Ubuntu 18.04 LTS available for Linux on Z and LinuxONE

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.5 released

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 3 (SLES 12 SP3) released

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.4 released

z14

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 2 (SLES 12 SP2) released

On November 8th 2016 eleven months after the last service pack  SUSE has released the latest updated to their flag ship server distribution. SUSE also has a blog post with some more details.

The kernel level for 12.2 is kernel-4.4.21-69.1. This is a jump in the kernel version from the old 3.12 based kernel. It's the same major kernel level that's being used by Canonical for Ubuntu 16.04. And with that kernel a lot of new functionality is delivered. SUSE and IBM worked hard to ensure that for applications it behaves the same.

What's new (details see documentation and release notes):

• The release notes states that SUSE now fully supports MariaDB. They have version 10.0.27 inlcuded
• Networking:
• For OSA the specification of a portname is no longer needed
• Hipersockets can now be bridged to Erhernet
• Layer2 offloads are enabled
• The 10 GbE RoCE card now also supports the DAPL/OFED stack on
• Encryption and security updates
• Glibc has now the first set of SIMD exploitations for z13
• Toolchain module updates
• Full KVM host support - so you can now run SLES12 as a Hypervisor on System z an Linux boxes 
• ....

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete SLES 12 documentation
• SLES 12.2 release notes (s390x version)
• z Systems / s390x specific information 
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (z Systems / s390x version)  
• release notes for SDK (z Systems / s390x version)
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP2
• Whitepaper on SUSE's module concept
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• Docker support statement

(updated 5/2/2017)

IBM z Systems Processor Optimization Primer

For z Systems optimizations are essential to keep the consolidation ratio high and make the best use of the hardware. As more and more open source software is ported to Linux on z / LinuxONE Kevin Shum has posted his excellent "BM z Systems Processor Optimization Primer" on developerworks.

There is a long version with all the details and a shorter summary presented at last SHARE.

This is a "must read" for everyone working on compilers and inline assembly on z.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.3 released

On November 3rd 2016 Red Hat released the next regular update to their flag ship operating system.

The kernel level for 7.3 is kernel-3.10.0-514.el7.

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete RHEL 7 documentation
• RHEL 7.3 release notes
• RHEL 7.3 known issues
• RHEL 7.3 kernel CVE and bugfix documentation
• RHEL 7 installation guide
• RHEL 7 installation guide for z
• RHEL 7 performance tuning guide
• IBM documentation on developerworks (7.2 version)
• RHEL limits
• RHEL lifecycle with the end date for the Extended Update Service (EUS)
• RHEL7 package list

From a Linux on z Systems perspective the major enhancements are in the tool chain. The compiler can now can exploit the SIMD instructions of z13.

Also in September Red Hat achieved EAL4+ / common criteria certification for RHEL 7.1:

• Red Hat press release
• Red Hat certification overview
• BSI certification report  

 (updated 4/11/2016)

Java performance improvements

IBM continues to improve the performance of Java on the mainframe. To show this I've taken a snapshot of the performance improvements during the latest Java releases. The operating system was a SLES 12 SP1 and this was run on  a z13 LPAR with 6 cores and SMT enabled.

As you can see you there is a solid 33% percent improvement going from the first Java 7 version to the latest Java 8 SR3 FP10 version.

So the first recommendation when you are having Java performance problems with Linux on System z is to try a more advanced Java version.

New whitepaper "Hardware cryptographic support of IBM z Systems for OpenSSH in RHEL 7.2 and SLES 12 SP1"

How to submit requirements for LinuxONE, Linux on z Systems, z/VM and KVM on z Systems

KVM as well as LinuxONE is now part of the " Request for Enhancement (RFE) Community". So as described in my earlier post you can now also submit requirements for LinuxONE and KVM to IBM. To do this open the  community start page and then select  the "Submit" tab.
After entering in your IBM ID, you can fill in your requirement. In the product pull down please select one of:

• Linux on System z
• IBM LinuxONE
• KVM for IBM z Systems
• z/VM

Fill in the other fields as good as you can and then click on submit.

Canonical is handling requirements for the Ubuntu distribution through Launchpad. Open a bug there, put requirement in the title and tag it with s390x.

Red Hat has a defined RFE process for their customers. So after logging into RHN follow the instructions to submit a request.

SUSE requirements can be submitted to their sales reps as well as using  the "feedback" button at the bottom of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z web site.

(Updated 6/28/2016)

KVM for IBM z Systems V1.1.1 and KVM survey

Together with the z13s IBM also announced the next version KVM for IBM z Systems V1.1.1 (search for 1.1.1 in the announcement). It will be available March 18, 2016. Here are some of the enhancements it will offer:

• Simultaneous multi threading (SMT) support in the host. The guests don't see the difference
• Support for the Vector Facility introduced in z13(s) (SIMD) to accelerate string operations and calculations
• Hypervisor enhancements including support for iSCSI and NFS
• Unattended installation capability of hypervisor for ease of installation

As this new product is continue to evolve at a fast pace, IBM has put up a survey for everyone interested to provide their input.

For the popular UI virt-manager a "howto build" is available. 

(updated 2/25/2016)

SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1) released

On December 22nd just in time for Christmas SUSE has released the latest updated to their flag ship server distribution.

