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Virtualization Accessments
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Added by Nigel Griffiths, last edited by Nigel Griffiths on Nov 21, 2006  (view change)
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Virtualization Assessments

The postings on this site solely reflect the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of IBM or IBM management.

  • This is currently a work in progress
  • If you would like to help out - that would be really good
  • Feel free to leave comments at the bottom in the "comments" section*

This page is aimed at letting you decide how ready you are for Advanced Power Virtualization (APV), what you need to focus on, how far along the road of implementing APV and getting the full benefits. You will end up with 5 ratings for the 5 stages of implementing APV which are:

Stage Details
1 Readiness before starting Virtualization
2 Virtualization Background
3 Virtualization APV Product Information
4 Basic Virtualization with a) a HMC or b) IVM
5 Advanced Virtualization with a HMC

Via the scoring system these levels are socred as:

Level Comments
None Not ready or implemented APV
Bronze A start but further commitment and time needed
Silver Good but some work needed to full get the benefits
Gold Ready and able to implemnt or making good use of APV

A later review (say 6 months) should reveal how far you have as a company or individually you have prgressed.

There are two assessments below for:

  1. Companies or organisations to decide their readiness for APV, the current use of APV and to plan any improvements
  2. Individuals to decide their skills levels and what should be done to improve them to the next stage

Company Assessment

Company Stage 1 - Readiness before starting Virtualization

Scoring:

  • Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.
    For the below 6 questions only:
  • If you are only implementing one of AIX or Linux cover just those questions and give yourself one point for per answer but if you are implementing both AIX and Linux on POWER then score half a point and answer both sections.

Assessment questions:

  • If installing AIX
    • 1. Have you 2 years or more hands-on AIX Systems Administration expertise?
    • 2. Do you regularly have experience of install AIX?
    • 3. Do you install AIX via a NIM Server?
    • 4. Do you download and install AIX fixes regularly?
    • 5. Do you download and update your machine and adapter firmware at least once a year?
    • 6. Is you "standard build" AIX 5.3 ML3 or higher?
  • If installing Linux on POWER
    • 1. Have you 2 years or more hands-on Linux Systems Administration expertise?
    • 2. Do you regularly have experience of install Linux on POWER systems?
    • 3. Do you install Linux via a Network Installer?
    • 4. Do you have access to Linux updates, service packs and install them at least once a year?
    • 5. Is you "standard build" Red Hat 4 update 4 or SUSE SLES 9 service pack 3 or higher?
    • 6. If not Red Hat or SUSE are you regularly updating to the current release?
  • 7. Have you paid for UNIX support and know how to make immediate support requests and the procedure?
  • 8. Do you have clearly documented escalation proceeses?
  • 9. Do you have clearly documented change control procedures?
  • 10. Do you test updates before including them in production machines?
  • 11. Do you have full backup and disaster recovery plans that have been tested?

Bonus points:

  • 12. Do you run any POWER4 or POWER5 based machines?
  • 13. Do you already use a HMC and Logical Partitions (LPAR)?
  • 14. Have you booked three or more people on AIX or Linux system administration education this year?
  • 15. Do you encourage employees to read Systems Administration books like the IBM Redbooks or the O'Reilly book?
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 5 – none – You are not ready for Virtualisation, you need to drasically improve your skills and processes or buy in skills in on a permanant basis
6 to 8 Bronze Note the no answers and develop plans now to correct these gaps, fix the easy ones immediately and the others ASAP you are not ready for Virtualization but could be a 2 to 3 months
9 to 11 Silver You are on the way, make a note of where the holes are and make plans to improve these BEFORE implimenting Virtualisation
12 to 15 Gold Well done - you are ready to make good use of Virtualisation

