Migrating from ibm to hpe
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This document discusses migrating mission-critical workloads from IBM Power Systems running AIX to HPE x86 servers running Linux. It addresses common reasons for migrating such as high costs of IBM Power, lack of software vendor support, and need for cloud-ready systems. The document then describes HPE's comprehensive migration process framework and how it addresses planning, implementation, testing and support. It seeks to alleviate concerns about disruption, desired operating environment and adequate ongoing support. Examples of successful customer migrations are also provided.
Migrating from ibm to hpe
- 1. Migrating from IBM Power Systems to HPE x86 servers Moving mission-critical workloads to HPE x86 servers Contents Why IBM Power customers are migrating to HPE x86 servers......................................................................................................................................................2 Addressing common migration concerns...........................................................................................................................................................................................................2 What is the actual migration process?............................................................................................................................................................................................................3 How can I ensure that the migration won’t disrupt business operations?.....................................................................................................................4 Will I end up with the overall operating environment that I want?.......................................................................................................................................4 Will my new environment be adequately supported?......................................................................................................................................................................6 Proven success............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Technical white paper
- 2. Technical white paper Page 2 Why IBM Power customers are migrating to HPE x86 servers IBM Power AIX customers are facing ever-increasing demands on their business processing and business support systems. They must deliver more strategic value for the business and move faster while reducing cost and risk, and continue evolving systems and applications innovatively, to meet the growing challenges of our always-on world rapidly and reliably. To meet these challenges and not be left behind, businesses and their IT departments are assessing their options in moving away from expensive, closed, proprietary systems like IBM Power AIX so they may maintain the stability yet enhance the agility of their mission-critical business-processing, database, and decision support workloads. Some of the reasons for migrating include: 1. High costs: The TCO of Power Aix vs. x86 Linux running a similar major ISV application is about one third higher. A similarly equipped HPE Superdome X vs. an IBM E880 with Linux is 35 percent less expensive over a three-year calculated TCO. And the difference is 41 percent when compared to an IBM E880 running AIX.1 IBM Power also has higher ongoing licensing, vendor and user support, database, hardware, training costs. 2. ISV evaporation, where ISVs are no longer choosing to support IBM Power and new software is available only on Linux.2 3. Cloud-ready systems are needed with industry-standard virtualization and cloud tools. 4. Future-ready—Linux and x86 is the choice for cloud Linux = ultra-modern OS that delivers cost savings, rapid innovation, stable UNIX®-like functionality; the software of the future is on Linux; most public clouds run compute, storage, and virtual machines on Linux. IBM Power offers users a limited selection of operating systems, hypervisors, databases, and other software resources. As a result, IBM AIX and PowerLinux environments cannot support the rich tools and new technologies that are dramatically accelerating the pace of innovation in the x86 server environment. Linux on IBM Power still can’t support VMware®. This is a big disadvantage as the majority of enterprises have standardized on VMware vSphere® or Microsoft® Hyper-V for virtualization and cloud enablement. Linux on IBM Power still can’t support Windows® software such as SQL Server 2016 or applications. This is an inhibitor for customers wishing to take advantage of Microsoft’s latest software. IBM has announced support for standard distribution Linux on IBM Power. But, third-party applications don’t automatically run on PowerLinux—they need to be certified on the Power platform. IBM Power customers must recompile and re-test Linux-based ISV applications on IBM Power resulting in delay, cost, and uncertainty.3 When new ISV applications versions are released, customers must again re-compile and test. HPE’s x86 systems are supported by Linux ISVs right out of the box, with no re-compilation or testing required. IBM’s recent decision to exit POWER processor manufacturing also created concern about the future viability of the Power Systems platform. Addressing common migration concerns A successful migration addresses current needs in the context of long-term business and technology roadmaps. So, it is important to integrate migration concerns into IT strategy development, even if a migration is not imminent. Common migration concerns include: • What is the actual migration process? • How can I ensure that the migration won’t disrupt business operations? • Will I end up with the overall operating environment that I want? • Will my new environment be adequately supported? 1 HPE internal study on TCO, 2016 2 Gartner estimates independent software vendor (ISV) investment and support in UNIX will shrink 75% between 2015 and 2020. 3 IBM PowerLinux ran on IBM Power 7 systems and is IBM’s big endian version of Linux incompatible with Linux ISV Apps. It has been superseded by “Linux on IBM Power Systems” which comprises standard distribution Linux from Red Hat® v7.1, SUSE v12 and Ubuntu v14.04.2 or later and runs on IBM Power 8.
