FAQs

What is IBM® Power® Virtual Server Private Cloud?

IBM Power Virtual Server Private Cloud is an as-a-service offering that includes a prescriptive set of physical infrastructure (compute, network, and storage). The infrastructure is deployed in your own data center. IBM site reliability engineers (SREs) fully maintain and operate your On-premises infrastructure and manage it through the IBM Cloud. Also, you can adjust your workloads by using pay-as-you-use billing. For more information, see What is IBM Power Virtual Server.

What is the difference between the Off-premises and On-premises offerings of IBM Power Virtual Server?

The primary difference between the two is where the physical infrastructure resides. The On-premises infrastructure resides in your data center, while Power Virtual Server infrastructure resides in the IBM data centers.

Which Power servers are supported?

Off-premises IBM Power S922, IBM Power E980, and IBM Power S1022.

On-premises IBM Power S1022, IBM Power E1050, IBM Power E1080.

For complete specifications, see Hardware and software specifications.

What versions of AIX, IBM i, and Linux® are supported?

The supported versions of AIX, IBM i, and Linux® operating systems depend on the IBM Power hardware.

Where can I find cost estimates for Power Virtual Server infrastructure?

To generate an estimated price, use the Power Virtual Server Estimate cost tool. For more information, see Generating an estimate. For other pricing-related questions for IBM Power Virtual Server (On-premises), see Pricing FAQs.

Can IBM Power Virtual Server (On-premises) pods be expanded with additional compute nodes?

Yes, you can add up to the maximum number of compute nodes for a specific configuration size. For example, you can start with 5 nodes and then add 3 more nodes.

Can IBM Power Virtual Server (On-premises) pods be expanded with additional storage?

Yes, you can expand the pod with additional storage capacity. But you cannot add more storage controllers.

Are the IBM Power Virtual Server (On-premises) pods equipped with spare compute nodes for maintenance?

In each pod, one spare node is available that is exclusively usable for IBM operational purposes, such as to perform system maintenance. The system type of the spare node matches the largest client-usable node. For example, if you have a pod with 4X S1022 and 1X E1080 client-usable hosts, then the spare node is E1080.

Where can I find the logs for the pod software or operator access logs?

As a security officer, auditor, or manager, you can use the Activity Tracker Event Routing service to track how users and applications interact with the Power Virtual Server in IBM Cloud. Activity Tracker Event Routing records user-initiated activities that change the state of a service in IBM Cloud. You can use these events to identify the following information:

• The users who made API calls to cloud services.
• The time-stamp when the API calls were made.
• The status of the API call.
• The criticality of the action.

For more information, see Activity tracker events.

Will the pod disconnect from the IBM Cloud if there is an unplanned network outage?

If an unplanned network outage occurs for the management network that is connecting the IBM Cloud instance to the pod infrastructure, the VMs continue to run within the pod.

See Table 1 for the implications of a pod that is running in a disconnected mode due to an unplanned network outage. Also, the primary and secondary management connections (Direct Link or site-to-site VPN) to IBM are lost.

Can I use my own AIX, IBM i, or Linux image?

Yes. This function is known as bring your own image. For more information, see Deploying a custom image within IBM Power Virtual Server.

What versions of stock images are available?

For each major version (example: Technology Level) of the operating system (OS) that is enabled through the offering, Power Virtual Server provides a single stock image. Power Virtual Server typically provides stock images for the last three major versions of the supported OS. Any update to the OS stock image is planned only when the image level is certified for Power Virtual Server environment.

When are stock images removed from the catalog?

Any unsupported and older stock images are periodically removed from the offering. You are notified three weeks before the images are removed.

What happens to virtual machines deployed by using stock images that are removed?

If the stock images that are used to deploy the virtual machines are removed, the virtual machines can continue to operate without any issue. You are recommended to update the operating system by following the vendor’s guidelines specific to your operating system.

What formats can I use to upload a custom image?

Currently, you can import a custom image in the following formats: .ova, .ova.gz, .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz.

What storage types are available in the storage area network (SAN)?

Each volume has a storage tier, which defines how many I/O operations per second (IOPS) can be started against that volume. These tiers can scale according to the size of the volume.

The following tiers are supported:

• Tier 0 (25 IOPS/GB)
• Tier 1 (10 IOPS per GB)
• Tier 3 (3 IOPS per GB)
• Fixed 5000 IOPS

If you find the storage tiers are over or under-provisioned, you can change the storage tier of an existing volume. For more information, see Storage tiers.

How do I extend my AIX rootvg?

By default, the system deploys 20 GBs for the AIX rootvg. You can extend the AIX rootvg by using the extendvg command to add a physical volume.

What's the difference between shared capped and shared uncapped processor performance? How do they compare to dedicated processor performance?