Company Stage 2 - Virtualization Background

This section is to establish your company understands the general principles, background understanding of Virtualization and has clear expectations of what the goals are for implementing this technology.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  • 1. Can you explain why the IT industry is so exited about virtualization in 5 minutes or 300 words?
  • 2. Have you a written description of the computing resources that you intend to Virtualize?
  • 3. Have you a clear statement of what you aim to acheive with the introduction on Virtualization technology?
  • 4. What is the problem or "pain points" you are addressing with Virtualisation?
  • 5. Can you state how Virtualization saves money?
  • 6. Can you state how Virtualization saves time?
  • 7. Can you state how Virtualization increases flexibility?
  • 8. Can you state how Virtualization reduces time to market i.e. a rapid response to new requirements?
  • 9. Have you a list of what is not expected to change with the adoption of Virtualization?
  • 10. Have you defined your expectations of the time to a) implement, 2) test, 3) get into use in production, this new technology?
  • 11. Have you made an assessment of alternative Virtualisation technologyies and understand their strentgths and weaknesses?
  • 12. Have you costed the non-Virtualisation option?
  • 13. How many of the following papers have you read?
  • 14. Have you read the Virtualisation papers below (up to three points)
    • The Business Case for IBM System p5 Virtualization-(Link) ?
    • Server Partitioning Unplugged - What Businesses Need to Know About IBM System p LPAR solutions-(Link) ?
    • Online article The POWER Behind Virtualization (Link)?
    • IBM Systems Magazine article "Virtual Explanation"-(Link)?
    • IBM Systems Magazine article "A Powerful Direction"-(Link)?
  • 15. Have you read two or more of the sixteen Virtualization Case Studies at (Link) ? (up to two points)
  • 16. Does you CIO or Directors have Virtualization on their agenda?
  • 17. Do you want to "raise your game" with Virtualisation as opposted to "fire fighting"?
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 5 – none – You need to do more "home work" and background reading or buy in solution consultant to advise you
6 to 9 Bronze Carry on reading and planning, you are not ready for Virtualization but could be a month
10 to 14 Silver You are on the way, I recommend further reading and/or documenting your goals and plans
15 to 20 Gold Well done - you are ready to make good use of Virtualisation

Company Stage 3 - Virtualization APV Product Information

This section is to establish that you are ready ti implment System p (pSeries) specific details and solution design tasks before the hardware arrives.
Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Have you attended a Virtualization or APV briefing from IBM or an IBM Business Partner?
  2. Have you read chapter 1 of the Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 SG247940 (Link)?
  3. Have you read chapter 2 of the Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 SG247940 (Link)?
  1. Do you understand the following terms and can describe them? (up to 7 points)
    • Dedicated or Shared Processor LPAR?
    • Entitlement, Capped, Weight factor?
    • Virtual Processor?
    • SMT?
    • Virtual VIO Server?
    • PLM?
    • Dynamic LPAR?
    • HMC ?
    • Hypervisor?
  2. Can you list that components that come with the APV package?
  3. Have you printed and read the Virtual I/O Server datasheet (hardware list, software levels, end-to-end solutions) (Link)?
  4. Have you a copy of the Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM eServer p5 Servers: Architecture and Performance Considerations (Link)?
  5. Have you read the Effective System Management Using the IBM Hardware Management Console for pSeries Redbook (Link)?
  6. Have you staff that have attended the following IBM Training Instructor-Lead Classes
    • Q1373 Logical Partitioning (LPAR) and Virtualization on System p POWER5 Systems
      • Learn the skills needed to become an effective administrator on IBM's System p POWER5-based systems that support Logical Partitioning (LPAR). Learn about the features of Advanced POWER Virtualization (APV) and how to configure and manage LPARs running AIX 5L or Linux using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).
    • Q1375 AIX 5L Virtualization Performance Management
      • Learn advanced skills to measure, analyze, and tune AIX 5L subsystems for optimal performance on the IBM POWER5 processor-based systems. Focus on the features that relate to the special monitoring, configuring, performance management, and tuning needs of AIX 5L logical partitions (LPAR).
    • Q1378 APV Implementation and Best Practices
      • Learn advanced skills to plan, set up, and implement basic and advanced configurations of the Virtual Input/Output (VIO) Server and its clients including high available solutions when using the Advanced Power Virtualization features on IBM System p5 systems. Learn about the supported high available Virtual Small Computer System Interface (VSCSI) and Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN) configurations and gives the students the opportunity to implement and test some of those solutions.
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 5 – none – You need to do more work or buy in solution consultant to advise you
6 to 9 Bronze Carry on reading and/or education, you are not ready for Virtualization but could be a month
10 to 14 Silver You are on the way, I recommend further reading
15 to 18 Gold Well done - you are ready to make good use of Virtualisation

Company Stage 4a - Basic Virtualization with a HMC

This section is really an audit of the hands-on Virtualization features and techniques that I think you should be are currently using and may like to consider using. This section does not include dual VIO Servers which is in Section 5.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  • 1. Have you a pSeries or System p machine based on POWER5?