- 3. Technical white paper Page 3 What is the actual migration process? HPE manages a migration using a comprehensive migration process framework (Figure 1). The framework addresses the steps required for a successful transition between platforms. Figure 1. HPE migration process framework The migration process begins with planning phases. In these phases, HPE works with each customer to understand their business and technical drivers for migration, develop a valid business case, and analyze technical risks and requirements. For example, the application analysis and planning phase might identify the following requirements: • Hardware/hypervisor layer—determines whether the underlying hardware platform is 32- or 64-bit, and whether the specific platform architecture of the processor is RISC, CISC, or EPIC. For instance, IBM POWER processor systems are RISC-based, while x86-based Intel® Xeon® processors are CISC-based. • Operating system level—considers the byte ordering (endianness) of the current platform and the future target platform. For example, IBM AIX Power Systems are big endian systems, while x86 processors are little endian systems. • Application level—analyzes code recompile, addressing any differences in the compiler versions or products between the platforms, changes in system API calls, shell environment, and user or system command options. • Source platform—considers that an application might be built in 32-bit mode, which would require rebuilding to a 64-bit–compliant architecture to take advantage of capabilities such as a larger memory footprint provided by the target 64-bit x86 platform. • Server operating system operations level—potentially modifies existing system management processes. For example, AIX system administrators use tools such as SMIT to perform most administrative tasks, in contrast to the Webmin, linuxconf, and YaST tool sets available on Linux. Activities Deliverables • Business drivers • Business process analysis • Change impact analysis • Total cost of ownership analysis • Develop business case • Business case • Migration engineering guide • Migration plan and proposal • Migration automation tools • Pilot results • Program code • Database • Environment setup • Test results and benchmarks • Roll-out plan • Support processes • Support infrastructure • Business needs • Application analysis (As-is) • Alternatives analysis (To-be) • Risk analysis • Proof-of-concept • Developing project estimates and plans • Tools specification (Language, DB, platform, and data) • Selection/creation or customization • Pilot source conversion • DB conversion • Add-on analysis • Program conversion • Unit testing and functional verification • Integration testing • System testing • Documentation • Acceptance • Interface development testing • Stress testing • Performance tuning • Installation • Roll-out planning • User testing • Support processes • Maintenance support Business analysis Application analysis and planning Pilot and tools customization Application migration Pre-implementation Implementation
- 4. Technical white paper Page 4 As part of the planning process, HPE also works with customers to identify candidates for pilot migration and to implement a proof of concept (POC) on the target platform (if required). Typical deliverables include a business case, a total-cost-of-ownership/return-on-investment (TCO/ROI) analysis report, and a migration proposal. Once planning is complete, customers can move onto implementation. The implementation phase of the migration project involves identifying or developing tools, and converting application and database code to execute on the target platform. The migrated application is tested using existing test cases, which are provided by the customer and supported by HPE. The migrated application is then provided to the customer for deployment. HPE supports the deployment process by assisting in the environment setup and educating the customer about best practices in using the target platform, tuning the new environment, and training the IT support teams. With this comprehensive migration framework and a staff of experienced consultants, HPE has helped hundreds of customers successfully migrate from IBM systems to HPE x86 servers. How can I ensure that the migration won’t disrupt business operations? One advantage of migrating to an x86 systems platform is the opportunity for phased migration. Because x86 systems can co-exist with a legacy IBM infrastructure, administrators can migrate specific capabilities and ensure that systems are operational and problem-free before continuing with additional phases. For example, administrators might choose to connect HPE ProLiant servers to an existing storage infrastructure and migrate other infrastructure elements as appropriate. Legacy management tools such as Tivoli Software can remain in use through each phase. HPE consulting services can help administrators strategically plan the timing and order of a phased migration to minimize risk and support ongoing productivity. HPE also offers training that can help integrate the new environment into the overall infrastructure while users continue working with familiar applications. Training to enhance x86 systems skills not only supports a smooth migration process, but also helps ensure that administrators remain valued members of the IT team following the migration. Will I end up with the overall operating environment that I want? This is a critical concern for AIX on Power Systems administrators. A strong assurance that the new environment will provide the functionality and resiliency required by users can be a gating factor in the migration decision. Comprehensive functionality HPE ProLiant and HPE Integrity Superdome X servers provide comprehensive functionality by supporting products from multiple vendors. Migrating will give AIX on Power Systems users far more opportunities to select operating systems, hypervisors, databases, Web servers, email servers, and other offerings from independent software vendors (ISVs) and open source providers that spur innovation. Dependable resiliency HPE offers a comprehensive suite of resiliency and availability capabilities on selected ProLiant servers. These capabilities include: • Enhanced application availability from HPE Advanced Error Recovery and HPE Memory Quarantine, which increase memory and processor reliability • Reduced downtime via HPE-validated and certified firmware and driver compatibility • Increased security with support for unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) mode, Secure Boot, HPE Secure Encryption, and Intel® Secure Key • Improved reliability and data protection with HPE Smart Array Controllers featuring 4G cache, Advanced Data Mirroring, and HPE SmartDrive technology • Industry-leading four-second failover recovery and zero planned downtime with HPE Serviceguard Solutions for Linux
