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IBM i Virtualization Summary

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IBM i Virtualization Summary

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The summary on this page indicates the minimum IBM i operating system levels that are supported for the IBM i virtualization functions. There is also a column that indicates the type of environment:

  • VIOS (for functions that require a VIOS configuration) 
  • iVirtualization (for functions that are supported in a configuration where IBM i is serving I/O to a client IBM i, AIX, or Linux partition, or where IBM i is a client of an IBM i partition)
  • Native (for functions that are supported for Native SR-IOV configurations).

For IBM i Virtualization configurations:

  • The hosting partition can be any IBM i release, IBM i 6.1 or newer, that is supported on a particular Power System processor generation natively.
  • The client partition can be any IBM i release, IBM i 6.1 or newer, that is supported on that same Power System processor generation natively or with VIOS.
  • For example, IBM i 7.1, on a Power System with POWER6 technology, can have client partitions that are IBM i 6.1 or 7.2; however, IBM i 7.3 is not supported on POWER6, so it cannot be a client of IBM i 7.1 on a POWER6 system.

For more information about iVirtualization, see IBM i Virtualization and Open Storage.

For general information about IBM i Technology Refreshes and Resaves, see IBM i Technology Refreshes and Resaves

See IBM i Virtualization Details for more announcement details about each item listed in the following tables.

IBM i Virtualization Support Configuration
(Native, VIOS, iVirt)		 IBM i 7.5 IBM i 7.4 IBM i 7.3
Enhancements from December 2022
Support for VIOS 3.1.4 VIOS Tech Refresh 1 Tech Refresh 7 Tech Refresh 13
IBM i leverages VIOS NPIV multiple queues VIOS Tech Refresh 1
Tech Refresh 6
(see May 2022)
Tech Refresh 12
(see May 2022)
Enhancements from May 2022
IBM i leverages VIOS NPIV multiple queues VIOS - Tech Refresh 6 Tech Refresh 12
Items in the following table were before the IBM i 7.5 General Availability date of 10 May 2022, but they are all supported by the base release of IBM i 7.5. 
Items from the preceding table are supported on IBM i 7.3 if they are Storage or Ethernet that are supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER9 technology, or if they are specifically supported by an IBM i 7.3 Resave.                                                                                                                     
  
IBM i Virtualization Support
 Configuration
(Native, VIOS, iVirt)
IBM i 7.4
IBM i 7.3
 IBM i 7.2
Enhancements from Nov 2020
NPIV Acceleration VIOS Base Base Base
Multiple Mapping of NPIV ports for Live Partition Mobility (LPM) operations VIOS Base Base Base
Enhancements from May 2020
IBM i Tape Virtualization iVirt PTF MF66863 PTF MF64802 PTF MF64803
IBM i Hybrid Network Virtualization VIOS Tech Refresh 1 Tech Refresh 7 N/A
Enhancements from Nov 2019
Support for SR-IOV logical ports on a restricted I/O LPAR VIOS Tech Refresh 1 Tech Refresh 7 N/A

Items in the following table were before the IBM i 7.4 General Availability date of 23 June 2019, but they are all supported by the base release of IBM i 7.4.
Items from the preceding table are supported on IBM i 7.2 if they are Storage or Ethernet that are supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER8 technology, or if they are specifically supported by an IBM i 7.2 Resave.
Items from the preceding table are supported on IBM i 7.1 only if they are Storage or Ethernet that are supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER8 technology.
IBM i Virtualization Support
 Configuration
(Native, VIOS, iVirt)
IBM i 7.3
IBM i 7.2
 IBM i 7.1
Enhancements from Oct 2017
Increase in max LUNs per port for NPIV configurations VIOS Tech Refresh 3 Tech Refresh 7 N/A
Increase of virtual LUN size after initial allocation VIOS Tech Refresh 3 N/A N/A
Automation for Cloud Init VIOS Tech Refresh 3 Tech Refresh 7 N/A
Enhancements from Nov 2016
vNIC fail-over VIOS Tech Refresh 1 Tech Refresh 5 N/A
Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) large send VIOS Tech Refresh 1 Tech Refresh 5 N/A
Enhancements from May 2016
Live Partition Mobility - Support for active tapes VIOS Base Tech Refresh 4 N/A