General Micro-Partition features:

  • 2. Do you have a HMC?
  • 3. Are you using LPARs?
  • 4. Are you using Shared Processor LPARs (SPLAR)?
  • 5. Have you got AIX 5.3 installed and running?
  • 6. Have you Linux installed and running and installed the IBM RAS RPMs?
  • 7. Have you got Dynamic LPAR changes working?
  • 8. Have you changed the HMC password from the default?
  • 9. Do you have a policy for Entitlement, Capping, Weight factor and Virtual Processors?

Virtual I/O features:

  • 10. Have you installed the Virtual I/O Server 1.3?
  • 11. Have you implemented a virtual Ethernet within the machine?
  • 12. Have you created and tested a Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA)?
  • 13. Are you running the VIO Server uncapped?
  • 14. Has you VIO Server got 1 GB or more memory?
  • 15. Have you setup more than one virtual SCSI disk?
  • 16. Have you got multiple disks in the VIO Server and separated the VIO Server disk and the Client disks?
  • 17. Have you got purely Virtual Client LPARs running i.e. only virtual Ethernet and virtual SCSI with no adapters?
  • 18. Have you install them over a virtual Ethernet?
  • 19. Have you PLM running or timed Dyamnamic LPAR changes from the HMC options?
  • 20. Have you an automated way to backup the VIO Server and all of the Client LPAR data?
  • 21. Have you updated the system firmware to the latest or latest minus one level?
  • 22. Have you an automated means to document your LPAR configuration for general management and disaster recovery?
  • 23. Have you move the optical or tape devices using Virtualisation?

Performance features:

  • 24. Are you monitoring performance on the LPARs and VIO Server?
  • 25. Have you automated error log notification?
  • 26. Do you know the spare CPU capacity on the machine over your busy week?
  • 27. Do you have a process to tune LPAR resources for performance or capacity harveting?
  • 28. Do you have a feedback loop to verify that Virtualization met you intital expectations?
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 9 – none – You have not really started Virtualization or need buy in hands-on consultant to advise you
10 to 17 Bronze Carry on reading and/or education, there are plenty of features that are worth adding to get the best out of Virtualisation
18 to 24 Silver You are on the way, I recommend thinking about the missing items
25+ Gold Well done - you making full use of Virtualisation

Company Stage 4b - Basic Virtualization with Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)

IVM is an alternative to the HMC approach to Virtualisation. this is suitable for models up to the p550 8 way (i.e. not p570, p575, p590 or p595). Most customers will me using either a HMC or IVM but not both. So if you have answered the HMC based questions skip this section. Although some customers find IVM is useful tool for managing for non-computer room (full locked process) proto-type and experiment type machines for testing and system administration skills development. Briefly, with the IVM the HMC type functions are running on the VIO Server on the POWER5 machine and acessed via an IVM web site on the VIO Server.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  • 1. Have you a machine based on POWER5 running IVM?

General Micro-Partition features:

  • 2. N/A
  • 3. N/A
  • 4. Are you using Shared Processor LPARs (SPLAR)?
  • 5. Have you got AIX 5.3 installed and running?
  • 6. Have you Linux installed and running and installed the IBM RAS RPMs?
  • 7. Have you got Dynamic LPAR changes working (this required VIOS 1.3)?
  • 8. Have you changed the padmin password from the default?
  • 9. Do you have a policy for Entitlement, Capping, Weight factor and Virtual Processors?

Virtual I/O features:

  • 10. Have you installed the Virtual I/O Server 1.3?
  • 11. Have you implemented a virtual Ethernet within the machine?
  • 12. Have you created and tested a Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA)?
  • 13. Are you running the VIO Server uncapped?
  • 14. Has you VIO Server got 1 GB or more memory?
  • 15. Have you setup more than one virtual SCSI disk?
  • 16. Have you got multiple disks in the VIO Server and separated the VIO Server disk and the Client disks?
  • 17. N/A
  • 18. Have you install over a virtual Ethernet?
  • 19. N/A
  • 20. Have you an automated way to backup the VIO Server and all of the Client LPAR data?
  • 21. Have you updated the system firmware to the latest or latest minus one level?
  • 23. Have you move the optical devices using IVM?

