Some Insight Into the HMC-to-SDMC Transition

May 2, 2011 Timothy Prickett Morgan

Two weeks ago, I told you about how IBM was replacing the Hardware Management Console (HMC) for rack and tower Power-based servers with a new console called the Systems Director Management Console (SDMC) that would add BladeCenter chassis and Power-based blades to the mix with converged Systems Director-HMC functionality.

I received an interesting comment on the SDMC from a reader of The Four Hundred and also stumbled on a roadmap for the HMC-to-SDMC transition that spreads a little more light on Big Blue’s plans that its announcement April 12 did.

First, the reader comment:

Is it just me or is this a bit steep as a requirement for a management client? “If you run the SDMC as a virtual appliance on top of ESXi or KVM, you need a quad-core processor E5630 processor running at 2.53 GHz (or a faster one), 6 GB of main memory, and 500 GB of disk capacity.”

I think if it was my VMware farm, I’d be thin-provisioning that since I know I can run the HMC 7.7.2 in VirtualBox on my laptop and it’s as fast as the 7310-CR3 or CR4 with only 1 GB RAM and a single core assigned and it only needs around 10 GB for a base install of the code. Maybe it slows down a lot when fully loaded though, otherwise, if I was a cynic, I’d say that those specs are solely to make IBM’s sale of an entire server to run the software seem reasonable. Luckily, I believe everything IBM tells me, so I’d never suggest that:|

–Richard

The hypervisor console racket is just that, a racket, and all of the suppliers are milking it. In the case of the hypervisors from VMware, Citrix Systems, and Red Hat–that’s the ESXi, XenServer, and KVM hypervisors, respectively–all of the functionality is actually built into the hypervisor and the console is merely used to allow access to it and to do configuration and monitoring. Over at VMware, you shell out $4,369 per socket for vSphere Enterprise Plus, the basic usable, enterprise-class version of ESX with live migration, thin provisioning, and other features you need. The vCenter console costs $6,244 just for the software, and if you want to cluster together a bunch of vCenters to make a private cloud with a self-service portal, capacity planning, and the vCloud Director fabric, add another $325 per virtual machine on top of that. When you do the math, it takes about a third of the budget to buy fat servers for a private cloud, another third for the basic hypervisors from VMware, and another third for the vCloud Director extensions. And we’re talking about around $1,000 per VM. And that doesn’t include the cost of operating systems, middleware, databases, storage, and networking. That is virtualized servers with cloud extensions.

It’s good money, if you can get it.

Now, back to the SDMC. Here’s what the roadmap looks like:

As you can see, IBM eventually plans to move the SDMC microcode to a Power-based console in the second half of 2012, which is an interesting development, making it truly an all-Power solution, top to bottom. Support for the future Power7+ servers is also expected in the SDMC in 2012, if the scale on this roadmap is correct. (And you have to be careful assuming that it is.) Around the same time, the HMC microcode will be tweaked to support the Power7+ machines as well as Single Root I/O Virtualization, a PCI-Express bus standard that allows multiple operating systems to share a single PCI peripheral device. Obviously, the HMC or SDMC needs to control how this works.

The Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM), a baby console that IBM created to spawn simple Linux partitions on Power-based machines, is embedded in the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), which is itself a cut-down AIX kernel made to run peripheral drivers n that can be accessed by other logical partitions on a Power-based server. IVM works on Power7 servers and will be enhanced to support Power7+ machines, but its future beyond that seems to be in question. IBM has not yet decided if IVM will work on future Power8 machines. The HMC will not work on Power8 machines.

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Do the Math When Looking at IBM i Hosting for Cost Savings

COVID-19 has accelerated certain business trends that were already gaining strength prior to the start of the pandemic. E-commerce, telehealth, and video conferencing are some of the most obvious examples. One example that may not be as obvious to the general public but has a profound impact on business is the shift in strategy of IBM i infrastructure from traditional, on-premises environments to some form of remote configuration. These remote configurations and all of their variations are broadly referred to in the community as IBM i hosting.

“Hosting” in this context can mean different things to different people, and in general, hosting refers to one of two scenarios. In the first scenario, hosting can refer to a client owned machine that is housed in a co-location facility (commonly called a co-lo for short) where the data center provides traditional system administrator services, relieving the client of administrative and operational responsibilities. In the second scenario, hosting can refer to an MSP owned machine in which partition resources are provided to the client in an on-demand capacity. This scenario allows the client to completely outsource all aspects of Power Systems hardware and the IBM i operating system and database.

The scenario that is best for each business depends on a number of factors and is largely up for debate. In most cases, pursuing hosting purely as a cost saving strategy is a dead end. Furthermore, when you consider all of the costs associated with maintaining and IBM i environment, it is typically not a cost-effective option for the small to midsize market. The most cost-effective approach for these organizations is often a combination of a client owned and maintained system (either on-prem or in a co-lo) with cloud backup and disaster-recovery-as-a-service. Only in some cases of larger enterprise companies can a hosting strategy start to become a potentially cost-effective option.

However, cost savings is just one part of the story. As IBM i expertise becomes scarce and IT resources run tight, the only option for some firms may be to pursue hosting in some capacity. Whatever the driving force for pursing hosting may be, the key point is that it is not just simply an option for running your workload in a different location. There are many details to consider and it is to the best interest of the client to work with an experienced MSP in weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each option. As COVID-19 rolls on, time will tell if IBM i hosting strategies will follow the other strong business trends of the pandemic.

When we say do the math in the title above, it literally means that you need to do the math for your particular scenario. It is not about us doing the math for you, making a case for either staying on premises or for moving to the cloud. There is not one answer, but just different levels of cost to be reckoned which yield different answers. Most IBM i shops have fairly static workloads, at least measured against the larger mix of stuff on the public clouds of the world. How do you measure the value of controlling your own IT fate? That will only be fully recognized at the moment when it is sorely missed the most.

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