Novell's Meike Chabowski says Linux enriches the mainframe's ecosystem and positions it to satisfy future requirements.
Commentary - Even after ten years of successful mainframe
deployments, people and organizations not familiar with mainframe Linux
often still see the operating system as suitable only for commodity
hardware. While Linux indeed runs beautifully on x86 hardware, it is
hardly limited to that platform. If you have ever wondered whether Linux
can handle complex and scalable mainframe workloads, read on for the
exciting truth about Linux/mainframe synergies.
Now that Linux on System z (the definitive term for mainframe Linux) is a
reality, its impact – on server consolidation, data center economics,
IT reliability and cloud computing – is large and increasing. Today,
Linux on System z and the other z operating systems (z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE,
z/TPF) are best friends and partners in the mainframe ecosystem.
How We got here: Linux on System z is not new
For those lacking scorecards, May 17, 2010 was the tenth anniversary of
commercial/supported main-frame Linux. Its birth followed a late-1990s
major shift in IBM thinking leading to acceptance of an open source
operating system running on the company’s crown technology jewel,
System/390. Fortunately, a skunkworks proof-of-concept project at IBM’s
Boeblingen Lab demonstrated feasibility and viability of the unlikely
marriage. IBM decided not to release its own mainframe Linux
distribution but invited existing suppliers to join the party.
SuSE (later SUSE LINUX AG, acquired by Novell in 2004) quickly offered
its prototype implementation, in exchange for access to detailed
architectural information supporting ongoing development. Using a system
created at Marist College from IBM patches running on a borrowed
Multiprise 3000 mini-mainframe, engineers used the SuSE AutoBuild tool
to create more than 400 software packages in the first weekend. They
adapted YaST (the installation, configuration and systems management
tool inte-grated with SUSE Linux Enterprise) and edited package
selection for mainframe distribution.
But building, installing and running Linux on the mainframe did not
ensure its acceptance. Starting with System/360 in the mid-1960s, IBM
had positioned its flagship computing platform for stability,
reliability and backwards compatibility. To match that culture, the
normally dynamic Linux code base was frozen, maintained to ensure
ongoing hardware and software compatibility and positioned with
subscription-based services. Customers bought into – and purchased – the
concept and, with that, the first enterprise-ready and fully supported
Linux operating system for the mainframe was born. It has closely
tracked mainframe hardware and software progress from S/390 through
various generations (z900, z990, z9, z10) to today’s premier system
zEnterprise. Along the way, IBM introduced the Integrated Facility for
Linux (IFL), a special-purpose System z central processor exclusively
for Linux workloads. IFL runs at full System z speed, does not incur IBM
software charges for traditional System z operating systems and
middleware and upgrades at no cost to new technology generations.
Over the years, as underlying system architecture evolved, SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server exploited complementary features, such as the File
Hierarchy Standard to accommodate 64-bit adaptations, larger address
spaces and coexistence of 32/64-bit applications within Linux instances.
It has also been the first distro to support new machine instructions
as mainframe microarchitecture advanced. Recognizing mainframe sites’
need for ready-to-run software installations, the Starter System for
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z – a complete pre-built
installation server to streamline and simplify provisioning virtual
Linux servers – has also been made available.
Linux is mature and ready for the big time
Linux is reliable, secure and efficient. In fact, its unofficial middle
name could be “mission critical” consi-dering its combined heritage of
enterprise-proven, industrial-strength mainframe security and thou-sands
of widely used industry-standard Linux applications. A valuable third
component is a robust worldwide Linux on System z community providing
mutual support and skilled staffers of all levels.
This should come as no surprise. Mainframe Linux represents natural
evolution of the system’s long and productive use. The beauty of that
growth is that “Linux is Linux.” Staffers familiar with Linux on smaller
platforms will comfortably use and support it on big iron and
applications/services hosted elsewhere can generally be consolidated and
scaled up to exploit mainframe reliability, availability and
serviceability.
Installation and management tools galore
System z virtualization – extending four decades of development and
productive use – allows ultra-flexible workload and resource
partitioning by hardware (LPARs, logical partitions) and software
(z/VM). These technologies allow extreme sharing of system resources,
provisioning resources where and when they’re needed, over-committing
real resources, handling demand spikes and virtualizing resources not
present in real hardware.
