Managing Power Servers and Virtualization Features Through a SingleCommunication Channel

Abstract

Virtual machine technology, or virtualization, is gaining momentum in the information technology community. While virtual machines are not a new concept, recent advances in hardware and software technology have brought virtualization to the forefront of IT management. Stability, cost savings, and manageability are among the reasons for the recent rise of virtualization. IBM PowerVM allows business units to consolidate multiple workloads onto fewer systems, increasing server utilization, and reducing cost. Power Hypervisor (PHYP) provides virtualization capabilities to IBM PowerVM. Hardware Management Console (HMC) manages virtualization features on Power Servers. HMC communication for configuration information happens via the Flexible Service Processor (FSP) to PHYP over a dedicated management network. In Power Server, FSP is the conduit for Virtualization traffic from HMC. We have reduced the load of FSP by redirecting the PHYP targeted commands to logical partition. In this work, we have proposed an architecture in which a logical partition running Linux will be an interface for all PHYP targeted commands. This will reduce the latency of managing virtualization features on Power Servers. We have created logical partition running Linux on Power Server and implemented Network Server (NETS) (written in C++) on logical partition. Network Server establishes a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection with HMC, accepts the command issued by HMC and routes the commands to PHYP. This architecture reduces traffic over FSP henceforth improves the efficiency. Commands which are directed for server diagnosis, recovery and status information will be issued by HMC to FSP and commands targeted to PHYP for virtualization features will be issued by HMC to logical partition running Linux.