Executive Summary The IBM PureFlex System brought new levels of integration and quick time to deploy advantages that were enjoyed by many customers. A central piece of the integration was the Flexible System Manager (FSM). The divestiture of Lenovo by IBM has caused IBM and Lenovo to diverge in their delivery of integrated, quick time to value solutions. Both IBM and Lenovo have announced end of marketing of the original Flex system. End of IBM Support for Flex systems is April 30, 2018. Lenovo has continued to offer blade solutions based on an enhanced Flex chassis with the management of the Flex x86 compute nodes provided by a new product called XClarity. IBM is investing in POWER rack servers, converging on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) as the primary hardware management interface. In order to protect your investment in POWER Flex nodes, IBM has added the capability for the HMC to be able to manage both POWER Flex nodes as well as POWER rack servers simultaneously. To be positioned on the best path for systems management and transition to the newest POWER technologies, we recommend replacing the FSM with a HMC prior to FSM end of service in April 30, 2018. For customers that want the quick time to value implementations IBM is delivering the PurePower and PureApplication solution based on Power rack servers. So what does this mean for existing PureFlex and and Flex customers who have Power compute nodes or a mixed chassis environment with both Power and x86 nodes? At a high level there are several options if you have Power Nodes: 1. Do nothing: If your current Flex solutions is adequate for your computing needs, you need not do anything. We do recommend an upgrade the FSM to 1.3.4, which is the last release of the FSM. End of support for the FSM is April 30, 2018. You would need to plan a transition strategy by then. 2. If you require an additional quick time to value system: IBM has announced the PurePower system based on POWER8 servers and current technology as an evolution of the IBM PureFlex system. 3. If you have all Power compute nodes and want to increase computing power or implement an Openstack cloud product like PowerVC: Both of those options require an HMC to manage the hardware. IBM has enhanced the HMC so that it will manage both Power servers and Power nodes in a Flex chassis. The sections below overview the steps to transition from an FSM to an HMC. 4. If you have both Power and x86 nodes in your Flex chassis, for simplicity of management and scalability consider moving the Linux workload on x86 to Power Systems. IBM Systems Lab Services has created planning and implementing offerings to assist in the transition of your Flex environment and in moving Linux workload from x86 to Power Systems. For more information see http://www.ibm.com/systems/services/labservices
5. The Flex chassis can only be managed by one console, i.e. either FSM or HMC or XClarity. If you have two Flex chassis that contain both x86 Intel Nodes and POWER Nodes we recommend that you move all of the Power nodes into one chassis and manage those by an HMC. Move all of the x86 nodes in the other chassis and manage those by XClarity. In 2016, IBM offers the Pure Systems Trade- in program available in United States and its territories, which provides incentives for customer to replace IBM PureSystems Server Technology with newer IBM POWER 8 or PurePower servers. Please contact your Business Partner or IBM to discuss your options. Technical Details: You can continue to utilize the Flex/PureFlex system environment as is until it reaches end of support. For the Flex environment which has all x86 nodes, see Lenovo Flex System Product and Technology for more information. To be positioned on the best path for systems management and transition to the newest POWER technologies, replacing the FSM with a HMC prior to FSM end of service in April 30, 2018. The HMC performs the similar virtualization and hardware management functions as the FSM s Power Systems Management. The HMC can be either a hardware appliance or virtual appliance. You can also use an existing HMC in your environment to manage the Power compute nodes if it meets the prerequisites shown below. Flex Power node must be at firmware version AF783_022 or later. HMC version must match with the firmware version of the Flex Power nodes. The first version of HMC that supports Flex Power Systems node is V7R7.7.0.2. HMC must be able to communitcate with the CMM network, i.e. it can ping the IP of the CMM. If you have the Flex chassis that contains both x86 and POWER compute nodes, it is recommended that you separate out the x nodes and POWER nodes into different chassis. This will give you the flexibility to use Lenovo XClarity to manage the x86 nodes. A mix of x86 and Power compute nodes in the same chassis cannot be concurrently managed by both HMC and XClarity. The Chassis Management Module (CMM) firmware now has two code versions, one from IBM and the other from Lenovo. The Lenovo code version does not support Power compute nodes. See Flex System Interoperability Guide for more information.
