Network design

The Power Systems Virtual Servers uses software-defined networking for creating subnets that are needed for Oracle RAC Public and Private networks.

When you deploy in a single zone, three network subnets are needed, one for the Oracle RAC public network where RAC VIPs are configured, and the other two for the Oracle RAC cluster interconnect. A Direct Link (2.0) service is required to connect the LPARs to on-premises networks and is also required to connect to VPC in IBM Cloud to use cloud services.

Accounts that use an IBM Cloud Direct Link (2.0) must be VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) enabled. A GRE tunnel is needed from PowerVS to support Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP) and to enable routing to on-premises.

Further details to manage network connections are at Managing IBM Cloud connections.

The following are the typical scenarios:

1. PowerVS connecting to On-Premise

   Connecting Power Systems Virtual Server to an on-premises network by using Direct Link (2.0) Connect. A typical use case for this topology is that the user requires access to the Power virtual servers from their on-premises networks.

   

2. PowerVS connecting to VPC in IBM Cloud

   Connecting Power Systems Virtual Server to the IBM Cloud VPC infrastructure and cloud native services environment by using Direct Link (2.0) Connect. A typical use case for this topology is to use IBM Cloud VPC x86 resources as well as cloud native services like Cloud Object Storage from PowerVS.