UNDERSTANDING POWERVC FROM IBM CLOUD PERSPECTIVE

In below section we will try to understand what is PowerVC and how it plays an important role in deployment of pvm-instances in IBM Cloud.

IBM PowerVC (Power Virtualization Center) is a virtualization management solution based on OpenStack, specifically tailored for IBM Power Systems. It offers a simplified cloud management interface, enabling rapid deployment and efficient management of virtual machines (VMs) on Power hardware.
It is used to manage virtual environments running on IBM Power servers using PowerVM (hypervisor native to Power Systems).

Key Features of PowerVC:

VM Lifecycle Management – Simplifies the creation, starting, stopping, cloning, and deletion of virtual machines.
Image Management – Allows users to create and manage VM templates (images) for rapid and consistent VM deployment.
Automation Integration – Supports tools like Ansible, Terraform, and others for streamlined, automated provisioning and configuration.
Self-Service Portal – Provides a user-friendly interface that enables end users to deploy and manage their own VMs with cloud-like functionality.
Dynamic Resource Allocation – Automatically adjusts compute resources such as CPU and memory based on workload demands.
Storage and Network Integration – Seamlessly integrates with SAN and network environments to support efficient and reliable VM provisioning.

How PowerVC Plays an Important Role in VM Deployment

Rapid Provisioning: PowerVC allows for the quick deployment of VMs using predefined templates.
Admins can deploy a new VM in minutes with standardized configurations.
Standardization: With VM images/templates, PowerVC ensures consistent environments across different systems or departments.
Resource Optimization: Manages and optimizes the use of Power Systems resources through features like live VM migration and capacity planning.
Self-Service Cloud: End-users can provision VMs on-demand without IT administrator involvement, speeding up development and testing processes.
Scalability: Suitable for managing a few systems or scaling out to manage hundreds of VMs across multiple Power servers.

There are other leading virtualization management platforms, notably VMware vSphere and OpenStack. We will compare and try to understand where PowerVC fits and when to choose it.

In the following section, we will explore how PowerVC, along with Service Broker and NovaLink—two critical components of IBM’s Private and Hybrid Cloud—work together to shape the overall architecture for resource deployment, and how their integration drives virtualization and cloud deployment within IBM Power Systems.

Service Broker

Service broker is a  component that allows PowerVC to integrate with IBM Cloud or other cloud platforms. It translates cloud service requests (e.g., via IBM Cloud’s Self Service Portal) into PowerVC actions. Service Broker enables cloud-native platforms to request resources.



Service brokers help manage how services are set up and used. IBM Cloud uses them to create and connect services to applications. When an application is linked to a service (called a service binding), it includes the necessary connection details, like login information. Making sure the information provided is accurate ensures the system responds correctly when a request is made.

Novalink

Novalink is a lightweight virtualization management interface. It has been developed to bridge PowerVC and PowerVM, enabling more efficient management of IBM Power Systems. PowerVM NovaLink runs on a RHEL based LPAR on a POWER8, POWER9, or Power10 processor-based system. Built on the OpenStack Nova Compute API, it offers several advantages, including improved virtual machine (VM) provisioning speed, reduced network overhead, and fine-grained resource control at the host level.



POWER8, POWER9, and Power10 processor-based systems can be co-managed by PowerVM NovaLink and an HMC. When a managed system is co-managed by the HMC and PowerVM NovaLink, the PowerVM NovaLink or the HMC is to be set in the controller mode. Certain system management, partition management, and Capacity on Demand (CoD) tasks can be performed only from the interface that is in controller mode. For example, if PowerVM NovaLink is in the controller mode, we can run partition change operations only by using PowerVM NovaLink. If we want to run partition change operations by using the HMC, then HMC is to be set in controller mode.

NovaLink is essential to IBM PowerVS, providing a modern interface for managing PowerVM. It enables scalable management of virtual machines (LPARs) by exposing an open interface to the PowerVM hypervisor. Integrated with PowerVC (IBM’s OpenStack-based management tool), NovaLink supports VM creation, network and storage provisioning, and image management.

Compared to traditional HMC-based management, NovaLink offers enhanced scalability and performance, especially in environments with a large number of VMs. It also supports REST APIs and integrates with automation tools, making it suitable for cloud-native operations. Within the PowerVS architecture, NovaLink acts as a foundational component that enables seamless and automated virtual machine provisioning and management in the cloud.

In IBM PowerVS (Power Virtual Server), the user doesn't see NovaLink directly, but IBM uses it internally to automate provisioning of VMs, enable self-service via the PowerVS portal and API and provide live migration, image import/export, and other advanced VM features.

How They Work Together (Architecture Flow)

1. Infrastructure Setup (Base Layer)
IBM Power Systems servers are set up with PowerVM as the hypervisor.
NovaLink is installed on each Power server. It enables OpenStack-based APIs for PowerVC to manage VMs and resources directly on that host.

2. PowerVC + NovaLink
PowerVC communicates with NovaLink to manage virtualization resources.
Examples: create VMs, assign resources, manage networks/storage.
NovaLink translates OpenStack API calls from PowerVC into actions on PowerVM.
This removes the need for an HMC for most virtualization operations (HMC is still used for firmware and partition boot operations in some cases).

3. Service Broker Layer
The Service Broker integrates with PowerVC using its REST APIs or OpenStack APIs.
The Broker is registered with a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) system like Red Hat OpenShift, exposing VM provisioning as a self-service offering.

4. Developer/DevOps Consumption Flow
A developer uses a service catalog UI (e.g., OpenShift or IBM Cloud Pak) to request infrastructure services (e.g., a new VM).
The Service Broker receives the request, translates it to a PowerVC API call.
PowerVC, in turn, manages the creation of the VM using NovaLink to interact with PowerVM on the Power host.

Real-world Use Case Example

A user submits a VM creation request from a Cloud Self-Service Portal → The Service Broker translates it into a PowerVC API call → PowerVC issues the VM deploy command → NovaLink interfaces directly with PowerVM to provision the VM on the physical Power server.

References:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/power10/9105-42A?topic=environment-powervm-novalink
https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/sell?topic=sell-how-it-works&interface=ui