Linux Community Magazine

The IBM pSeries line of servers, also known as IBM System p, was originally named RS/6000. These servers run the AIX, IBM i or Linux operating systems. The IBM pSeries line of servers has now been replaced by IBM Power Systems.

Virtualization and Server Consolidation

Using IBM's PowerVM virtualization technology for the pSeries, organizations can consolidate various applications from AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems on a single server. Server consolidation offers many advantages, including reducing the costs associated with maintaining multiple servers.PowerVM for the pSeries also provides resource virtualization for processors and input/output resources, which allows organizations to reduce the costs associated with maintaining the system by optimizing the amount of resources in use. Servers using virtualization can regulate shifting workload demands and adjust resource utilization for optimal performance without human intervention.

Energy Management

Rising energy prices have resulted in a need for energy efficient server solutions in order to control costs. Organizations can ease the costs associated with powering their data centers by monitoring energy usage. IBM's Active Energy Manager is a tool available for the pSeries that can monitor and control energy consumption for one server or multiple servers.

System administrators can create both long and short-term energy usage reports by means of a graphical interface. After using these reports to thoroughly analyze current energy use, the Active Energy Manager can be configured to implement energy saving measures such as dynamically adjusting fan speed according to the temperature of the room and switching off resources when they are not in use.

Virtualization and server consolidation also positively affect energy management by ensuring that systems are using only the resources they need.

Communication

To communicate with the IBM pSeries from your Windows PC, you will need to use a terminal emulator. Terminal emulators intercept and decipher the data stream so that your PC can communicate with the pSeries. One such terminal emulator is Zephyr's PASSPORT, which provides VT, SCO ANSI and Wyse 60 emulation.VT emulation includes DEC VT52, DEC VT100, VT220 and VT420 emulation. The VT220 and VT420 emulation types can be configured for 7-bit or 8-bit emulation. Configurable options for VT and SCO ANSI emulation can include:

- Return Key

The Return Key may be set to CR (Carriage Return) or CRLF (a combination of Carriage Return and Line Feed.)

- Answer Back Message

This option is used to establish a question and answer sequence between the host and the client. This message is limited to 20 characters. The answerback message is typically used to identify the terminal to the host by sending a message to the host automatically, without operator action. Hexadecimal is represented by the tilde and hex number. (A hexadecimal example is ~0D for hex 13, which represents the 13th ASCII character sequence.)

- Local Echo

This option echoes back each character typed; for instance, when p3 is typed, pp33 is displayed back because the host will also send back the p and the 3.

- Wrap Around

The Wrap around option permits typing beyond the 80-character limitation (on an 80 character-wide screen) by wrapping the continued line on to the next line.

- Line Transmit Mode

This option sends an entire line. Compare this to the normal character transmit mode, where each character is sent on a character-by-character basis.

- Reverse Screen ImageThis option reverses the background and foreground colors. For instance, the customary black background with green letters becomes a green background with black letters.

- Scroll Speed (Lines Per Second)

Determines the speed at which lines will scroll on the emulation screen.

Like VT220 and VT420 emulation, SCO ANSI emulation can also be used in 7-bit or 8-bit mode. The SCO ANSI keyboard layout is a superset of VT220. Special ANSI keys include function keys F1 through F12, and these same function keys used in conjunction with the Ctrl key, Shift key, and Ctrl + Shift keys.

In addition to some of the options listed above, configurable options for Wyse 60 emulation can include:

- Status Line

Both the Standard and Extended status lines display messages about the state of the emulation or application. The Extended status line displays additional editing status messages.

- Attribute Extent

This option determines whether display attributes only apply to characters written to the screen (Char), are active to the end of the line (Line) or the end of the page (Page).

- Auto Scroll

This setting determines what happens when the cursor is moved beyond the last line of the current page.

- Send Ack

Specifies whether an ASCII ACK character is sent to the host after certain commands have been executed.

Summary

Using VT, SCO ANSI, or Wyse 60 emulation in conjunction with the IBM pSeries offers virtualization, consolidation and energy management technologies that can significantly reduce the costs associated with enterprise data and application management.

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