On 08/16/2010 09:05 AM, Alan Altmark wrote:
[snip of some excellent points made by Alan....]
What IBM *has* announced in a Statement of Direction is that in the
future z/VM will have the ability to move a running virtual machine
from one LPAR to another. This improves the availability of the
virtual machine dramatically for planned hw or z/VM outages, but it
doesn't go to 100% since you can still have an unplanned outage (the
network, the server, the LPAR, z/VM, or the guest).
Note that the ability to move a running virtual machine as stated in the
Statement of Direction that Alan mentions has two caveats:
1) the guest virtual machine to be moved must be running Linux, so no
moving z/OS, CMS, VSE, etc. based servers.
2) The move is restricted to LPARs on the same CEC, so no moving from
one z10 box to another z10 someplace else.
Still, it will be a very good capability to have for situations where
z/VM needs to be taken down for some reason.
So, taken literally, the request cannot be achieved on any platform.
I can't imagine why They give a rat's behind whether a server is up
or down. Presumably They only care whether an *application* is
available. Solving application availability by making it a server
problem is an architectural error of the highest order. Making
servers more available during planned outages helps to keep the
*applications'* HA elements up and running. (Imagine if the
International Space Station had only one coolant pump active at any
one time.)
Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott
--
Dave Jones
V/Soft
www.vsoft-software.com
Houston, TX
281.578.7544