 

Items in the following table were before the IBM i 7.3 General Availability date of 15 April 2016, but they are all supported by the base release of IBM i 7.3.
Items from the preceding table are supported by IBM i 7.1 if they are Storage or Ethernet that are supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER8 technology, or if they are specifically supported by an IBM i 7.1 Resave.
Items from the preceding table are supported by IBM i 6.1 only if they are Storage or Ethernet that are supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER8 technology.
IBM i Virtualization Support
 Configuration
(Native, VIOS, iVirt)
IBM i 7.2
IBM i 7.1
Enhancements from Nov 2015
Little Endian Linux Client iVirt Tech Refresh 3 Tech Refresh 11
vNIC with SR-IOV VIOS Tech Refresh 3 Tech Refresh 11
VLAN Tag Support for Network Boot and Install VIOS Tech Refresh 3 N/A
Large Send Offload on Virtual Ethernet iVirt Tech Refresh 3 Tech Refresh 11
Enhancements from May 2015
SR-IOV support for Power Systems with POWER8 technology Native, iVirt, VIOS Tech Refresh 2 Tech Refresh 10
Enhancements from June 2014
Native SR-IOV Ethernet Native, iVirt, VIOS Base Tech Refresh 8
Increased number of virtual disks per VSCSI adapter iVirt, VIOS Base Tech Refresh 8
Layer-2 bridging of VLAN-tagged frames iVirt Base N/A
Control over resources used to initialize client disk iVirt Base N/A
SSD preference for virtual disk iVirt Base N/A
Easier tape and optical configuration iVirt Base N/A

 

Items in the following table were before the IBM i 7.2 General Availability date of 2 May 2 2014, but they are all supported in the base release of IBM i 7.2.
Items from the preceding table are supported on IBM i 6.1 only if they apply to Storage or Ethernet that can be supported as virtual clients in VIOS or iVirtualization configurations on systems before the generation of systems with POWER8 technology.
Virtualization Support by GA date IBM i 7.2 IBM i 7.1
 		 IBM i 6.1
(with 6.1.1 Machine Code)		 Environment
March 2013
-- NPIV attach of SVC and Storwize V7000, V3700, V3500
Base
Tech Refresh 6
-
VIOS
October 2012
-- Large Receive Offload for layer 2 bridging
-- IBM PowerVM V2.2 Refresh with SSP & LPM updates


Base
Base
Tech Refresh 5
Tech Refresh 5


-
-
VIOS
VIOS

May 2012
-- IBM i Live Partition Mobility
-- HMC Remote Restart PRPQ
-- Performance enhancement for zeroing virtual disk
Base
Base
Base


Tech Refresh 4
Tech Refresh 4
Tech Refresh 4
-
-
-


VIOS
VIOS
iVirtualization
December 2011
-- IBM PowerVM V2.2 Refresh with SSP enhancements
Base
Tech Refresh 3
-


VIOS
October 2011
-- Ethernet layer-2 bridging
-- Mirroring with NPIV Attached Storage
-- VPM enhancement to create IBM i partitions
-- PowerVM NPIV attachment of DS5000 for Blades
-- IBM PowerVM V2.2 Refresh with Network Load Balancing
Base
Base
Base
Base
Base
Tech Refresh 3
Tech Refresh 3
Tech Refresh 3
Tech Refresh 3
Tech Refresh 3
-
-
X (client only)
-
X


iVirtualization
VIOS
iVirtualization
VIOS
VIOS
May 2011
-- Partition Suspend and Resume
-- IBM i to IBM i virtual tape support
-- PowerVM NPIV attachment of DS5000
Base
Base
Base
Tech Refresh 2
Tech Refresh 2
Tech Refresh 2
-
APAR II14615 (client only)
-


VIOS
iVirtualization
VIOS
December 2010
-- PowerVM with Shared Storage Pools
Base
Tech Refresh 1
-


VIOS
September 2010
-- Support for embedded media changers
-- Expanded HBA and switch support for NPIV on blades
Base
Base
Tech Refresh 1
Tech Refresh 1
-
X


iVirtualization
VIOS

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Modified date:
11 October 2022

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