Capability FSM HMC Web based User Interface Yes Yes CLI Yes Yes Management Redundancy No Yes Number of Compute Nodes Managed 82 48 Power Node/Server on/off/restart Yes Yes Activate/Shutdown virtual servers/lpars Yes Yes Dual VIOS support Yes Yes LPM Yes Yes DLPAR Yes Yes NPIV Yes Yes Suspend/Resume Yes Yes Shared storage pools Yes Yes Multiple virtual server/lpar profiles Yes Yes Full system partition support Yes Yes Virtual Tape Yes Yes Active Memory Sharing Yes Yes Active Memory Expansion Yes Yes Shared Dedicated Capacity Yes Yes
Multiple Shared Processor Pools Yes Yes Multiple Virtual Ethernet Switches Yes Yes System Firmware Updates Yes Yes Concurrent System Firmware Updates Yes Yes Processor Compatibility Modes Yes Yes Adapter Card Updates Yes Yes Operating System Updates Yes No Cloud Enabled Yes Yes Energy Scale functions Yes Yes Micro partitioning Yes Yes Light path Information Yes Yes Monitors/Event Action Plans Yes No Service Focal Point/Call Home Yes Yes Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is the preferred method of transitioning Logical Partions (LPARs) from Power compute nodes to other POWER servers or other POWER solutions such as PurePower. A PurePower System is a complete, flexible cloud infrastructure system with integrated expertise. IBM PurePower system currently consists of S822A or S822L servers, V7000 Gen2 storage, SAN48B- 5 switches, G8052 switches for 1G management network, Mellanox SX1710 for 40G internal data network, HMC, PowerVC, etc. The system integrates and optimizes all compute, storage and networking resources to deliver application- ready infrastructure out of the box. Note that the HMC included in the PurePower System does not support managing any Power Systems servers that are not part of the configuration. IBM has a service that assists customer in making the transition from Flex Power compute nodes to POWER servers including FSM to HMC and LPAR from Flex to POWER servers or PurePower System. IBM
also has a service to assist customer in moving Linux workload from x86 to Power Systems. Contact IBM Lab Services at http://ibm.co/14qlksd for more information. If LPM is not feasible because of the storage connection, SAN zoning, etc., traditional means of moving LPARs can be used such as the mksysb option, data replication via storage background replication. Newer technologies such as PowerVC can also be used to aid in the movement of images from one POWER server to another IBM PowerVC Virtualization Center provides functions similar to the VMControl functions in FSM. PowerVC is an advanced virtualization management offering, built on OpenStack, that provides simplified virtualization management for IBM AIX, IBM i and Linux virtual machines (VMs) running on IBM Power Systems. PowerVC allows you to capture and manage a library of VM images, enabling you to quickly deploy a VM environment by launching a stored image of that environment, instead of having to manually recreate a particular environment. By saving virtual images and centralizing image management, you can migrate and move virtual images to available systems to expedite deployment. PowerVC provides the foundation for Power Systems scalable cloud management. Customers that have Flex System Managers with current maintenance can transition to PowerVC with no license cost, see the Transition section at http://www- 03.ibm.com/systems/power/software/management. If you ve implemented VMControl, IBM Lab Services has a Cloud Design Workshop to assign in migrating from VMControl to PowerVC. Contact IBM Lab Services at http://ibm.co/14qlksd for more information. For other FSM functions like monitoring and automation plans, other options are available. See Power Systems Management Strategy White Paper that describes Systems Management for IBM Power Systems which covers a wide range of tools for system monitoring, patch management, discovery/asset inventory, virtualization management, etc. References: Lenovo Flex System Product and Technology: https://lenovopress.com/sg248255- lenovo- flex- system- products- and- technology Lenovo XClarity: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/servers/thinkserver/system- management/xclarity/ PurePower information: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5277.pdf http://www- 03.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/purepower/ The following links describe the requirements and preparation for LPM: http://aix4admins.blogspot.com/2013/04/live- partition- mobility- live- partition.html http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks.nsf/redbookabstracts/tips1184.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1185.html?open Useful links for NIM information: http://www- 01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1010383 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au- aix- nim- cheat- sheet/ http://aix4admins.blogspot.com/2011/05/mksysb- this- resource- is- file- containing.html