What is NOVAlink

Source: http://ibmsystemsmag.com/aix/administrator/lpar/installing-novalink/

Nova refers to the compute element of the OpenStack cloud controller. 

In October 2015 IBM announced PowerVM 2.2.4. One of the key updates in that release was the addition of a new LPAR (logical partition) type called NovaLink. The POWER8 hypervisor doesn’t have native OpenStack support so it’s necessary to provide an interface between the OpenStack management software and the hypervisor. Before v2.2.4, PowerVM didn’t have OpenStack support and it used PowerVC as the interface between OpenStack management software and PowerVM.

The term Nova refers to the compute element of the OpenStack cloud controller. Before NovaLink, PowerVC would provide a Nova on each server that would send commands to PowerVC which then sent them through the HMC to the server. This limited scalability due to the number of servers that PowerVC could successfully manage at once. The limit was 30 hosts and 3000 LPARs with PowerVC.

This all changes with NovaLink, which is architected to allow for far greater scalability for PowerVM based systems. PowerKVM does have nova support built in and doesn’t require the use of NovaLink LPARs. Using NovaLink, PowerVC can now manage up to 200 hosts and 5000 LPARs: this makes the transition to cloud much easier. NovaLink provides for a Linux LPAR that runs on a POWER8 server that has been virtualized by PowerVM. This LPAR is the Nova compute instance that provides a server management interface and can be used to rapidly provision LPARs on the server. The server can then be managed using the REST API or through the command line (CLI). Additionally, it can integrate with PowerVC or other OpenStack solutions to manage the server.

So what does it look like? NovaLink runs in an Ubuntu Linux LPAR on the POWER8. Version 1.0.0.3 of NovaLink is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. The LPAR is fully virtualized using resources provisioned from the VIO servers. It comes with a simple installer and provides the core services needed to manage the server, along with OpenStack drivers and plugins used by OpenStack management solutions including PowerVC.

IBM has done a nice job of allowing for migration and integration. The POWER8 servers can be co-managed by NovaLink and an HMC provided they meet the minimum requirements. The HMC can also continue to manage POWER6 and higher servers. In these co-managed environments, you need to select either NovaLink or the HMC as the master environment. The master is the system that will be used for certain tasks such as COD (capacity on demand) and some partition management tasks. However, do note that firmware updates can only be performed by the HMC while it’s in master mode. Fortunately, you can switch between the two dynamically. Other restrictions include, for example, if a server is co-managed, then partition profiles and system plans are not supported regardless of who is in master mode. Instead you use the Enhanced mode on the HMC or PowerVC to manage partition configurations. Prior to implementing NovaLink it’s important that you determine whether you need to use system plans and partition profiles or not.

Prerequisites for NovaLink

NovaLink requires a POWER8 server with firmware installed at FW840 or higher, however, HMC co-managed systems require FW840.11 or higher and the HMC has to be at v8.4.0SP1 or higher. The NovaLink LPAR needs at least 0.5 for entitlement uncapped with up to 2 VPs (virtual processors) and a non-zero weight. It also uses 4.5GB of memory which can be reduced once it is installed. And it needs at least 30GB of disk, a network bridged through the SEA (shared Ethernet adapter) and at least 200 virtual slots. It also requires that PowerVM be at 2.2.4 or higher and NovaLink 1.0.0.3 requires PowerVC 1.3.1 or higher.

Installing NovaLink

NovaLink can be installed on a new managed system or on a system that is currently managed by an HMC. The install process is slightly different for each. For a new system you will be using the ASMI, the USB stick or netboot to install the LPAR. You can also use a current NIM server as well. Once you get the install running, the NovaLink installer will create one or two VIO servers and then creates the Linux LPAR to be used for NovaLink.

On an HMC managed system that already has VIO servers installed you will need to create a Linux LPAR for the Nova. You will also need to enable the HMC to be comanaged and you will need to enable the LPAR for NovaLink support. You then activate the LPAR in SMS mode and follow the prompts. Both of these options are well documented on the IBM website.

Additionally, if in the future you decide to go back to just being HMC managed, IBM provides a fairly simple procedure to do so. It’s basically four steps:

• set the HMC to be the master
• shutdown and power off the NovaLink LPAR
• 3remove the NovaLink LPAR, and
• release master authority for the managed system.

Updates to NovaLink

In April 2016, IBM announced updates to NovaLink, the HMC and PowerVC. NovaLink updated to v1.0.0.3, PowerVC to v1.3.1 and the HMC to v8.8.5. As of that release, NovaLink adds support for PowerVM simplified remote VM restart, Power Enterprise Pool management, IBM i VM management, LPAR deployment with AME (active memory expansion) enabled and PowerVM multiple shared processor pools. These are significant updates that can now be controlled by PowerVC or various OpenStack applications.