- 5. Technical white paper Page 5 HPE is also bringing additional mission-critical functionality from Intel® Itanium®-based HPE Integrity servers to Intel Xeon-based Integrity Superdome X servers. Among the many Superdome X RAS capabilities are: • Fault-tolerant crossbar (Xbar) design offering: – Hard partitioning for a standard x86 platform (an industry first) for reliability – Fully fault-resilient fabric (traffic is automatically re-routed around any failed links) – Passive midplanes with end-to-retry and link failover • Onboard Administrator with built-in Analysis Engine providing error-correcting, self-healing, and advanced diagnostics Accurate sizing HPE helps customers cost-effectively achieve the many benefits of x86 systems, as well as the benefits of specific solutions such as HPE Serviceguard Solutions for Linux, by accurately sizing the target environment during the migration process. Sizing is addressed in the business analysis and application analysis and planning phases of the HPE Migration Framework (Figure 1). Correctly sizing the target environment for capacity, performance, and budget—now and in the future—is critical to migration success. HPE migration experts use multiple methodologies and analysis tools to size various system elements. The sizing recommendations are tailored to the migration needs of each customer. And since migrations are often implemented in phases, HPE provides sizing recommendations for each migration phase. Sizing considerations include: • ISV and in-house developed applications that will be migrated • Database inventory, including the number of data rows and instances, the size per instance, and utilization and performance information such as Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) reports • Development environment and tools that can be migrated to achieve the desired functionality in the target environment • Level of target server virtualization • Level of data consolidation • Application latency • Version and licensing management • Network bandwidth and WAN accelerators • Data replication, capacity, and performance, and storage mapping • Inventory management • IP address changes Table 1 is an example of customer-provided guidelines that identify their preferred mixes of virtualized, consolidated, and dedicated servers in the target environment. The sizing process captures this desired mix of platforms. Table 1. Customer sizing guideline sample Workload to migrate Virtualize Consolidate Dedicated server Target node Dev/test 85% 15% 0% Virtualized Production database 0% 0% 100% Bare metal Enterprise applications 70% 25% 5% Virtualized or non-virtualized; Non-bare metal
- 6. Technical white paper Page 6 Sizing activities also include working with the customer to compile a detailed inventory of servers to migrate, as well as related storage and networking resources. Once the initial estimates of target servers and quantities are sized, the sizing effort continues with addressing details such as target clock speeds, active number of cores, RAM, and projected peak CPU utilization per workload. These customized sizing activities meet comprehensive business needs by balancing budget and performance requirements. Comprehensive information shows that ProLiant—and even more so Superdome X servers, powered by Intel Xeon processors, deliver comparable or superior performance to POWER processors with vastly lower capital and operating costs. HPE migration experts have detailed TCO calculators, which quantify the components of cost reduction that are likely to be realized in the target environment. Will my new environment be adequately supported? Ensuring an effective post-migration support environment begins during the migration. Migration consultants must understand the differences between the current and new platforms so they can ensure that the new application and operating environments work properly. Those differences can be extensive in any migration, and are especially important when moving from a vendor-specific environment to an x86 environment. Once the new infrastructure is in place, support services offer a variety of options, which take advantage of evolving technologies that apply intelligent services to the support arena. HPE offers comprehensive database, server, and application migration consulting services. These services were developed based on many years of experience and many customer migrations. Once the migration is complete, the HPE Technology Services organization offers a single point of contact for support and a wide range of services with a global reputation for quality. Among these are: • HPE Proactive Care Service—a significant support-related advantage of x86 systems is fast problem resolution. Proactive Care provides predictive analytics, preventative services, and fast access to experts for specific devices. The innovative, automated HPE service experience also requires fewer steps than most proprietary system services. • HPE Proactive Care Advanced—the Proactive Care Advanced support service builds on Proactive Care, adding personalized support for more critical systems. • HPE Datacenter Care—Datacenter Care is a flexible, cost-effective service that aligns support to services with specific business needs and offers guidance for evolving an IT environment. • HPE Insight Remote Support (Insight RS)—this solution continuously monitors the environment and provides alerts and diagnostics. The information is sent to the HPE call center staff, which can remotely log in and determine if the problem can be resolved immediately or requires an onsite visit. • HPE Insight Online—HPE Insight Online, located on the HPE Support Center, can automatically display devices remotely monitored by HPE Insight Remote Support. It allows customers, HPE, and HPE Authorized Channel Partners to track service events and related support cases easily, view device configurations, and proactively monitor HPE contracts and warranties. HPE servers with Proactive Care Service, Insight Remote Support, and Insight Online have experienced 66 percent less unplanned downtime and 43 percent fewer unplanned downtime incidents.4 4 IDC White Paper Sponsored by HPE Intel, The Business Value of the HPE Proactive Insight Experience, Doc no. 239199, March 2013
