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IBM i integration
with BladeCenter and System x

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IBM i integration with BladeCenter® and System x™ allows businesses to operate heterogeneous environments that include Intel®–compatible servers running Microsoft® Windows®, VMware® ESX or Linux® applications in addition to core business applications on IBM i®. See the following pages for a list of the operating system versions can be used with integrated servers:


Windows on integrated servers

VMware ESX on integrated servers

Linux on integrated servers

Note: For information about running IBM i on POWER™ processor-based blades, see the i 6.1 Blades page.

 
Operating system overview

The following table shows an overview of which operating systems can be used with each attachment solution on each IBM i release.

Note: There are additional operating system requirements (for example, 64 bit or 32 bit versions) and some of the operating systems have only been tested with a subset of the server hardware that is available for the attachment solution. See the above operating system links for details.

Operating
System1
Server Attachment Solution2
iSCSI IXA IXS
W2003 i 6.1, i 5.4 i 6.1, i 5.4, V5R3 i 6.1, i 5.4, V5R3
W2000   i 6.1, i 5.4, V5R3 i 6.1, i 5.4, V5R3
ESX3 i 6.1, i 5.4    
SLES10 i 6.1    
SLES9 i 5.4 i 5.4, V5R3  
SLES83   i 5.4, V5R3  
RHEL5 i 6.1    
RHEL4   i 5.4, V5R3  
RHEL3   i 5.4, V5R3 i 5.4, V5R3

 
Trademark information
 
See the Trademark information page for information on IBM and other company trademarks.
 

1 Operating system abbreviations:

    W2003 – Any of the following Microsoft Windows server versions:
    • Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
    • Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
    • Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
    • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
    • Windows Server 2003 Web Edition

    W2000 – Microsoft Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Advanced Server
    ESX3 – VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 or 3.0.2
    SLES10 – SUSE® LINUX Enterprise Server 10
    SLES9 – SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9
    SLES8 – SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8
    RHEL5 – Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 5
    RHEL4 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Advanced Server (AS) or Enterprise Server (ES)
    RHEL3 – Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Advanced Server (AS) or Enterprise Server (ES)

2 Server attachment solution abbreviations:

    iSCSI – Servers attached via an iSCSI host bus adapter (iSCSI HBA).
    IXA – Servers attached via an Integrated xSeries® Adapter.
    IXS – Integrated xSeries Servers.

3 Servers with this operating system may be installed and used. However, IBM i does not provide integrated server service support for servers that run this operating system since the distributor of the operating system no longer provides software maintenance.




iSCSI
IBM i and BladeCenter/System x integration via iSCSI

iSCSI overview

BladeCenter and System x models supported with iSCSI

Ethernet switches for iSCSI

iSCSI install read me first


ROI with IBM i

Infrastructure Simplification and the ROI of consolidating Windows, Linux, and AIX 5L applications on IBM System i


Total cost of ownership
Total cost of ownership

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