Summary

IBM is constantly updating PowerVM to bring in new and interesting software. NovaLink is one example. Its purpose is to simplify the deployment of OpenStack software with PowerVM with the added benefit of improving performance and scalability for PowerVC. NovaLink provides a highly concurrent and scalable infrastructure to allow PowerVM users to scale up their environments while still allowing them to take advantage of their PowerVC experience. If scalability is a critical issue for your environment then NovaLink and PowerVC may be able to assist with resolving it.

IBM PowerVC: What happens if VMs (LPARs) managed by PowerVC are altered directly via HMC or novalink?

Technote (FAQ)

Question

What happens if VMs (LPARs) managed by PowerVC are altered directly via HMC or novalink?

Cause

PowerVC is built on OpenStack. OpenStack is assumed to be the single operator/manager for all resources under control of OpenStack.

Answer

IBM PowerVC infocenter covers in general terms here:

https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSXK2N_1.3.2/com.ibm.powervc.standard.help.doc/powervc_limitations_hmc.html
Specific examples of problems include:
1.) LPM a LPAR using HMC to another Frame
Outcome: PowerVC will now report the VM in error on the original frame.
If the new location of the VM is also managed by PowerVC the VM will NOT report on that frame from PowerVC.
Solution:
Unmanage VM ( from PowerVC UI --> click on VMs icon --> select Error VM --> click on Unmanage)
2.) LPAR is "resized" from HMC by adding storage (LUN) to the LPAR 
Outcome: Now PowerVC is not aware of that storage, (it will report OK). Future operations such as SRR or LPM will result in the VM being moved WITHOUT the LUN(s) added via the HMC.

Solution: 
Manually reattach the LUN, then unmanage the HOST from PowerVC and remanage to get correct details of VM.
3.) Storage is altered on SAN - Relocating disk or enabling vendor storage attributes not supported by PowerVC (any direct alteration of LUNs). 
Outcome: This will cause PowerVC to report the VM in critical error status, unable to power on/off or LPM the VM.
Solution: Unmanage the Host and re-manage to "discover" the VM with correct storage state.
4.) Network (IP) management changes by direct OS or management from outside PowerVC.
Outcome: Again the VM will report "OK" until PowerVC attempts a management operation involving the assigned IP address or another VM is deployed using the IP now locked by this first VM unknown to PowerVC.
Solution:
"Unmanaging" the hosts from PowerVC as recover may not be possible in all situations if the VMs managed are not reachable (re-install would be required)
Note: unmanaging the hosts from PowerVC will "free" the locked IPs in PowerVC IP pools if used.
These are just a few common examples. any external management can/will lead to PowerVC failure 

PowerVC 1.4.x with RHEL 7.5

PowerVC 1.4.x with RHEL 7.5 is not fully supported, lot of rpms are either obsolete or renamed so wait for sometime to make this combination to work.

PowerVC - Openstack

What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard (like GUI front-end tool) that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.

OpenStack at its core is an open source project - it's free code. But what makes OpenStack come alive are the vendors that have contributed to make that raw code and then turned it into a product businesses can use.

Some companies have used OpenStack as the basis for their public clouds; Rackspace, for example, has proven that OpenStack can power a massive, geographically distributed cloud. Others are packaging the components that make up OpenStack into an easy-to-digest product sold to enterprises for building their own private cloud.

What is PowerVC?

IBM Power Virtualization Center (PowerVC) is a new tool that lets you manage virtual machines (VM) deployed on pools of POWER servers. Support is provided for both AIX and Linux on Power VMs.

PowerVC is based on OpenStack, which is open-source cloud management software backed by significant industry support.

PowerVC is designed to simplify the management of virtual resources in IBM Power Systems environments.

PowerVC has a powerful yet simple and intuitive GUI and a deep integration with IBM Power Virtualization Management (PowerVM®) virtualization technologies. PowerVC enables virtualization without limits for the IBM Power Systems family of servers running IBM AIX®, IBM i, or IBM PowerLinuxTM.

Why OpenStack for PowerVC?

One of the big differences between PowerVC and other cloud management solutions is the use of OpenStack as a foundation.

The overall goal for PowerVC was to provide robust management for clouds built on IBM Power Systems. Managing a cloud-computing infrastructure requires a different approach than managing a traditional IT infrastructure

IBM identified several key architectural requirements for this product:

    The management software had to encompass servers, storage, and networking. The management silos of the past simply did not meet the needs of a cloud environment.

