IBM Cloud Power Systems Virtual Servers is an IaaS offering allowing rapid deployment of virtual servers with customizable options such as cores, memory, and storage in select locations. It supports AIX and IBM i operating systems, offering both shared and dedicated processor pricing models, and emphasizes secure access management through SSH keys. The service includes high availability features, backup options, and both public and private network connectivity, but lacks a native monitoring solution.

1. IBM Cloud Power Systems
Virtual Servers
Nagesh Ramamoorthy

2. Overview
• IBM® Power Systems™ Virtual Server on IBM Cloud is an infrastructure as a service offering that you can use to
deploy a virtual server, also known as a logical partition (LPAR), in a matter of minutes.
• Power Systems Virtual Server service as a container for all Power Systems Virtual Server instances at a specific
geographic location
• Available in Dallas , Frankfurt and Washington DC locations only.
• You can configure and customize the following options when you create a Power Systems Virtual Server:
• Number of virtual server instances
• Number of cores
• Amount of memory
• Data volume size and type (HDD or SSD)
• Private or public network

3. Host System
The following IBM Power Systems hardware hosts the Power Systems Virtual
Server:
Compute:
Power System E880 (9119-MHE)
9 TB memory
8 x 16 Gigabit PCI Express Dual-port Fibre Channel (FC)
10 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet-SR PCI Express Dual-port
Power System S922 (9009-22A)
384 GB memory
2 x 16 Gigabit PCI Express Dual-port FC
3 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet-SR PCI Express Dual-port
Storage:
Storewize V7000F(2076-AF6) Dual Controller
Storwize V7000 (2076-624) Dual Controller
Network:
Cisco Nexus9000 93180YC-EX (10G)
Cisco Nexus9000 C9348GC-FXP (1G)

4. OS Images
• Supports AIX and IBM I operating systems.
• The versions of OS supported depends on the Host system
• You can bring your own custom AIX or IBM i operating system image that you have
previously deployed and tested.
• Custom Images has to uploaded in the object storage to use during the VM creation.
• Stock images include only AIX 7.1 and AIX 7.2 for AIX.
• After you provision the virtual server in the cloud, it is your responsibility to make
sure that the AIX or IBM i operating system is secure.
• By using the Power Systems Virtual Server service, you do not have access to the
HMC, VIOS, and the host system

5. Pricing and Billing
• The Power Systems Virtual Server uses a monthly billing rate that includes the
licenses for the AIX and IBM i operating systems.
• The monthly billing rate is pro-rated by the hour based on the resources that are
deployed to the Power Systems Virtual Server instance for the month.
• You can also bring your own custom image to use on a Power Systems Virtual
Server instance, but you must still purchase an operating system license for IBM
Cloud.
• Shared processor costs far less than the dedicated processor option. Dedicated
processor $766 for 1 core , 2 GB and shared processor $142 for 1 core , 2 GB

6. Access Management
• SSH keys is the only default way of authenticating to the AIX OS
• The IBM Power Systems Virtual Server on IBM Cloud authorization and resource
management practices coordinate with the IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management
(IAM) services.
• Platform Roles and its associated allowed actions:
• Editor: View instances, list instances, create instances, and delete instances.
• Administrator: View instances, list instances, create instances, delete instances, and
assign policies to other users.
• Service Roles and its associated allowed actions:
• Manager: Create instances , Increase storage volume sizes, Create SSH keys, Modify
network settings, Create boot images, Delete storage volumes

7. High Availability, Backup/Restore
• IBM Cloud Power VS supports VM “capture and export” option which allows to take the
snapshot of the VM disks to object storage or Image catalog
• We can use AIX native “mksysb” backup and "alt_disk_mksysb" feature to perform
backups / restore.
• When a virtual server has failed , the VM is automatically migrated to a newer healthy
host . This provides a basic HA functionality.
• To provide higher availability options, we need to use PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX
Standard Edition solution.
• In order to use the PowerHA SystemsMirror, we need use "different server" colocation
option while creating the VM and choose "shareable" block storage disks.

8. Monitoring , Console, Resize and Activity
Tracker
• Power Systems virtual server events are logged to Activity tracker with LogDNA
instance
• We get the console option from the GUI including the SMS menu without the
need of a HMC.
• There is no native Monitoring solution for Power virtual servers.
• We can resize a VM’s CPU , Memory and Block disk size after its initial creation. (
We need to test this capability in detail comparing an Active and In-Active VM)

9. N/W
Connectivity to
Power Virtual
servers
IBM Cloud provides both Public
and Private network connectivity
to Power VMs

10. Connectivity: Public Network
• Easy and quick method to connect to a Power Systems Virtual Server instance.
• IBM configures the network infrastructure to enable a secure public network connection
from the internet to the Power Systems Virtual Server instance.
• Connectivity is implemented by using an IBM Cloud Virtual Router Appliance (VRA) and a
Direct Link Connect connection.
• Protected by firewall and supports the following secure network protocols:
• SSH
• HTTPS
• Ping
• IBM i 5250 terminal emulation with SSL (port 992)

11. Connectivity : Private Network
• Allows the resources for your Power Systems Virtual Server instance to access existing
IBM Cloud resources, such as Bare Metal Servers, Kubernetes containers, or cloud
storage.
• Required for communication between different Power Systems Virtual Server instances.
• Provides two ways to get connected privately
• Option 1: A) Order Direct connect link through IBM cloud catalogue , B) open a case
support create the connection C) Connect from Classic via VRA device.
• Option 2) You can connect directly to the IBM Cloud Power infrastructure through
Megaport exchange. You must engage Megaport directly to procure the bandwidth.
You must also open a secondary ticket with IBM Power to perform the connection.