When you deploy a VM, you can choose between Dedicated, Shared capped, or Shared uncapped cores. The following list provides a simplified breakdown of their differences:

• Shared uncapped: shared among other clients
• Shared capped: shared, but resources do not expand beyond the requested capacity (used mostly for licensing)
• Dedicated: resources are allocated for a specific client (used for specific third-party considerations)

The core-to-virtual core ratio is 1:1. For shared processors, fractional cores round up to the nearest whole number. For example, 1.25 cores equal 2 virtual cores. For more information, see How does shared processor performance compare to dedicated processors, Pricing for IBM Power Virtual Server (On-premises), and Pricing for Power Virtual Server.

How does my current environment compare to what's available through the Power Virtual Server?

If you like to compare your current environment's performance to what's available through the Power Virtual Server offering, see the IBM Power Performance Report.

How do I migrate my VM from one data center to another (WDC04 to DAL13)?

To migrate your VM from one data center to another, you must capture and export your VM to Cloud Object Storage. After you successfully capture and export your VM, copy it to the Cloud Object Storage in the destination region, then do an import followed by a deployment.

What does VM pinning do?

You can choose a pinning policy: soft pin or hard pin, to pin a VM to the host where it is running. When you soft pin a VM for high availability, PowerVC automatically migrates the VM to the original host. The PowerVC is migrated when the host is back to its operating state. When you hard pin a VM, the movement of the VM is restricted if the VM has a licensing restriction with the host. The VM movement is restricted during remote restart, automated remote restart, DRO, and live partition migration. The default pinning policy is none.

What does it mean to set an affinity or anti-affinity rule?

You can apply affinity and anti-affinity policies to both VMs and volumes.

VM affinity and anti-affinity policy allow you to spread a group of VMs across different hosts or keep them on a specific host.

Volume affinity and anti-affinity policy allow you to control the placement of a new volume based on an existing PVM instance (VM) or volume. When you set an affinity policy for a new storage volume, the volume is created within the same storage provider as an existing PVM instance or volume. With an anti-affinity policy, the new volume is created in a different storage provider other than the storage provider the existing PVM instance or volume is located in.

The use of volume affinity policy (affinity or anti-affinity) requires the availability of multiple storage providers. You might experience the following errors when you use a volume affinity policy:

• If an additional storage provider is not available to fulfill the requested policy, you might receive an error. The error indicates the inability to locate a storage provider to create a volume by using the requested volume affinity policy.

• If additional storage providers exist but the storage providers do not have sufficient space to fulfill the requested policy, you might receive an error. The error indicates the inability to locate a storage provider with enough free capacity to satisfy the requested volume size.

How to set a PVM instance to allow attaching mixed storage?

You can now attach storage volumes to a PVM instance from different storage tiers and pools, other than the storage pool the PVM instance's root (boot) volume is deployed in. To attach storage volumes to a PVM, modify the PVM instance and set the storagePoolAffinity property of the new PVM instance to false. By default, the storagePoolAffinity property of the PVM instance is set to true when the PVM instance is deployed and can be changed only by using the modified PVM instance API. Attaching mixed storage to a PVM instance has implications on the PVM instance capture, clone, and snapshot features. For more information about modifying a PVM instance API, see Modify PVM Instance.

Does IBM provide maintenance for the AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating systems?

No. It is the customer's responsibility to maintain, update, and manage the AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating system.

How does licensing work for the AIX, IBM i, or Linux operating systems?

The license for the AIX and IBM i operating systems is part of the overall cost for the workspace. You cannot use an existing license that you already purchased. Refer to the AIX section to learn how to create an AIX VM.

You can use the movable IBM i (IBM i MOL) to move your existing on premises entitlements to Power Virtual Server. Contact support to know more about the IBM i MOL, see Getting help and support.

Power Virtual Server supports multiple levels of RHEL and SLES. You can either use IBM provided stock Linux images with IBM Full Linux Subscription or bring your own custom Linux image with vendor-provided subscription.

For more information about supported versions of OS, see What versions of AIX, IBM i, and Linux® are supported?.

How does third-party licensing work?

Clients are responsible for third-party licensing.

What are the hardware specifications?

For more information, see Hardware specifications for Power Virtual Server and Hardware and software specifications for Power Virtual Server (On-premises).

Do Power Virtual Server run in a multi-tenant environment?

Off-premises

The Power Virtual Server runs in a multi-tenant environment. If you have signed up for a dedicated host, you can get single-tenant capabilities.

Are there bare-metal options?

No, the bare-metal options are not available. The Power Virtual Server offering focuses on virtual instances.

Can you tell me more about the snapshotting, cloning, and restoring capabilities?

Power Virtual Server provides the capability to capture full and point-in-time copies of entire logical volumes or data sets. Using IBM's FlashCopy feature, the Power Virtual Server API lets you create delta snapshots, volume clones, and restore your disks. To learn more, see Snapshotting, cloning, and restoring.