Performance features:

  • 24. Are you monitoring performance on the LPARs and VIO Server?
  • 25. Have you automated error log notification?
  • 26. Do you know the spare CPU capacity on the machine over your busy week?
  • 27. Do you have a process to tune LPAR resources for performance or capacity harveting?
  • 28. Do you have a feedback loop to verify that Virtualization met you intital expectations?
  • 29. Do you have LPARs in production?
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 9 – none – You have not really started Virtualization or need buy in hands-on consultant to advise you
10 to 17 Bronze Carry on reading and/or education, there are plenty of features that are worth adding to get the best out of Virtualisation
18 to 24 Silver You are on the way, I recommend thinking about the missing items
25+ Gold Well done - you making full use of Virtualisation

Company Stage 5 - Advanced Virtualization with a HMC

This section is an audit of the hands-on Advanced Virtualization features and techniques and in particular includes dual VIO Servers. Dual VIO Server is use primarily to allow VIO Server updates but will also help in the unlikely event of a VIO Server crash. In practice, the VIO Server has proved very reliable.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

General features

  • 1. Have you implimented Dual Virtual I/O Servers?
  • 2. Are you at the current release Virtual I/O Server 1.3, at the time of writing (Nov 2006)?

Dual Virtual I/O Server networking features:

  • 3. Have you set up both Network Interface Backup on the VIO Clients and SEA Failover on the VIO Servers (not at the same time obviously)?
  • 4. Do you know the strengths of the above two alternatives?
  • 5. Have you tested a VIO Server crash and recovery for the virtual network?
  • 6. Did you test the subsequent failure of the other VIO Server?
  • 7. Are you using Ethernet Channel at the VIO Servers for increase bandwidth and durability?

Dual Virtual I/O Server storage features:

  • 8. Have you setup shared disks using VIO Server SCSI disks
  • 9. Have you setup shared disks using VIO Server SAN disks?
  • 10. Have you tested a VIO Server crash and recovery for the virtual disks?
  • 11. Did you test the subsequent failure of the other VIO Server?
  • 12. Are you using MPIO over SAN at the VIO Servers for increase bandwidth and durability?

Advanced Features:

  • 13. Do you test the Dual VIO Servers before each update?
Scoring: Level Comments
1 to 3 – none – You have not really started Dual VIO Server Virtualization or need buy in hands-on consultant to advise you
4 to 6 Bronze Carry on reading and/or education, there are plenty of features that are worth adding to get the best out of Dual VIO Server Virtualisation
7 to 9 Silver You are on the way, I recommend thinking about the missing items
10+ Gold Well done - you making full use of Dual VIO Server Virtualisation

Individual Assessment

Individual Stage 1 - Readiness before starting Virtualization

This section is to establish if you or you orgainisation have the pre-requiste skills and background ready to take on Virtualisation. Without these skills, you should not proceed without education, hands-on exerience or services from IBM or IBM Business Partners that do have the skills. Starting on a project to use APV without these types of skill is considered high risk or may prove painful until these skills are available.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Have you have 2 years AIX expertise?
  2. Do you use smitty for systems admin work?
  3. Do you use the WebSM tool for systems adminisration of AIX machines?
  4. Have you put an AIX system on the network?
  5. Do you understand hostname, IP address, gateway, domain and DNS server terms?
  6. Have you have 2 years Linex Expertise?
  7. Have you updated the firmware on pSeries or System p machines?
  8. Do you use NIM to install AIX?
  9. Do you use NIM to install other software?
  10. Do you use NIM to recover from failures?
  11. Do you know the website to download firmware?
  12. Do you know the way to check if there are AIX fixes not on your copy of AIX?
  13. Do you know the command to find out the AIX version, release and maintainance or technlogy level?
  14. Can you find a pSeries or System p Diagnostics CDROM?
  15. Are you using the latest or latest but one AIX Maintance Level?
  16. Do you update your firmware and AIX Level once every a year?
  17. Do you use a HMC already?
  18. Do you use Logical Partitions (LPAR) on other POWER machines already?
  19. Do you use Dynamic LPAR changes already?
  20. Do you understand what a Hypervisor does in broad terms?
  21. Can you describe the value of a service processor?
  22. How are virtual memory and paging space related?

