I18N), national language support (NLS), national language versions (NLV), localization,
globalization -- are supported on different series non-Linux operating systems in several ways.
Linux I18N support has varied over time from one distribution to another, with different distributions specializing in different geographies. In some cases, the selection of a distribution is significantly influenced by the target geography for the application release. Where this is the case, a Linux ISV may want to explore additional integration with other operating environments on an eServer platform for an enhanced solutionl As the Linux Standard Base promotes more common facilities, I18N support is likely to become wider and more consistent across the distributions over time.
Problem management
Problem management is of key interest in commercial computing environments for minimizing time when the system is not available. Problem management in the Open Source world may be quite different from the same functions for other IBM eServer series operating environments, from logging of errors and recoveries to tools and procedures for support and troubleshooting. Delivery of fixes can be quite different. Effective connection to IBM problem management can be a key enhancement for ISVs who are new to the eServer platforms.
Linux ISVs also need to be sure that they work well in support situations where they, a linux distributor and IBM all need to be involved in isolating and fixing the customer's problem. Alternatively, an ISV may choose to provide the Linux distribution with the product and to be responsible for its support themselves.
Database Access
IBM's DB2 database software is the worldwide market share leader
in the industry and marks the next stage in the evolution of the relational database.
It is the industry's first multimedia, Web-ready relational database management system
delivering leading capabilities in reliability, performance, and scalability with less
skill and fewer resources. DB2 is built on open standards for ease of access and sharing of
information and is the database of choice for customers and partners developing and deploying
critical solutions. DB2 Universal Database for Linux
is available today.
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