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Journey to LinuxONE
IBM® LinuxONE is a platform for the Linux® operating system built on a scalable, secure, and reliable architecture. Available in single frame, multi frame, and rack mount servers, LinuxONE is used in many different industries worldwide.
LinuxONE can help your organization achieve its sustainability goals. Consolidating Linux® workloads on 5 IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 systems instead of running them on compared x86 servers under similar conditions can reduce energy consumption by 75%, space by 50%, and the CO2e footprint by over 850 metric tons annually.1
Use this content solution to understand how LinuxONE works and to understand the experience of obtaining and installing a LinuxONE system.
Leverage IBM LinuxONE to achieve your sustainability goals.
An IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 can have up to 200 configurable
Choose from or combine these options:
LinuxONE’s security, privacy, resiliency, and flexibility make it perfectly suited for hybrid cloud infrastructure. Developers leverage cloud-native development, including
With LinuxONE, encrypt pervasively rather than selectively — it’s built into every processor chip. The IBM Crypto Express adapter enables industry-leading protection of encryption keys. On-chip acceleration of compression speeds processing and makes data storage more efficient.
Protect your assets from security breaches with the
Protect Linux® workloads throughout the lifecycle with IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers, a software solution built on the IBM Secure Service Container framework. Application developers can build in a trusted, encrypted environment. Operations personnel manages applications without access to sensitive data.
Protect data with end-to-end encryption which extends to built-in quantum-safe technologies.
IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 systems, with
LinuxONE is designed to help you meet your sustainability goals. Consolidating workloads from many x86 servers onto a single LinuxONE server can reduce energy costs, carbon footprint, and floor space.
Regardless of where you are in your transformation journey, there is a LinuxONE 4 solution, single frame, multi frame or rack mount server, that can meet your business needs. Work with IBM and possibly a business partner to understand your LinuxONE solution, including the Linux distribution and other software. Key capabilities that have been validated for LinuxONE include the following:
- Languages: Python, Pearl, COBOL, Java, Node.js
- Management: IBM Cloud Manager, IBM Cloud Paks, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
- Database: Oracle, MariaDB, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, EDB
- Analytics Tools with Hadoop, Big Insights, DB2BLU and Spark
Of course, many others are available.
Linux Distributions for LinuxONE are offered by RedHat and by Linux distribution partners Canonical (ubuntu) and SUSE, who provide services and support. IBM also offers services for all eligible Linux distributions for LinuxONE and support for the distributions from Red Hat and SUSE.
You can choose solutions from IBM software, open source software, and software from independent software vendors, such as Oracle. IBM collaborates with the Linux community and is one of the leading commercial contributors to Linux. Container images offer lightweight and self-contained software to enable deployment at scale. Use the following links to get a first look at supported software:
Storage devices must fully conform to
For
Work with IBM and possibly a business partner to understand the total cost of ownership of LinuxONE based on the solution that you have identified.
As a first step, you might do a sizing -- that is, answer the question, how big does each element of the solution need to be?
Total cost of ownership of LinuxONE can be lowered significantly, when compared with other platforms, by several factors, including:
- Consolidating workloads. With LinuxONE, fewer servers can mean energy and space savings, and dramatically fewer cores can result in dramatically reduced software licensing costs
for software that is priced by the core. LinuxONE requires fewer cores than x86, as a result of:
- Faster processor speed
- Specialized engines that offload I/O to persistent storage
- High-speed, in-memory communication across LPARs, provided by
HiperSockets - Design for very high utilization levels (75-80 percent) with no performance impact.
- Open source system software.
- Support in the architecture for higher utilization, which reduces the tendency found with other architectures to provision more computing resources than are needed to avoid bottlenecks caused by peaks in utilization.
A total cost of ownership calculator provides a personalized estimate for LinuxONE.
Work with IBM and possibly a business partner to choose the configuration, either off-the-shelf or fully customizable, that meets your needs. LinuxONE offers:
- Up to 4 19-inch frames, depending on your capacity requirements
- Both raised and non-raised floor environments
- Top and bottom exit I/O and power.
The steps for obtaining a new LinuxONE system vary, depending on your needs, but typically IBM:
- Prepares a proposal
- Discusses financing with you
- Works with you to place an order
- Builds and tests your system.
IBM provides detailed site planning information, including a checklist, in a publication that you can download.
See a summary of the site planning checklist
To see the full checklist and other site planning information, use the link for the appropriate publication.
- Rockhopper 4 Rack Mount Bundle: LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 Rack Mount Bundle Installation Manual for Physical Planning
- Rockhopper 4 Model LA2: 3932 Single Frame Installation Manual for Physical Planning (Models A02/LA2)
- Emperor 4: 3931 Installation Manual for Physical Planning. Download the PDF.
Work with IBM and possibly a business partner to set up and start your LinuxONE system.
