IBM pumps up Linux virtual mainframe machines

z/VM operating system now scales across 32 processor units.

By Jennifer Mears, Framingham | Thursday, 08 February 2007
Organisations running Linux in virtual machines on the mainframe will soon be able to throw more workloads onto the system thanks to an update to the z/VM operating system that now scales across 32 processor units, compared to the previous version that scaled to 24.

The new release, z/VM version 5.3, is expected to begin shipping on June 29. However, IBM detailed updates to the operating system on Tuesday.

IBM says that in internal tests z/VM 5.3 was able to host more than 1000 virtual images on a single copy of the operating system. The enhanced scalability comes as a result of larger logical partitions that are supported within the new operating system.

A single partition within z/VM 5.3, for example, can be configured with more than 128GB of storage and run across as many as 32 processor units. In addition, combined with Linux, z/VM better manages memory allowing virtual workloads to use memory more efficiently.

By improving the scalability of z/VM, IBM is eliminating the need of System z customers to spread virtual workloads across multiple copies of z/VM. The operating system also hosts non-Linux workloads running in mainframe operating systems such as z/OS, z/VSE and z/TPF.

Other updates in z/VM 5.3 include improved security with the addition of a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol server and associated client services.