    The management architecture needed to be flexible, reliable, and scalable. A management architecture based on a loosely coupled service-oriented architecture with well-defined interfaces fulfills this requirement well. The general concept was a kernel of core services surrounded by plug-in modules to provide management of specific resources. The management application also needed to scale both vertically and horizontally.

    The architecture had to be adaptable to allow expansion to new resource types and new management operations without requiring changes to the underlying architecture.

OpenStack fits these requirements well. OpenStack has the concept of drivers to support different resources (plug-ability), a built in foundation of middleware (service-oriented architecture) and well defined APIs tying everything together. There is an extensive open source community around OpenStack and it has a well-established governance model, and design tenets based on a loosely coupled, resilient architecture that scales horizontally.

There was another pragmatic reason for IBM to use OpenStack as the base for PowerVC: by building on OpenStack, IBM was able to get PowerVC to the market much more quickly and spent more energy working on capabilities with higher client value rather than building infrastructure “plumbing”.

It is important to note that PowerVC is a solution based on OpenStack, it is not OpenStack.

IBM built PowerVC based on the OpenStack architecture using OpenStack components, but IBM also provides enhancements and components that are not part of OpenStack, such as the management user interface and the Platform Enterprise Grid Optimizer (Platform EGO).

These extensions are designed to provide additional capability for our clients compared to the base capabilities provided by OpenStack. IBM  contributes to the OpenStack community, but some of our enhancements will remain proprietary to IBM.

PowerVC is more than just OpenStack for Power. While other companies have delivered OpenStack offerings that are just big bags of technology, IBM built PowerVC on OpenStack technology to deliver a virtualization management solution for Power Systems.

As they say, “the proof is in the pudding” By building PowerVC on OpenStack, IBM has been able to deliver two releases in one year. This would have been impossible building it from scratch.

Why they’re important: IBM publicly announced that OpenStack would be a central part of the company’s cloud plans moving forward. Since then, though it’s unclear just how big of a part OpenStack plays in the company’s cloud plans.

IBM has certainly been committed to contributing toward the development of OpenStack. IBM is one of the leading contributors to the project, along with every other company on this list. IBM is using its experience in working with enterprise customers to improve areas such as quality assurance and aligning the OpenStack API to key standards. But, the company has not made OpenStack central to its own products it sells. IBM bought SoftLayer, an IaaS provider, and is in the process of expanding OpenStack support in SoftLayer’s cloud. Since that OpenStack announcement IBM has also made commitments to Cloud Foundry, another open source project for application development. And it has announced BlueMix, a PaaS offering that’s still in its early stages.

SoftLayer, an IBM Company, provides cloud Infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centers and network points of presence around the world. Our customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.

Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Our unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.

SoftLayer was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. We were acquired by IBM in July, 2013.

Bluemix, IBM Bluemix is a cloud Platform as a service (PaaS) developed by IBM. It supports several programming languages and services as well as integrated DevOps to build, run, deploy and manage applications on the cloud. Bluemix is based on Cloud Foundry open technology and runs on SoftLayer infrastructure.

It enables organizations and developers to quickly and easily create, deploy, and manage applications on the cloud.

Cloud Terminologies,

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
Cloud infrastructure services in which a virtualized environment is delivered as a service by the cloud provider. This infrastructure can include servers, network equipment, and software, including a complete desktop environment such as Windows or Linux.

Platform as a Service (PaaS):
Cloud platform services, whereby the computing platform (operating system and associated services) is delivered as a service over the internet by the provider.

Software as a Service (SaaS):
Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the internet by the provider so the applications don't have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer's computers. SaaS providers were previously referred to as application service providers.

Private cloud:
Services offered over the internet or over a private internal network to select users. These services are not available to the general public.

Public cloud:
Services offered over the public internet. These services are available to anyone who wants to purchase the service.

Hybrid cloud:
The combination of a public cloud provider (such as AWS) with a private cloud platform. The public and private cloud infrastructures operate independently of each other, and integrate using software and processes that allow for the portability of data and applications

Cloud portability:
The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.

Cloud provider:
A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.

Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.

Cloud storage:
A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.

Consumption-based pricing model:
A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per gigabyte of information stored.

Subscription-based pricing model:
A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS services.

Elastic computing:
The ability to dynamically provision and deprovision computing and storage resources to stretch to the demands of peak usage, without the need to worry about capacity planning and engineering around uneven usage patterns.

Cloudsourcing:
Replacing traditional IT operations with lower-cost, outsourced cloud services.

Abbreviations:

API: Application Programming Interface

EGO: Enterprise Grid Orchestrator

OVF: Open Virtualization Format

AMQP: Advanced Message Queuing Protocol

DBMS: Database management system

 Disclaimer: Above information is collected from various sources.