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IBM PowerVM

The virtualization platform for UNIX, Linux and IBM i clients

Power = Efficiency - Cost

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PowerVM™ Express Edition
PowerVM Express Edition is offered exclusively on the Power 520 and Power 550 Express servers and is designed for users looking for an introduction to more advanced virtualization features at a highly affordable price. With PowerVM Express Edition, users can create up to three partitions on the server, leverage virtualized disk and optical devices VIOS and even try out the Shared Processor Pool.

Features:

Micro-Partitioning Support: Create up to three partitions per server of a minimum granularity of 1/10th of a CPU and a maximum of the entire server. Dynamically move processors and resources from one partition to another with no application downtime.

Integrated Virtualization Manager: Manage your virtualized environment with the click of a button. The Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) literally allows you to point, click and consolidate workloads with its easy to use browser-based interface.

Shared Processor Pool: Let the system do the administration for you. Simply assign priorities to partitions and let the Hypervisor allocate processing power as needed by your applications.

Virtual I/O Server: Save money by sharing I/O resources. The Virtual I/O Server is a special-purpose partition which provides virtual I/O resources to client partitions. The Virtual I/O Server owns the resources that are shared with clients. A physical adapter assigned to a partition can be shared by one or more other partitions. The Virtual I/O Server is designed to reduce costs by eliminating the need for dedicated network adapters, disk adapters and disk drives.

PowerVM Lx86: Run x86 Linux applications on POWER™. This feature enables the dynamic execution of x86 Linux instructions by mapping them to instructions on a POWER processor-based system and caching the mapped instructions to optimize performance. PowerVM Lx86 software is designed with features that enable users to easily install and run a wide range of x86 Linux applications on Power™ Systems platforms with a Linux on POWER operating system.

Shared Dedicated Capacity: The benefits of dedicated resources without the waste. This feature allows for the "donation" of spare CPU cycles for dedicated processor partitions to be utilized by the shared pool, thus increasing overall system performance. The dedicated partition maintains absolute priority for dedicated CPU cycles, and sharing will only occur when the dedicated partition has not consumed all its resources.

N Port ID Virtualization: NPIV provides direct access to Fiber Channel adapters from multiple client partitions, simplifying the management of Fibre Channel SAN environments. NPIV support is included with PowerVM Express, Standard, and Enterprise Edition and supports AIX V5.3, AIX V6.1, IBM i 6.1.1 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 partitions on all POWER6 processor-based servers, including blades.

Virtual Tape: PowerVM has two virtualization methods for using tape devices on POWER6 processor-based servers, simplifying backup and restore operations. Both methods are supported with PowerVM Express, Standard, or Enterprise Edition.

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