PowerVC

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France
-----------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Thanks Thierry,

Appreciate your feedback. 

How does the licensing work with HA? E.g., PowerVC for Private Cloud if we were to deploy a 2 or 3 node solution, please?

Regards,

Sasi

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 03, 2023 02:38 AM
From: Thierry Huche
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Hi,

To deploy PowerVC in a 3 nodes configuration, you need a High Availability Red Hat subscription.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=center-installing-power-virtualization-from-download

Installing PowerVC

1. Configure these repositories for RHEL.
   1. Yum repository for PowerVC install through RHN and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • AppStream
      • BaseOS
      • Supplementary
      • High Availability (HA repo is not available with standard RHEL subscription. For subscription details, see Red Hat^® Enterprise Linux^® High Availability Add-On ).

Thanks Thierry,

Appreciate your feedback. 

How does the licensing work with HA? E.g., PowerVC for Private Cloud if we were to deploy a 2 or 3 node solution, please?

Regards,

Sasi

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 03, 2023 02:38 AM
From: Thierry Huche
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Hi Thierry Huché,

One question? What's the recommendation on hosting the PowerVC nodes on a PowerVM host? I am weighing up the options currently.

Regards,

Sasi

Hi,

To deploy PowerVC in a 3 nodes configuration, you need a High Availability Red Hat subscription.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=center-installing-power-virtualization-from-download

Installing PowerVC

1. Configure these repositories for RHEL.
   1. Yum repository for PowerVC install through RHN and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • AppStream
      • BaseOS
      • Supplementary
      • High Availability (HA repo is not available with standard RHEL subscription. For subscription details, see Red Hat^® Enterprise Linux^® High Availability Add-On ).

Thanks Thierry,

Appreciate your feedback. 

How does the licensing work with HA? E.g., PowerVC for Private Cloud if we were to deploy a 2 or 3 node solution, please?

Regards,

Sasi

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 03, 2023 02:38 AM
From: Thierry Huche
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Hi Thierry Huché,

One question? What's the recommendation on hosting the PowerVC nodes on a PowerVM host? I am weighing up the options currently.

Regards,

Sasi

Hi,

To deploy PowerVC in a 3 nodes configuration, you need a High Availability Red Hat subscription.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=center-installing-power-virtualization-from-download

Installing PowerVC

1. Configure these repositories for RHEL.
   1. Yum repository for PowerVC install through RHN and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • AppStream
      • BaseOS
      • Supplementary
      • High Availability (HA repo is not available with standard RHEL subscription. For subscription details, see Red Hat^® Enterprise Linux^® High Availability Add-On ).

Thanks Thierry,

Appreciate your feedback. 

How does the licensing work with HA? E.g., PowerVC for Private Cloud if we were to deploy a 2 or 3 node solution, please?

Regards,

Sasi

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 03, 2023 02:38 AM
From: Thierry Huche
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Having recently implemented PowerVC 2.1.1 on X86 VMs (VMWare), with some of what we've learned about it I would now preference putting it on Power.  We have discussed moving it over to Power as part of future evolution of our environment.

Hi Thierry Huché,

One question? What's the recommendation on hosting the PowerVC nodes on a PowerVM host? I am weighing up the options currently.

Regards,

Sasi

Hi,

To deploy PowerVC in a 3 nodes configuration, you need a High Availability Red Hat subscription.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=center-installing-power-virtualization-from-download

Installing PowerVC

1. Configure these repositories for RHEL.
   1. Yum repository for PowerVC install through RHN and make sure that the following repos are enabled.
      • AppStream
      • BaseOS
      • Supplementary
      • High Availability (HA repo is not available with standard RHEL subscription. For subscription details, see Red Hat^® Enterprise Linux^® High Availability Add-On ).

Thanks Thierry,

Appreciate your feedback. 

How does the licensing work with HA? E.g., PowerVC for Private Cloud if we were to deploy a 2 or 3 node solution, please?

Regards,

Sasi

Original Message:
Sent: Tue October 03, 2023 02:38 AM
From: Thierry Huche
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hi,

PowerVC since version 2.0.2  release support for three-node architecture, the multi-node deployment provide HA solution.

