What's new

PowerVC version 2.0.0 UI enhancements

IBM Power Virtualization Center version 2.0.0 introduces all new user interface that is designed based on Carbon framework. Carbon is IBM's open source design system for products and digital experiences. With the IBM Design Language as its foundation, the system consists of working code, design tools and resources, human interface guidelines, and a vibrant community of contributors. For details, see Introducing PowerVC version 2.0.0 UI.

Functional enhancements

Install - support for RHEL 8.2 and SLES 15

Support for PowerVC installation is available on RHEL 8.2, RHEL 8.3, SLES 15 SP1 and SLES 15 SP2. For details, see Hardware and software requirements. RFE ID: 97922.

Upgrade to PowerVC version 2.0.0

You can upgrade the existing 1.4.4.x PowerVC RHEL7 based installation to version 2.0.0, against the management platforms of your choice (RHEL8 or SLES15). For details about supported platforms, see Hardware and software requirements. You can upgrade to PowerVC version 2.0.0 through backup restore procedure. If you have any of the PowerVC supported versions 1.4.4.0, 1.4.4.1 or 1.4.4.2 installed on your system, you must take a back up and then restore the same on a PowerVC version 2.0.0 installed system. For NovaLink hosts, you must re-OS to latest supported distros. For details, see Upgrading to PowerVC 2.0.0 for Private Cloud.

Python3 support for PowerVC installation

Aligned with the Python and OpenStack community, starting version 2.0.0 release, PowerVC has support for only Python3 on management and NovaLink nodes. For details, see Upgrading to PowerVC 2.0.0 for Private Cloud.

Backup or Restore support between RHEL8 and SLES15 management nodes

With PowerVC version 2.0.0, a backup taken from RHEL8 based PowerVC instance can be restored on a SLES15 based PowerVC instance and vice versa. Support to backup data against PowerVC installation on either of the supported platforms, RHEL8 or SLES15, and to restore on the other RHEL8 or SLES15. For details, see Backing up.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Starting PowerVC version 2.0.0, an additional authentication mechanism called TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) is added to provide enhanced security for the users logging in. TOTP along with password must be provided for user authentication, making it a 2-factor or multi-factor authentication. For details, see Multi-Factor authentication and Configure Multi-Factor authentication for a user.

Virtual machine snapshot and restore

Virtual machine (instance) snapshot allows you to take consistent snapshot of the volumes attached to a virtual machine. You can create multiple snapshot copies for a single virtual machine. You can also choose to select one or more volumes while creating instance snapshots. These instance snapshots can be further used to restore the virtual machine at any point in time. For details, see Virtual machine snapshot or restore.

RFE ID: 133493.

Support for clone and snapshot of virtual machine for SSK user

SSK users can now clone a virtual machine or take snapshot of virtual machine using the policies - Clone virtual machine approval limit and Virtual machine snapshot approval limit.

Clone virtual machine

Clone virtual machine feature allows you to create new identical virtual machine. You can create copy of an existing virtual machine with same CPU, memory, availability priority, volumes, etc. For details, see Clone virtual machines.

DRO policy enhancements

IBM PowerVC Dynamic Resource Optimizer (DRO) continuously monitors the resource utilization of physical hosts and virtual machines in a cloud environment. Starting PowerVC version 2.0.0, DRO can monitor CPU, Memory Utilization, and shared processor pool. You can select the CPU and Memory Utilization Policy for the DRO to optimize hosts by monitoring both CPU and Memory utilization of the hosts. For details, see Dynamic Resource Optimizer. RFE IDs: 122715,129004

Retype

By using this capability, you can change the current storage template of a volume to a target storage template. You can change the volume properties like QoS, provisioning, SLO/workload, etc. You can also choose to migrate the volume to another pool specified in the target template. For details, see Retype.

Consistency groups

A consistency group is a set of volumes that can be used to create a point in time snapshots, or to create a consistency copy of volumes. PowerVC consistency groups feature uses OpenStack generic volume group APIs. For details, see Consistency groups.

Clone volumes

Clone volume feature allows you to create a consistent copy of volumes that are available or attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Clone volumes.

Set prefix for cloned volumes

You can configure powervc-config storage and set the preferred prefix to be used when clone volumes are created. For details, see CLI commands.