What are the key differences between a snapshot and a clone?

The key differences are as follows:

See Snapshots, cloning, and restoring for more detailed information.

Is there any UI to perform snapshot or clone operations?

None. Use the API and CLI to perform snapshot or clone operations. Using the Power Virtual Server API and command-line interface (CLI) you can create, restore, delete, and attach the snap-shots and volume-clones.

APIs to create snapshot and clone

• Create a new volume clone request and initiates the Prepare action
• Create a PVM Instance snapshot

CLIs to create snapshot and clone

• Create a snapshot
• Create a volume clone for specific volumes

Are there any initial snapshot requirements in terms of storage?

None. The storage is allocated on demand.

Does the snapshot and volume clone support any safeguard policy?

None. Power Virtual Server does not (currently) provide any options to safeguarded copy (such as cyber protection).

Can you tell me more about the backup process by using the PowerHA Toolkit for IBM i?

The PowerHA Toolkit for IBM i provides the 5250 user interfaces and automation to use them for backups. In a nutshell, it does the following tasks:

• Automates the memory flush
• Create the volumes-clone
• Attach the clones to a host
• Start the host
• Kick-off the backups
• Move the BRMS data back to the production VM and then shut down the backup VM
• Remove the cloned volumes

Using the PowerHA toolkit, you can create an intermediate snap-shot and a volumes-clone before the process enters the long-running volume detach or attach phase. You can pause the process immediately before the volumes are attached.

How do you set up private networks between Intel® Virtual Servers (x86) and Power Virtual Server?

Off-premises

See the tutorial on IBM Power Virtual Server integration with x86-based workloads.

How do you set up customer site access to a private network by using VPN?

Off-premises For a complete tutorial about site-to-site Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity from a private cloud environment to Power Virtual Server, see IBM Power Virtual Server Virtual Private Network Connectivity. For more information on VPN, see Managing VPN connections.

What firewall options are there around VPN connectivity?

Off-premises You must set your own firewall in your IBM Cloud account.

How do you connect a server instance between two data centers (DAL13 to WDC04)?

You can use IBM Cloud Connect to connect two data centers. IBM Cloud Connect is a software-defined network interconnect service that brings secure connectivity to client locations around the world.

IBM Cloud Connect is only available to IBM clients within the US.

How is network bandwidth billed?

Off-premises IBM Cloud Classic environment: Inbound bandwidth is unlimited and not charged. Outbound bandwidth is charged per GB tier with bandwidth offered as an allotment for each month. As an example, for your compute instances, 250 GB is included with each monthly virtual server and 20 TB is included with each monthly bare metal server. Extra bandwidth can also be purchased per package. For more information, see Bandwidth packages.

IBM Power Virtual Server environment: Inbound bandwidth is unlimited and not charged. Bandwidth is not charged when you use a public network. If you are using a private network with DirectLink Connect, you are charged IBM Cloud Classic environment rates.

What monitoring services are available?

IBM does not provide status and performance monitoring for the Power Virtual Server. Clients must use their own private cloud tools.

What performance and capacity planning services do you provide for IBM i?

IBM uses the same tools that are on a private cloud system.

IBM i and solution certification

You can find self-certification and listing information on the IBM Global Solutions Directory.

How do I delete a workspace?

To delete a workspace (and all its resources), use the left navigation to navigate the workspace page. Find the workspace to be deleted and click the overflow menu on the upper right corner of the tile. Click Delete and confirm the request from the pull-down menu by typing Delete in the text field. Finally, click the red Delete button to initiate the request.

How do I delete a single virtual server instance?

Deleting a virtual server instance is a manual process. To delete all VSIs, delete the workspace or delete a subset of the virtual server instance.

• Delete a single virtual server instance from the Virtual server instances page. Click the overflow menu (icon with 3 vertical dots) on the far right of each virtual server instance entry on the table. From the pull-down menu, click Delete to open the deleted confirmation modal. Click Delete instance to initiate the deletion request. This action cannot be undone.

• Delete a single virtual server instance from the details page. On the Virtual server instances page, click the virtual server instance name present on the table, and go to the virtual server instance details page. Find and click the trash icon on the upper right of the screen. Confirm the request by clicking Delete instance. This action cannot be undone.

How do I open a support ticket for the Power Virtual Server workspace?

To open a support ticket, see Getting help and support.

What are the supported databases that I can run for SAP on Power Virtual Server?

On an AIX VM, the following databases are supported:

• IBM Db2 for LUW (Linux, UNIX, and Windows) version 10.5, or later
• Oracle Database version 12.1.0.2, or later
• SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise version 16.0 SP03, or later

On a Linux VM, the following database is supported:

• SAP HANA Platform 2.0 SPS 04, or later

You can find an up-to-date list at SAP Apps on IBM Power Virtual Server.

