Practical Migration from x86 to LinuxONE

LinuxONE is a portfolio of hardware, software, and solutions for an enterprise-grade Linux environment. It has been designed to run more transactions faster and with more security and reliability specifically for the open community. It fully embraces open source-based technology.

Two servers are available for LinuxONE: The LinuxONE Emperor and Rockhopper.

The IBM LinuxONE Emperor server has these features:

Near limitless scaling and support of up to 8,000 virtual Linux servers on a single footprint
Intrinsic platform security, and safer and faster data encryption than x86
Faster critical workloads and near real-time insights with higher performance and throughput than x86 with a net lower cost per transaction
Lowered costs by managing fewer servers, reducing complexity, gaining unparalleled utilization and applying usage-based pricing

The IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper™ server has these features:
Unprecedented performance, security, and resiliency
Scale up and out with up to one million Docker containers per system
Manage more transactions more quickly with 34 percent greater capacity
Gain faster response times with massive high-performance I/O throughput
Faster insights with large memory configurations that are optimized for Linux
Delivery of data and services on the world's most secure Linux platform

Aside from still running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Servers, LinuxONE runs Ubuntu, which is popular on x86 hardware.
Ubuntu, which runs the cloud, smartphones, a computer that can remote control a planetary rover for NASA, many market-leading companies, and the Internet of Things, is now available on IBM LinuxONE servers. Together, these two technology communities deliver the perfect environment for cloud and DevOps. Ubuntu 16.04 on LinuxONE offers developers, enterprises, and Cloud Service Providers a scalable and secure platform for next generation applications that include OpenStack, KVM, Docker, and JuJu.

The following are reasons why you would want to optimize your servers through virtualization using LinuxONE:

Too many distributed physical servers with low utilization
A lengthy provisioning process that delays the implementation of new applications
Limitations in data center power and floor space
High total cost of ownership (TCO)
Difficulty allocating processing power for a dynamic environment

This IBM Redbooks® publication provides a technical planning reference for IT organizations that are considering a migration from their x86 distributed servers to LinuxONE. This book walks you through some of the important considerations and planning issues that you might encounter during a migration project. Within the context of a pre-existing UNIX based or x86 environment, it presents an end-to-end view of the technical challenges and methods necessary to complete a successful migration to LinuxONE.