The kernel level for 12.1 is kernel-3.12.49-11.1. As one of the top features this distribution is the first one, which allows full exploitation of the z13. And this distribution is so far the only one that's supported by IBM's version of KVM as well as Docker. SUSE has published a nice summary of the the z specific news.
And of course it has many bug fixes. So after the installation be sure to run an update to install the latest fixes from the maintweb. 

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete SLES 12 documentation
• SLES 12.1 release notes (s390x version)
• z Systems / s390x specific information 
• release notes for High Availability Extensions (z Systems / s390x version)  
• release notes for SDK (z Systems / s390x version)
• SUSE tuning guide updated to SP1 
• Whitepaper on SUSE's module concept
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• KVM support statement
• Docker support statement

A frequently asked question is about the location of the older libstdc++ libraries that are needed for compatibility with older software products. There are two locations:

• the oldest ones are in a package called compat, that you can install with zypper directly. It has libstdc++-3-libc6.2-2-2.10.0.so and libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3
• the libstdc++33 is part of the Legacy Module that SUSE provides. Add it to your repositories with yast2 repositories and then you can install. It contains the libstc++.so.5

(updated 1/20/2016)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.2 released

On November 19th 2015 Red Hat released the next regular update to their flag ship operating system.

The kernel level for 7.2 is kernel-3.10.0-327.el7. The number of technology previews for System z has been greatly reduced, successful testing allows now support for those features.

Here is my usual summary of links to more information:

• Complete RHEL 7 documentation
• RHEL 7.2 release notes
• RHEL 7.2 known issues
• RHEL 7.2 kernel CVE and bugfix documentation
• RHEL 7 installation guide
• RHEL 7 installation guide for z
• RHEL 7 performance tuning guide
• IBM documentation on developerworks
• RHEL limits
• RHEL lifecycle with the end date for the Extended Update Service (EUS)
• RHEL7 package list (now updated to include 7.2)

From a Linux on z Systems perspective this is a major step. This is the first distribution that supports SMT2 natively.So if you install it, you will have twice as many logical CPUs.

And this is the first Red Hat distribution that supports the High Availability and Resilient Storage Add-Ons. So far some restrictions apply, but they hopefully can be lifted in later releases.

(updated 4/26/2016) 

KVM for IBM z Systems

KVM 1.1.1 (new version) blog post

After the announcement in August, KVM for IBM z Systems is now generally available.  This takes the open source approach for virtualization to the mainframe. 

Here are a few links for further details:

• Announcement letter
• Supported in LPARs on zEC12, zBC12, z13 and newer machines (see announcement letter)
• Documention at the IBM Knowledgecenter and on Developerworks (pdf) 
• Redbook "Getting Started with KVM for IBM z Systems"
• LSPR numbers for KVM
• SUSE blog entry for the GA
• SUSE support statement for the upcomin SLES 12.1 in another blog entry: "With the next service pack release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z, full support for KVM for IBM z Systems will be provided."
• KVM for IBM z Systems presentation from LinuxCon
• Jens Freimann: Pushing the limits: 1000 guests per host and beyond and the presentation on YouTube
• Software support (expect this to grow over time)
• SAP application server
• IBM Software Product Compatibility Reports - select KVM for z as the hipervisor

If you encounter any problems, please open a PMR with IBM. 

(updated 12/07/2015) 

Minecraft on the Mainframe

LinuxCon video - Joran Siu

Joran Siu from the IBM Java team installed Minecraft Server on the mainframe. In this entertaining talk he shows the results and the optimizations used, some of them only available on zEC12 and z13.

Linux on System z - Financial Trading demo from LinuxCon

Donna Dillenberger is showing a pure open source demo on the mainframe combining all the new technologies like Spark, MongoDB, Postgres, MariaDB, Node.js, Docker, Chef etc.
It's using live analytics for streams from Twitter and S&P financial data, showing the power of realtime analysis on the mainframe.
She is also providing a look at the infrastrucure driving this and even shows a fail over from one site to another using Hyperswap.
Towards the end she is providing real performance data for some of the components used.
During this presentation your probably want to pause and playback to get all the information she packed into those 18 minutes. Here is a breakdown (minutes:seconds) for reference:

• 0:00: demonstration
• 7:48: a look at the infrastructure
• 11:22: failover by killing one storage subsystem
• 13:45: performance data
• 17:00: agility & summary

(updated 8/19/2015)

Node.js 1.2 for Linux on z is available on developerworks

IBM has updated the Node.js environment for the mainframe (SDK) to the latest stable community release (version 0.12.7).  You can find it here on developerworks. Besides functional enhancements it also contains an important security update for openssl. The release notes and the updated documentation are also available.

The Linux on z Systems downloads are now also linked from the official download side at nodejs.org right at the bottom of the page.

International Oracle on z Systems SIG Conference 2015 - presentations available

The presentations and some demos from the recent conference are availble for download. Besides the general overview presentations, there have been a few more specialized ones this time:

• Migrating to Oracle 12c database on Linux for z Systems
• Oracle System z Customer support and z Systems Support Update
• Oracle on z Systems CPU Reduction Tips 
• Oracle Databases on Linux for z Systems - PoC and beyond

You can also find the presentations from previous years on this site. 

Example for using Apache Spark on the mainframe

This YouTube video from Paul DiMarzio shows an interesting analytic example from the Hack Spark contest. Thanks Paul for creating this!