Top IBM Power Systems myths: Linux on x/86 is different from Linux on Power

There are many misconceptions about IBM Power Systems in the marketplace today, and this blog series is all about dispelling some of the top myths. In the last post, I put aside the myth that IBM Power Systems has no cloud strategy. In this post, we’ll look at a myth that has been propagated by many of our x/86-based competitors and consultants. This myth wants you to believe that if you invest in a Linux on IBM Power Systems solution, you’ll be getting an inferior product, one that’s not “real” Linux, or that your applications won’t work the way they should.

There is one aspect of this myth that’s true. Linux on Power solutions are:

◈ Almost always faster
◈ More reliable
◈ Usually smaller (require fewer cores and fewer physical systems)
◈ More secure

In all other aspects, from Linux distributions and release levels to system management and monitoring tools and development environments, they are the same.

Consider the following points:

Endianness

Not long ago, there was a difference between Power and x/86 based systems that affected not only Linux distributions but all operating systems, applications and databases that ran on those systems. Our industry borrowed from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, using the terms “big endian” and “little endian” to describe the way computers represent data. x/86 systems have always been “little endian” and Power was always “big endian.” That caused a problem because software created for little endian systems could not run on big endian systems without modification, and vice versa.

In April 2104, IBM announced little endian (LE) support for POWER8, and today all of our POWER9 systems support a 64-bit LE environment.

While LE support removes the endian differences, LE code compiled for an x/86 system needs to be recompiled for a Power-based LE system.

Linux distributions

There are hundreds of Linux-based distributions available in the market today. While many can run on IBM Power Systems, IBM officially supports RedHat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Community versions of Linux like Debian, openSUSE, CentOS, Fedora and others are also available.

These distributions are built around a package management system and include the Linux kernel, Gnu shell utilities, system management tools, a desktop environment as well as open source software and sometimes proprietary packages.

There are Linux distributions with features designed to take advantage of some of the unique capabilities of IBM Power Systems architecture, and the startup process for a Linux distribution may be a bit different between x/86 and Power. However, once it is installed the features and functionality are identical.

Virtualization options

There are usually several options for virtualization within a Linux distribution. KVM is the default option for Ubuntu and is the foundation for Red Hat virtualization. PowerVM is the only virtualization option for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 at this time. KVM on Power and RHEV options provide the same functionality on Power as they do on an x/86 platform, while PowerVM is designed to take advantage of IBM Power architecture.

System administration and monitoring tools

All Linux distributions supported on IBM Power platforms provide system administration and monitoring tools. Cockpit, Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) and NMAP are examples of the tools provided by Red Hat. SUSE Linux Enterprise server supplies an advanced system management module that includes CFEngine, Puppet, Salt and The Machinery Tool. Landscape is Ubuntu’s systems management package.

There are many open source and proprietary solutions available like Chef, JuJu, Ansible, Wireshark and countless others that can be added to a Linux distribution. In fact, the top five open source tools for Linux systems administration are available on Power Linux systems providing the same level of functionality and support as they do for x/86 based systems.

Application development environments

Linux on Power solutions have all of the tools developers need to build their application portfolios. For example:

◈ Container management solutions like Docker, Kubernetes and Rancher

◈ Programming languages including Python, php, Ruby, Scala, Java, Erlang and C/C++

◈ Atom, Bluefish, Eclipse, Netbeans, Geany, AnJuta and Glade—all considered to be the top integrated development environments

◈ Git/Git-Hub, Apache Subversion, Darcs, Mercurial, Monotone and CVS—some of the best version control systems available

◈ Eight of the top ten text editors, including Atom, VIM, gedit, GNU EMACS and Nano

◈ Many other capabilities, including diff tools like meld and kdiff, debug tools and multi-media editors like Adrour, Audacity and Gimp

Desktop environments and application portfolios

There are also a wealth of open source and proprietary applications, databases and desktop options available for Power Systems clients to choose from. Here are a few examples:

◈ KDE, Mate, GNOME, Cinnamon, Budgie, LXDE and XFCE, which are considered to be the top desktop environments in 2018 for Linux

◈ Thunderbird, Geary and Evolution e-mail clients

◈ Pidgin and Empathy instant messaging applications

◈ Calligra Suite, Libre Office and WPS Office

◈ MariaDB, Postgre SQL, EnterpriseDB, MongoDB, Cassandra, Redis are among the top open source databases available, as well as IBM Db2

◈ Dolibarr and Odoo, two of the most popular open source ERP packages

◈ Spark, elasticsearch, Apache Solr and Hadoop for analytics

◈ SAP HANA’s more than 2000 clients, many of whom left the x/86 world to take advantage of the IBM Power architecture

Is Linux on x/86 different from Linux on Power?