Whether or not the oft-cited mainframe skills shortage exists, IBM and
the Linux community have created a library of cookbooks and tutorials
providing resources, plans, checklists, procedures and tools for quick
and reliable mainframe Linux implementation. Once installed, Linux
servers and applications can be monitored, measured, tracked and tuned
to meet specific organization and application performance requirements.
Native mainframe management tools and Linux-specific software agents
combine to present both system-wide dashboards and fine-grain
application/server details.
Why mainframe vs. x86?
Underutilized resources are uneconomical and do not pay for themselves.
x86 platform CPU use rates of 10 to 15 percent are commonly tolerated as
unavoidable. Additionally, virtualization factors of 10x are considered
an achievement in hardware economies. Yet generations of mainframes
have consistently run productively at near-100 percent CPU usage while
virtualizing servers by factors in the hundreds. System z hosting
configurations dramatically reduce physical server footprint,
power/cooling configurations and expenses, software costs for fewer
cores/processors and staffing requirements.
IBM’s newest mainframe, the IBM zEnterprise System, more closely
integrates differing system architectures than has previously been
possible. This allows workloads on the new IBM zEnterprise 196 mainframe
server as well as workloads on select IBM POWER7 and System x blades
to share resources and be managed as a single, virtualized system. The
IBM zEnterprise Blade Center Extension (zBX) and the IBM Unified
Resource Manger creates multiple server images and allow efficient
resource allocation and utilization. SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell
runs the first workload optimized offering for zBX, the Smart Analytics
Optimizer, which speeds complex analytic workloads at a lower cost per
transaction.
“The new IBM zEnterprise System represents a bold move to fundamentally
change how data centers are managed,” said Carrol Stafford, vice
president, IBM System z. “The new mainframe is not only the fastest
enterprise server in the world, it also represents a giant leap forward
in how to integrate and automate workloads across heterogeneous
platforms with unrivaled reliability and security. SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server plays a key role across this architecture in helping clients
take advantage of this performance as they aim to increase data center
efficiency and consolidate workloads. In addition to exploiting Linux on
System z, customers can manage and integrate workloads on selected IBM
Power and System x servers through zBX powered by zManager.”
Mainframes are affordable
Smart management has moved from simple price tag comparisons (TCA, total
cost of acquisition) to strategic TCO (total cost of ownership)
evaluations. Long-term mainframe system value means that for many
workloads, a System z provides better return on investment. While Linux
gained its reputation running cheaply on commodity hardware – and, in
fact, it is a great choice on any hardware – running Linux on mainframe
hardware economizes on energy, floor space, software and staffing.
To simplify acquiring and configuring mainframe Linux, Novell and IBM
partnered to provide the Solu-tion Edition for Enterprise Linux for
System z, which is complemented by the SUSE Linux Enterprise
Consolidation Suite for System z. Subscription pricing includes:
• Reduced total cost of acquisition (TCA)
• Ability to consolidate .NET workloads on IBM mainframe and .NET
development plug-ins into Microsoft’s Visual Studio to develop
applications on x86 and test/deploy them on System z
• Linux training, including vouchers for extensive on-demand Data Center Training Library
The truth is out there
Businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations must
consider their unique workloads and applications to determine whether
System z and Linux suit their IT needs. Good application candi-dates for
Linux hosting include existing apps that are well instrumented, apps
using mainframe-resident data (e.g., z/OS or z/VSE), apps coordinating
processes running elsewhere and apps offloading time-consuming
processing to IFL cycles.
Unfortunately, “myth-information” about Linux abounds; but it’s easy to
rebut uninformed, often self-serving and, of course, contradictory
objections to evaluation such as…
• Linux is too new to be trusted
• Linux is obsolete, replaced by newer and better technologies
• Linux requires unique/scarce/arcane/expensive skills
• Linux is unreliable
• Linux is unsupported
• Linux and z/OS are enemies
• Linux information is scarce and too hard to find
• Linux is hard to install
• Open source software – including Linux – is evil and un-American
• Open source software is dangerous because of its chaotic/informal development environment
In any field of endeavor – woodworking, cooking, gardening, or IT –
success requires the right tools. IBM’s System z is uniquely suited for
hosting today’s demanding hybrid multi-system applications, ser-vices
and cloud computing. It is quite clear that increasingly, Linux enriches
the mainframe’s ecosystem and positions it to satisfy future
requirements.
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