At my office in southern MN, it's lovely outside - all the trees are covered with a light sheen of frost and all the dead grass is covered in ankle-deep snow, but the picturesque view comes with perils, such as trying to walk across an icy parking lot fast enough so my face doesn't freeze. I don't know about you, but I need something to warm me up. Maybe something that makes me jump up and down with excitement - and I've found just the thing. Yes, it's finally here - the day that everyone, young and old, has been anticipating for the past several months - PowerVC 1.4.2 release day! (You may now jump up and down with excitement. It will also warm you up if your eyes are in danger of freezing shut.)
Here are the highlights of some of the exciting new functions included in the new release:
- SR-IOV support via HMC
SR-IOV is now supported on HMC managed systems, as well as NovaLink managed systems.
- Automated storage port load balancing
You can specify port groups on storage templates to ensure port load balancing. NPIV-attached volumes that are associated with the storage template will be zoned using iterated port groups to achieve load balancing on ports, modules, and controllers. Port groups can be created and set through the user interface for IBM Storwize, System Storage DS8000, and IBM XIV Storage System storage templates. For pluggable storage, you can use APIs.
- Create a copy of a storage template
You can't change a storage template that is already being used. However, you can make a copy, update the copy, and start using the updated storage template. To create a copy, on the Storage Templates page, select the template, and click Create copy.
- AIX Secure Boot
Secure boot is supported on POWER9 systems running AIX 7.2 TL3. When secure boot is enabled, the system stack layers (firmware, operating system, and applications) are given signed certificates that are verified on startup. If verification fails, the system is not started. Secure boot is enabled by using a compute template.
- Fibre Channel tape pluggable driver
With PowerVC 1.4.2, you can register a special zoning Tape volume provider. Attaching a "placeholder" tape volume using this provider will zone pre-defined storage ports with the virtual machine, allowing it to access any tape volumes mapped to the virtual machine outside of PowerVC.
- Nova Availability Zones
Similar to host aggregates (which PowerVC calls host groups), availability zones are logical groupings of hosts. Cloud orchestration products like IBM Cloud Private and vRealize Automation need a construct for defining availability zones. This feature is enabled in PowerVC via APIs.
- VMAX REST storage driver technical preview
This technical preview supports the Dell EMC VMAX storage driver that is managed through REST/Unisphere instead of an SMI-S Provider. The SMI-S based driver is still supported, but will be removed in a future release. This function is available with every PowerVC install.
- Usability Improvements
You can now customize the columns that you see and the order that you see them in on the main Virtual Machines, Volumes, and Images pages.
If you have authority to multiple projects, you can select the project you want to work with when you first log in.
And where would a new version of PowerVC be without a new version of the Knowledge Center? You can learn about all the above functions and more here:
So stop reading this blog and go update PowerVC right away! If you haven't already joined us, make sure you never miss an announcement, video, blog, or tip again by joining the PowerVC family on one of our social outlets: Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
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