IBM ships your system to you and:
- Unloads and unboxes your system at your location
- Moves it into your data center
- Verifies that it is complete
- Cables the system
- Brings it up.
Use these resources to continue your journey to LinuxONE.
Find descriptions, server specifications, testimonials, case studies, and more.
Find information to unleash your open source apps and services on the Linux platform.
Find information about IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers.
Find information about services to help you design and implement solutions on LinuxONE.
Test drive LinuxONE and access other resources on the IBM LinuxONE Community Cloud.
A course on z/VM and Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE.
Through the IBM Partner Plus portal, get access to innovative technology solutions.
Find resources to help you reduce energy consumption, cost of operations, and emissions with IBM LinuxONE.
Learn how to use the security features that make the most of and complement the LinuxONE hardware security features.
Look inside LinuxONE.
IBM LinuxONE videos on IBM MediaCenter
Accelerated Data Compression with Linux on LinuxONE III - Managing Data Growth
Accelerated Data Compression for Linux Databases on LinuxONE III
Linux on LinuxONE: Enterprise Key Management for Pervasive Encryption of Data Volumes
Documentation for LinuxONE
Documentation for Linux on LinuxONE and Z
Leverage IBM LinuxONE to achieve your sustainability goals.
A new redpaper was added to the Other resources tab of the Technical resources section.
Titles were added to resources in the Technical resources section.
Several links in the How to get started section were updated.
The Learn tab of the How to get started section was updated to link to the new documentation for IBM Secure Execution.
Updates were made to all sections, including adding the related solution, Journey to sustainability with IBM LinuxONE.
Various updates on the Solutions and Total cost of ownership tabs of the How to get started section for currency.
Various updates to reflect recently announced models.
On the Plan and order tab of the How to get started section, the links to documentation now include recently announced models.
On the Learn about LinuxONE tab of the How to get started section, the sections about resiliency, availability, and sustainability have been edited for clarity.
On the Learn about LinuxONE tab of the How to get started section, the link for more information about Hyper Protect Virtual Servers now goes to the documentation. In the Technical resources section, the tile for the Hyper Protect Virtual Servers content solution has been removed, because the content solution has been removed.
Information about Hyper Protect Data Controller was removed, as it is withdrawn.
Information about sustainability was added.
Information was updated to reflect the availability of LinuxONE Emperor 4.
Links to Compass L, the technical exchange platform for Linux on Z and LinuxONE, were added.
An overview video was added to the Introduction section.
A video was added to the hybrid cloud section of the Learn about LinuxONE tab. A video, Linux on LinuxONE: Enterprise Key Management for Pervasive Encryption of Data Volumes, was added to the Technical resources section.
A video, The z15 Core of LinuxONE, was added to the Learn about LinuxONE tab of the How to get started section and to the Technical resources section.
The Total cost of ownership tab in the How to get started section links to a new TCO calculator.
- Updates for the new LinuxONE Express offering were added to the Introduction section and to the Plan and order tab of the How to get started section.
- Resources were added to the Technical resources section.
- The video in the Consolidation section of the Learn tab is new.
- Links to IBM PartnerWorld were added to the Solutions tab of the How to get started section and to the Other resources tab of the Technical resources section.
- Links to new videos were added to the Multimedia tab of the Technical resources section.
- A link to a LinuxONE channel on IBM Media Center was added to the Multimedia tab of the Technical resources section.
- A summary site planning checklist was added to the Plan and order tab of the What to expect section.
- Minor edits were made for accessibility and usability.
A link to Hybrid cloud: The best of all worlds was added to the Learn about LinuxONE tab and to the Other resources tab of the Technical resources section.
- In the What to expect section, the information on the Learn tab was expanded and reorganized, and links to Installation Manual for Physical Planning were added to the Plan and Order tab.
- New resources were added to the Technical resources section, including a new tab for product libraries.
A link to the LinuxONE Community Cloud was added to the Set Up and Start tab of the What to expect section, and to the Other resources tab of the Technical resources section.
The Learn about LinuxONE tab was updated to reflect the new air-cooled, single-frame model. On the Solutions tab, the link to information about open source software was changed.
Data Privacy Passports was added to the Other resources tab of the Technical resources section.
Some content was edited, including the section on virtualization. Links to Lab Services and to IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services were added to the Technical resources section.
Some content was edited, including content in the section “How does LinuxONE compare to x86?” Use the link in that section for comparisons of LinuxONE to x86 servers.
1 Consolidating Linux workloads on 5 IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 systems instead of running them on compared x86 servers under similar conditions can reduce energy consumption by 75%, space by 50%, and the CO2e footprint by over 850 metric tons annually. DISCLAIMER: Compared 5 IBM Machine Type 3931 Max 125 model consists of three
2 DISCLAIMER: IBM internal data based on measurements and projections was used in calculating the expected
value. Necessary components include IBM z16; IBM