Secure Execution for IBM z15 arriving with New Models

IBM announced the latest additions to its IBM z15 series:

• IBM z15 Model T02
• IBM LinuxONE III Model LT2

A substantial part of the announcement is a new feature called Secure Execution. For a brief overview, see here. Secure Execution will become available in the following Linux distributions as announced by the respective distribution partners:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• SUSE Enterprise Linux
• Canonical's Ubuntu

We will publish more details on Secure Execution later. The impatient with an interest in lower level technical details might want to check out the presentations here and here.

KVM at SHARE Fort Worth 2020

Yes, we will be at SHARE in Fort Worth, TX, February 23-28!
Meet us at the following session in the Linux and VM/Virtualization track:

• KVM on IBM Z News (Session #26219): Latest news on our development work with the open source community

SLES 12 SP5 released

SLES 12 SP5 is out! See this section in the release notes for a detailed look at IBM Z-specific changes in support of KVM.
Otherwise, the update ships the following code levels:

• Linux kernel 4.12 (SP4: 4.12, unchanged),
• QEMU v3.1 (SP4: v2.11), and
• libvirt v5.1 (SP4: v4.0).

See previous blog entries on QEMU v2.12 and v3.0, and libvirt v4.7 and v4.10 for further details on new features that become available by the respective package updates.
Also take note of this article, which adds further details on IBM z15 support.

Documentation: New Performance Papers

Two new performance papers on KVM network performance were published:

• Best Practices and Tuning Recommendations
• Exploitation of IP Routing

See also the Performance Hot topics page in IBM Knowledge Center.

QEMU v4.2 released

QEMU v4.2 is out. For highlights from a KVM on Z perspective see the Release Notes.

Webinar: Dynamically provisioning resources to KVM hosted Linux virtual servers

Abstract
Are you just getting started with KVM? In this session we review dynamic provisioning and de-provisioning processor, memory, disk storage, and network connectivity to your KVM host and the guest virtual servers. Examples include both graphical management and command line interfaces. Come and see how simple it can be to manage your servers.

Speaker
Richard Young, Executive IT Specialist, IBM Systems

Registration
Register here. You can check the system requirements here.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Replay & Archive
All sessions are recorded. For the archive as well as a replay and handout of this session and all previous webcasts see here.

Documentation: KVM Virtual Server Management Update

Intended for KVM virtual server administrators, this book illustrates how to set up, configure, and operate Linux on KVM instances and their virtual devices running on the KVM host and IBM Z hardware.

This major update includes information about VFIO pass-through devices, virtual server setup with the virt-install command, setting up virtual switches with VNIC characteristics, and other features that are available with the latest versions of QEMU and libvirt.

You can download the .pdf here.