IBM i integration
with BladeCenter and System x

V5R3 enhancements

Linux enabled on integrated servers: IBM® has enabled running Linux on selected Integrated xSeries Servers and System x™ (xSeries) models attached to the IBM i platform via the Integrated xSeries Adapter. See the Linux on integrated servers page for details.

2.0 GHz Pentium® M Integrated xSeries Server: This new Integrated xSeries Server (IXS), based on Intel® Pentium M processor technology, is designed for installation in the system unit or I/O towers of newer IBM® System i™ (iSeries) models.

Larger disk drives:
The virtual disk drive support is enhanced to increase the maximum size of a single virtual disk drive from 64 GB to 1000 GB. This allows Windows® servers to have disk volumes over 64 GB without needing to create volume sets that span multiple disk drives. The maximum total amount of disk capacity that can be allocated to a non-clustered Windows server has increased from 2 TB to 32 TB. For a server that uses Microsoft® Clustering Service, the maximum disk capacity has increased from 3 TB to 48 TB.

Dynamic disk drive unlinking: Users can now unlink (remove) a disk drive (network server storage space) from an active Windows or Linux server that is running on an IXS or a System x model that is attached to the IBM i platform via an IXA. See the Dynamic disk drive unlinking page for details.

User enrollment improvements:
Users enrolled to the Windows environment from IBM i can now take advantage of Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM). User enrollment support for EIM allows easier setup for Windows single sign-on and allows enrolled i5/OS user profiles to be different than Windows users profiles. In addition, enrolled users can now manage their Windows passwords in Windows. This provides greater security by reducing the number of passwords when supporting a single sign-on environment. These enhancements allow more flexibility in managing user accounts enrolled from IBM i to Windows. See FAQ How do I administer users with integrated Windows servers to allow Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) and single sign-on support? for more information.

GUI support for Linux:
The Windows Administration function in iSeries Navigator can now be used to start and shut down Linux servers. The Windows Administration function can also be used to create, delete, link and unlink virtual disk drives for Linux servers.

Other Enhancements:

• Additional device-specific capabilities are enabled for iSeries tape devices that are accessed from Windows.
  Action required: New tape device drivers must be installed on Windows. See the tape driver migration page for details.
• Submit Network Server Command (SBMNWSCMD) now provides limited support for kerberos v5 authentication.
• i5/OS now automatically updates its system time for daylight savings time changes.
• A new Network Server Description (NWSD) attribute allows you to specify how long integrated servers are given to shut-down when they are varied off.
• Windows NT® 4.0 is no longer supported on IXS servers. You should do one of the following with any integrated Windows NT 4.0 servers you have:
  1. Replace them with new Windows Server™ 2003 servers.
     Note that it is not possible to upgrade a Windows NT 4.0 server to Windows Server 2003.
  2. Upgrade them to Windows 2000 Server.

For more details on the V5R3 enhancements, visit the What's new for V5R3 topic in the Windows Environment on iSeries section of the Information Center.