Linux on Power is the same as Linux on x/86, except for better performance, reliability, security and a smaller physical footprint. These are the differences that should matter most and be the key reasons why a Linux on Power solution is a better choice than an x/86-based Linux solution.

IBM Systems Lab Services has a team of experienced consultants ready to help you get the most out of your Linux on Power system.

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IBM Spectrum LSF goes multicloud

IBM is moving swiftly to implement multicloud capabilities across both our IBM Spectrum Storage and IBM Spectrum Computing portfolios. In an important step for our high-performance computing (HPC) solutions, today we’re announcing the release of a deployment guide that facilitates the use of IBM Spectrum LSF Suite with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

IBM Spectrum LSF Suite is a comprehensive set of solutions supporting traditional HPC and high-throughput environments, as well as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), GPU, machine learning, and containerized workloads among many others. IBM Spectrum LSF, the core of the Suite, is a workload and resource management platform for demanding, distributed HPC environments. It provides a comprehensive set of intelligent, policy-driven scheduling features that help maximize utilization of compute infrastructure resources while optimizing application performance.

IBM Spectrum LSF Suite comes in three editions and includes additional capabilities such as  LSF resource connector, which enables policy-driven cloud bursting to all major cloud services, including IBM Cloud, AWS, Google and Azure.

The newly released deployment guide builds on an existing relationship with AWS. IBM is providing expertise, services, and management capabilities that will give IBM Spectrum LSF customers fast, flexible access to AWS offerings.

The new deployment guide helps users build a wide range of customizable IBM Spectrum LSF cluster configurations that can enable users to take advantage of cloud computing. In particular, HPC environments can leverage the cloud during times of peak activity. To accommodate spikes in demand, traditional HPC environments often divide up jobs and stretch out scheduling–but this can lengthen time to insight. IBM Spectrum LSF solutions can help address this challenge by enabling dynamic access to cloud resources.

Two of the most common IBM Spectrum LSF cluster solutions are the LSF Stretch Cluster and the LSF Multi Cluster configurations. In the LSF Stretch Cluster architecture, the master scheduler and other core functionality remain with the on-premises IBM Spectrum LSF cluster, but the cluster resources can be dynamically “stretched” over a WAN to include cloud resources.

The Multi Cluster configuration, on the other hand, essentially creates two clusters, one on premises and one in the cloud. This architecture can simplify communication and coordination between the on-premises and cloud-based clusters.

Both configurations offer certain advantages and trade-offs, and both configurations are covered in detail by the new deployment guide.

With the release of the new LSF cloud deployment guide, enterprises and HPC facilities can more easily build the IBM Spectrum LSF cluster architectures that are best for them. Then they can leverage the power of IBM Spectrum Scale–the high-performance data management member of the IBM Spectrum Storage family–to enable the storage portion of the overall solution. The multicloud reach of IBM Spectrum Scale includes Spectrum Scale on AWS, available on AWS Marketplace. Currently available as a Bring Your Own License offering, the service is targeted at IBM customers who want to gain access to the elasticity of AWS for their high-performance computing workloads, allowing deployment of highly available, scalable cluster file systems on AWS. IBM provides a Cloud Formation script that deploys IBM Spectrum Scale across a cluster of AWS virtual server instances.

Release of the new LSF cloud deployment guide marks yet another milestone in the ongoing expansion of IBM Spectrum LSF multicloud capabilities, but it’s not the only important news for IBM customers. IBM is also announcing variable use licensing for IBM Spectrum LSF. This new “bite-sized” licensing will allow users to purchase licenses for IBM Spectrum LSF in blocks of CPU “core hours.” One block equals 1000 core hours. The new licensing will make IBM Spectrum LSF even easier and more flexible to deploy. IBM Spectrum LSF users will be able to run the solution almost anywhere and pay only for what they use rather than predicting and hoping.

Across the entire IBM Spectrum Computing portfolio, plenty of innovation is occurring, with plenty more on the roadmap. As enterprises and HPC facilities search for new cloud usage paradigms, they will likely look to intelligent solutions that leverage multicloud architectures and make them easier and less complex to adopt.

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