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/powervc/2.1.1?topic=powervc-high-availability-scale-architecture

This deployment provides a solution such that most of the services run in Active-Active mode that is monitored by Pacemaker.

The PowerVC HA deployment is accessible through a virtual IP address (VIP) that internally routes the request to one of the three PowerVC management nodes.

------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Thierry Huché
Power Systems Brand Technical Specialist
IBM France

Original Message:
Sent: Mon October 02, 2023 10:48 PM
From: Sasi Chand
Subject: PowerVC - Brand New Installation and Setup

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

------------------------------
[Sasi] [Chand] [Mr]
[Snr Engineer]
[Auckland] [Wellington]
------------------------------

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

Sasi,

What I am about to say is hardly an official position of IBM on the PowerVC product. But...

 The HA architecture afforded by PowerVC v2.1+ is less about protection from unreliable HW and more about horizontal scaling. I don't recall ever having some type of "failure" on our x86 Linux servers (though it certainly could happen). You are far more likely to experience software defects and/or configuration issues. For modest sized environments like the one you describe, you could probably have adequate performance from a singleton cluster configuration.

This is what we have elected to do. One thing you will have to be prepared for is how to manage upgrades to your environment. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, there's a LOT of moving parts to PowerVC/Openstack/certificates/firmware/etc.! So with the objective of "continuity of operations" in mind, we have two x86 servers on which PowerVC is installed and configured. One is the primary instance (with the latest backup performed daily) and the other is a secondary (or standby) instance (no backup is sensible). This allows us to have continuity of operations on the active instance while we are performing upgrades on the standby instance. Once the upgrades on the standby instance are complete and validated through testing, only then do we import the latest backup from the primary instance. The standby instance is now made the primary instance while the same upgrade steps are repeated on the standby (previously active) instance. Given that we have run into numerous cases wherein the upgrade operations have gone awry, this strategy has proven to repeatedly pay dividends by always having an operable instance of PowerVC for on-going provisioning work. Food for thought.

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc

Sasi,

What I am about to say is hardly an official position of IBM on the PowerVC product. But...

 The HA architecture afforded by PowerVC v2.1+ is less about protection from unreliable HW and more about horizontal scaling. I don't recall ever having some type of "failure" on our x86 Linux servers (though it certainly could happen). You are far more likely to experience software defects and/or configuration issues. For modest sized environments like the one you describe, you could probably have adequate performance from a singleton cluster configuration.

This is what we have elected to do. One thing you will have to be prepared for is how to manage upgrades to your environment. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, there's a LOT of moving parts to PowerVC/Openstack/certificates/firmware/etc.! So with the objective of "continuity of operations" in mind, we have two x86 servers on which PowerVC is installed and configured. One is the primary instance (with the latest backup performed daily) and the other is a secondary (or standby) instance (no backup is sensible). This allows us to have continuity of operations on the active instance while we are performing upgrades on the standby instance. Once the upgrades on the standby instance are complete and validated through testing, only then do we import the latest backup from the primary instance. The standby instance is now made the primary instance while the same upgrade steps are repeated on the standby (previously active) instance. Given that we have run into numerous cases wherein the upgrade operations have gone awry, this strategy has proven to repeatedly pay dividends by always having an operable instance of PowerVC for on-going provisioning work. Food for thought.

Hello there.

I am in a process of scoping a setup for PowerVC (Latest Version) and l am looking for some ideas/best practices. The main points are

1. To deploy PowerVC in an existing environment which currently HMC managed
2. Deploy PowerVC with HMC, no Nova!
3. Number of managed systems (Hosts) Less then 10, from Power 10, 9 and 8s
4. Number of VMs less then 100
5. IBM Storage, mostly storwize
6. Mix of SAN Fabrics (Cisco and Brocades)

My main question: I would also like to understand the redundancy components of PowerVC, most documents cover a single instance of PowerVC with backup and restore. What's the best way of having it highly available?

Warm Regards,

--

sc