How can I get the WebSphere Application Server that are delivered through the Web Enablement for i packages, and are available at no additional charge with IBM i?

If you have an IBM i VM instance with the licensed program bundle in the Power Virtual Server offering, you can download the WebSphere Application Server. This is available in the Web Enablement for i software at the Entitled System Support (ESS) website by completing the following steps:

1. Go to the ESS website.

2. Sign in. If this is the first time you are using ESS, refer to the Help section on the left menu. Download and read the ESS_Registration_IBM_Customers_Guidelines PDF.

3. Go to My Entitled Software > IBM i evaluation and NLV download.

4. Find the required software that you can download, install, and use. For example:

   Web Enablement for i (5722-WE2) - WebSphere Express V8.5.5 Web Enablement for i (5733-WE3) - WebSphere V9

How do I run Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) on Power Virtual Server?

You can find a complete tutorial at the IBM Developer site: Deploying Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.x on IBM Power Virtual Server.

What is the network latency over Direct Link?

Off-premises Network latency over Direct link is less than 1 millisecond in every location. To know more about network latency, see Understanding latency.

What must be the network latency between the data center and the corresponding IBM Cloud region?

On-premises The network latency between your data center and the corresponding IBM Cloud region must maintain a network round-trip time (RTT) of less than or equal to 200 milliseconds. For more information, see Network latency.

Are we notified about any planned maintenance activities?

For planned maintenance and disruptive changes, the Power Virtual Server operations team sends you notifications at least 7 days in advance. Watch the notifications space in the IBM Cloud dashboard for these alerts. You can receive a copy of these notifications directly in your inbox if your email is subscribed for notifications.

How do I convert existing volumes to replication-enabled volumes?

Off-premises

You can retype the volume to toggle the replicationEnable flag of the volume by using Perform an action on a Volume request. This is possible only when the volume pool of existing volumes supports replication.

How can I check whether volume is already replication enabled?

Off-premises

You need to check the replicationEnabled attribute of the volume. A volume is replicationEnabled when it is true.

How can I check whether a volume is a primary or an auxiliary volume?

Off-premises

Volume is an auxiliary when isAuxiliary field of volume is true. When replicationEnabled is true and isAuxiliary is false then the volume is a primary volume.

How can I check the serial number of my virtual server instance?

The serial number is available after you deploy your virtual server instance and you can choose to display the serial number system value.

Pin the IBM i virtual server instances that use the IBM i licenses. If you do not pin the virtual server instances and request a migration to a different host, the serial numbers changes, and the IBM i license will not work.

What should I do if I do not see the latest information in the UI?

Consider the following if you do not see an update in the User Interface(UI):

1. Power Virtual Server uses a new caching mechanism for some resources to ensure that UI refresh operations complete in a timely manner.
2. In some scenarios out-dated information might be shown while the cache is updated, for approximately four minutes.
3. You can refresh the page to trigger an update to the cached data, eventually leading to the updated information's display.
4. When the DC has a heavy amount of traffic, and the cache is not refreshed within the last four minutes, Power Virtual Server UI might display an error message. A subsequent page refresh retrieves and displays the updated information.

Why can’t I see the storage pool and tier of my boot images?

IBM improved the performance of copying a stock image into customers' accounts. As a result of this new feature, the newly copied stock image acts like an image reference, where volumes are not accessible to the user. The improved process now offers:

1. Faster copy of stock image to your private project.
2. The stock image cannot be exported. One can do VM capture and export on a deployed VM that uses the stock image.
3. Storage pool and tier of a stock image shows "Empty" (API) or "Any" (UI) as VM can be deployed to any tier or pool by using the stock image.

Can I select a specific resource group when I create a cloud connection?

Off-premises No. When you create a cloud connection by using Power Virtual Server, the cloud connection is always created in the default resource group even if you choose a specific resource group.

What is the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size that is supported in Power Virtual Server networks?

The Power Virtual Server supports a smaller MTU size of 1476 bytes for the public network interfaces and for the private network interfaces that are attached to a Power Virtual Server VPN.

Can I automate the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) configuration?

Yes, you can automate the network configurations such as the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU).

To automate the MTU configuration, you need to customize your cloud-init network configuration. For more information, see the Cloud-init docs on network configuration.

Both AIX and IBM i support the configurations for custom cloud-init at the time of Power Virtual Server instance (VM) deployment.

You can customize the cloud-init configurations only through the Power Virtual Server API. The userData request parameter specifies the custom cloud-init. For more information, see Create a new Power VM Instance.

On-premises The automation of MTU is not supported. The admin must update the MTU value on the virtual machine manually.

Can I add a user interface to an existing virtual machine?

Yes, you can add a user interface to an existing virtual machine by performing Operation System administration steps to configure the desired adapter settings.