Individual Stage 2 - Virtualization Background

This sectionis to establish if you have the background understanding of Virtualization to proceed to the actually implement it.

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Can you explain why the IT industry is so exited about virtualization?
  2. Have you read the Technical Reasons for Virtualisation (Link)?
  3. Have you read the Business Case for IBM System p5 Virtualization (Link)?
  4. Can you state how Virtualization saves money?
  5. Can you state how Virtualization saves time?
  6. Can you state how Virtualization increases flexibility?
  7. Have you read the report "Server Partitioning Unplugged - What Businesses Need to Know About IBM System p LPAR solutions" (Link) ?
  8. Have you visited the Advanced POWER Virtualization Overview website (Link) ?
  9. Have you read a whitepaper on Virtualisation (particularly from the above website)?
  10. Have you read a Case Study on Virtualisation (particularly from the above website)?
  11. Have you read an Analyst Report on Virtualisation (particularly from the above website)?
  12. Have you read the IBM Systems Magazine on Virtualization Explained (take like from the above web site)?
  13. Have you read the Virtualization Security and Integrity in the IBM POWER5 Environment whitepaper? (Link) ?
  14. Have you read the first half of the whitepaper POWER5 virtualization: How to set up the IBM Virtual I/O Server (Link) ?
  15. Have you read the whitepaper "IBM p5 570 Server Consolidation Using POWER5 Virtualization White Paper" (Link)?
  16. Have you read the whitepaper "IBM eServer p5 570 Workload Balancing Using POWER5 Virtualization" (Link)?

Individual Stage 3 - Virtualization APV Product Information

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Have you attended a Virtualization briefing from IBM or an IBM Business Partner?
  2. Have you read chapter 1 of the IBM APV Introduction Redbook SG247940?
  3. Do you understant the term Shared Processor LPAR?
  4. Do you understand the terms Entitlement, Capped, Weight factor?
  5. Do you understand the term Virtual Processor?
  6. Do you know the components that come with the APV package?
  7. Have you printed and read the Virtual I/O Server datasheet (hardware list, software levels, end-to-end solutions) (Link)?
  8. Have you read the Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 Redbook (Link)?
  9. Have you read the Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM eServer p5 Servers: Architecture and Performance Considerations (Link)?
  10. Have you read the Effective System Management Using the IBM Hardware Management Console for pSeries Redbook (Link)?

Individual Stage 4a - Basic Virtualization with a HMC

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Have you a printed copy of the "Using Virtual I/O Server Manual" (Link)?
  2. Have you read the "VIOS Commands Reference Manual" (Link)?
  3. Have you read the IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization Best Practices Redbook (Link)?
  4. Have you read the IVM Wiki and Advanced Hints and Tips (Link)?
  1. Have you a printed copy of the "Using Virtual I/O Server Manual" (Link)?
  2. Have you read the "VIOS Commands Reference Manual" (Link)?
  3. Have you read the IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization Best Practices Redbook (Link)?
  4. Have you read the Virtualization Security and Integrity in the IBM POWER5 Environment whitepaper? (Link) ?
  5. Have you read the first half of the whitepaper POWER5 virtualization: How to set up the IBM Virtual I/O Server (Link) ?
  6. Have you read the whitepaper "IBM p5 570 Server Consolidation Using POWER5 Virtualization White Paper" (Link)?
  7. Have you read the whitepaper "IBM eServer p5 570 Workload Balancing Using POWER5 Virtualization" (Link)?
  8. Have you read the Technical Reasons for Virtualisation (Link)?

Individual Stage 4b - Basic Virtualization with IVM

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. Have you read the IVM Wiki and Advanced Hints and Tips (Link)?
  2. Have you read cover to cover the IVM Redbook (Link)?
  3. Have you checked the Virtualisation Best Practice Wiki (Link)?
  4. Have you taken a look at the Virtualization Forum for hint and tips (Link)?

Individual Stage 5 - Advanced Virtualization with a HMC

Give yourself one point for each yes answer - answer either for yourself or for you immediate group of technical folk.

  1. xxx

Comments and Feedback

  1. your comments here, please

The postings on this site solely reflect the personal views of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of IBM or IBM management.
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