- 7. Technical white paper Page 7 Proven success Customers around the world are moving beyond legacy environments to embrace HPE’s x86 platforms. The following customer experiences illustrate how transitioning from IBM environments to HPE ProLiant and Integrity servers has helped organizations achieve their business objectives through more efficient data center operations. • NTUC Fair Price is Singapore’s largest grocery retailer. Founded in 1973, it serves over 600,000 customers daily from over 190 supermarkets and convenience stores. The business owns stores, distribution centers, and food warehousing depots. In 2014, group revenue was $3.2 billion SGD. They decided to move their P7 UNIX platform, and for them it made sense to find a solution with the technical leader in the HANA market, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Also, on a project of this importance, they preferred a direct relationship with the vendor, and HPE spans hardware, software, implementation services and consultancy. – Read the story: Fair Price: IBM P7 to CS900 migration (case study) • Hypo Alpe Adria is the financial group for the Alps-Adriatic region, headquartered in Klagenfurt, Austria, and operates banking subsidiaries in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. Their key objectives were to meet requirements for compliance/disaster recovery, reduce complex multi-vendor, multi-architecture environment, modernize, and migrate the application to a new infrastructure platform to increase speed, efficiency, flexibility, adaptability, and security. Their move from IBM Power to HPE resulted in more agility and faster time-to-value plus lower costs: Lowered total costs by 39 percent; reduced maintenance costs by 78 percent over four years. – Read the story: Hypo Alpe Adria Bank (case study) • Indian bicycle manufacturer Avon Cycles Ltd. chose HPE systems to run its SAP HANA® in-memory database, which has accelerated the production of reports by up to 90 per cent. This has enabled it to improve supply chain management, increase staff productivity, and save money. This resulted in 50 percent faster Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) runtimes, 80 percent reduction in backup and restoration requirements achieved without any downtime, and 45 percent faster execution of business operations. – Read the story: Avon Cycles Limited: IBM to SAP HANA (case study) • Multipharma is a pharmaceutical distributor managing 90 retail pharmacies across Egypt. They modernized their IBM environment by moving to HPE’s mission critical SAP HANA solution. Their key objective was to provide superior customer service by increasing performance and scalability for their mission-critical SAP ERP solution. The project reduced transaction processing from 2–3 hours to 10 minutes, accelerated data collection time from a full day to 1–2 hours, and improved sharing of inventory data between pharmacies to improve customer satisfaction and help boost sales. – Read the story: Egyptian pharmaceutical distributor modernizes business with HPE solution for SAP HANA • MAGLITE is a US-based manufacturer of adjustable-beam machined aluminum flashlights, renowned for their iconic design, function, and durability. They migrated their mission-critical ERP solution from AS/400 to HPE Superdome X Solution to support new Windows-based functionality without sacrificing performance and reliability. They gained 20 times better RAS for improved end-user experience, increased performance by 45 percent, and lowered licensing costs by 20 percent; while able to support application migration and ongoing growth with no additional IT staff. – Read the story: MAGLITE® manufacturer modernizes mission-critical ERP system with HPE Conclusion Increasing costs of ownership, support requirements and costs, ISV evaporation, and scarcity of staff trained for IBM Power are some of the business reasons IBM Power customers are looking to migrate to HPE. In addition, however, increasing business demands that require much more responsive systems, as well as adoption of new technologies, platform standardization, and consolidation, are also technology-related catalysts for migration. Administrators of IBM AIX on Power Systems environments also sense the uncertain future of the IBM Power platform as IBM repositions itself as a cognitive computing and software leader. But whether applications are running on IBM AIX, an IBM mainframe infrastructure, Oracle Solaris, or another proprietary environment, migrating to x86 systems offers a modernized, more responsive infrastructure with lower TCO. And, with proven processes and expertise, including decades of experience in migrating IBM customers to open systems, HPE has demonstrated that migrating business workloads to ProLiant and Superdome X servers is feasible, beneficial, and low-risk. Administrators can retain the reliability of their current environments, and add the responsiveness, lower TCO, and flexibility that HPE’s x86 systems provide.
- 8. Technical white paper Sign up for updates © Copyright 2014–2016 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Intel, Intel Itanium, Itanium, Intel Xeon, and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. SAP and SAP HANA are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and in several other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. VMware and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other third-party trademark(s) is/are the property of their respective owner(s). 4AA5-5973ENW, October 2016, Rev. 3 Learn more at hpe.com/info/smartchoice hpe.com/info/superdomex hpe.com/info/riscmigration