Pure Storage

PowerVC supports Pure Storage as an integrated driver. You can now add a Pure Storage driver by using the GUI and work with it. For details, see Planning for Pure Storage. RFE ID: 111465.

PowerMax updates

• Port group load balancing: You can choose to select a list of port groups on the storage template. When a virtual machine is deployed using this storage template, the port group with least number of masking views will be used to form the masking view. This only applies to the first volume of a specific connectivity type (NPIV, vSCSI) being attached to a virtual server (NPIV) or VIOS (vSCSI) as subsequent volumes will get assigned to existing masking views.
• Host name format: You can set the template for short host name customization for PowerMax storage provider.
• Port group template: You can set the template for port group customization for PowerMax storage providers.

For details, see CLI commands.

Assign storage template on GUI after onboard volume

From PowerVC GUI, you can select the volumes from the same storage backend and assign a new storage template to the volumes that do not have any storage templates assigned.

Storwize updates

• Support for Disable fast formatting on IBM Storwize®: You can configure the volume to disable fast formatting using storage template. RFE ID: 139929
• Support for configuring FlashCopy® rate on IBM Storwize: You can configure FlashCopy rate using storage template.
• Performance has been enhanced for deploy, live capture of a VMs, reflecting health status of a newly deployed VM (RMC time) RFE ID: 123306.

For details, see Supported volume type extra-specs.

Option to configure Cisco switch timeout

You can now set the Cisco fabric retry time out. The calls to the Cisco switches are retried with exponential increasing intervals for the time specified in this configuration. For details, see CLI commands. RFE ID: 142245.

Hitachi GAD

Live capture support is now provided for Hitachi GAD. For details, see Planning for Hitachi Global-active device (GAD). RFE ID: 137837

Support for DB purge

PowerVC now supports removal of records from the databases tables which are being soft deleted. This helps you to automatically purge database tables which are soft deleted. For details, see Database maintenance.

Performance tuning CLI

PowerVC applies scale tuning parameters to management and NovaLink nodes. These settings are intended for high scale environment. For details, see CLI commands.

Deploy from VM list page

In the previous versions of PowerVC, you could deploy a VM from the Images page. In PowerVC version 2.0.0, you can choose to deploy a VM either from the VM list page or from the Image list page. RFE ID: 136201.

Eye icon for password check

The eye icon on the UI login screen helps you to recheck if you have entered a correct password. RFE ID: 132973.

Changes in hardware and software support

Snapshot and restore API

These APIs help you to perform snapshot or restore operations on the volumes that are attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Virtual machine snapshot and restore API.

Retype and retype validation API

You can retype a volume by using the OpenStack retype API. PowerVC supports retype validation API to ensure that the target templates listed for retype of a volume are the most eligible templates for the selected volume. For details, see Supported OpenStack block storage (Cinder) APIs and Retype validation.

API to register a secondary storage for global mirror for a primary storage provider

You can use PUT API to register a secondary storage for global mirror for a primary storage provider. For details, see Storage controller registration.

Clone volume API

The clone volume API lets you create a consistent copy of volumes that are available or attached to a virtual machine. For details, see Clone volume API.

Clone virtual machine API

The clone virtual machine (VM) feature allows you to create new identical virtual machine. For details, see Clone virtual machine API.

Persistent memory virtualization API

You can enable Persistent Memory Virtualization feature for a virtual machine. When the virtual machine is deployed with a persistent memory volume, during VM restart the persistent memory volume is retained reducing the boot time. For details, see .

Changes in guest OS support

Support for SLES 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2, RHEL 7.9, RHEL 8.0, RHEL 8.1, RHEL 8.2, and RHEL 8.3 guest OS has been added. For details, see Guest operating system support.

Security enhancements

Package signing

The RPMs and repo for Debian packages shipped as part of PowerVC installer are Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG) signed, and these signatures are verified during PowerVC installation. For details, see Package signing.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Using MFA APIs you can fetch the details of an MFA enabled user, check the status, enable or disable MFA for a user. For details, see Supported OpenStack Identity (Keystone) APIs.

Support for TLS1.3 and HTTPv2

TLS1.3 (along with support for TLS1.2) and HTTPv2 is added for all PowerVC service REST APIs.