Getting Started with PowerVM Lx86

IBM® PowerVM™ Lx86 brings new benefits to customers and application providers who want the reliability and flexibility of System p™ in their Linux® environment yet use applications that have not yet been ported to the platform. IBM PowerVM Lx86 allows most Linux x86 binaries to run unchanged on POWER™ systems using translation software that translates x86 instructions dynamically to POWER instructions and transforms x86 Linux system calls into calls to the POWER Linux kernel. It helps the consolidation effort by allowing Linux x86 applications to be consolidated onto Linux Power partitions along side AIX® partitions.

This IBM Redpaper publication can help you understand how to optimize your IT environment by running x86 Linux applications within a Linux on POWER environment. If you are running Linux on POWER environments and x86 Linux environments, you can lower Total Cost of Ownership by consolidating servers using IBM System p virtualization.

This paper shows the planning and installation choices as well as hints and tips to bring the most value to the IBM PowerVM Lx86 solution.

This paper is intended for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and their customers to assist them in understanding and installing IBM PowerVM Lx86. Managers can use this paper as they set server strategies. System administrators can also use this paper as they install IBM PowerVM Lx86 with applications.

• IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization (PowerVM) Best Practices, REDP-4194-00
• Integrated Virtual Ethernet Adapter Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-4340-00
• IBM AIX Continuous Availability Features, REDP-4367-00

Publish Date
04 June 2008

Last Update
07 July 2008

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Author(s)

Stephen Hochstetler is an IT Specialist. He writes extensively and teaches IBM classes worldwide on all areas of Linux, System p, and Tivoli. Before joining the ITSO, Stephen worked in Tivoli Services as a network management specialist.

• Stephen Hochstetler

Andre Luiz de Araujo Castro is a Senior Field Technical Sales Support (FTSS) for IBM Brazil working for the System p sales team. He has 19 years of experience in the IT related environment. He has worked at IBM for nine years, and as an FTSS for the last seven years, supporting the System p sales team in technical presales activities related to Linux, AIX, System p, and BladeCenter.

• Andre Luiz de Araujo Castro

Nigel Griffiths is a Linux on POWER Technical Advocate based in the U. K. but in a European role. He has 27 years of experience in the UNIX performance, database, kernel, and development field. He has worked at IBM for 14 years in UNIX services, benchmarking, and product introduction and is a Technical Focus Group leader. He has developed the free and popular nmon performance monitor for AIX and Linux. He has written extensively on performance tuning, Advanced POWER Virtualization (APV), and Linux on POWER.

• Nigel Griffiths

Narender Ramireddy is an Advisory Software Engineer in the IBM Developer Relations organization. A key technical resource in the Chiphopper Dallas Technical Solution Center team, he currently works with ISV's in porting Linux applications to IBM platform.

• Narender Ramireddy

Kay Tate is a Senior Program Manager in the ISV Business Strategy and Solutions Enablement organization. She has 37 years of experience in supercomputing, standards, and business application fields. She has written extensively on standards, Linux, and cross-platform Linux support for business applications. She is also a member of the Linux Standard Base Steering Committee.

• Kay Tate

IBM Form Number
REDP-4298-01

Number of pages

60