IBM is preparing a major iSeries announcement for the end of March.
User expectations are high after a prolonged absence of any news
about the former AS/400 range.
Nicholas Enticknap.
The iSeries is the only IBM server platform not to be refreshed
since the eServer branding was introduced last October. As a
result, users will be keen to see whether the company has addressed
two obvious weaknesses: the inability to support Linux and the
primitive support for storage area networks (San).
IBM promised a year ago that Linux support would come to the
iSeries, as it has to all its other servers, but the company has
added nothing to that statement since. Ray Titcombe, chairman of
the IBM Computer Users Association and an AS/400 user, said, "They
are falling very short of the mark in terms of taking up
Linux."
So far, IBM has said only that the iSeries will support the
Linux kernel in a secondary logical partition on selected models.
Presumably that means the more powerful 800 series models, or their
replacements.
The decision to run Linux in a partition is interesting as it is
a different approach from the way IBM supports Windows NT/2000 on
the iSeries. This is achieved by installing a separate processor
which runs NT co-operatively with OS/400 within the box. This
plug-in card has been known by a variety of names - until recently
the Integrated Netfinity Server - but, following the launch last
week of the 850MHz version, is now called the Integrated xSeries
Server.
This form of NT support has proved popular, with one in five
iSeries models being shipped with at least one plug-in card, up to
a maximum of 16.
IBM has been promoting the range as an ideal vehicle for NT file
and print server consolidation. As Linux servers are increasingly
being used for these relatively simple applications, it makes sense
for IBM to make the same push. An iSeries server can have up to 24
partitions, one per processor.
Independent analyst Phil Payne said he is not convinced that IBM
will announce Linux for iSeries in the March launch. But Titcombe
believes it will definitely harm the credibility of the iSeries if
IBM does not announce Linux support soon. "In the longer term, it
will definitely put the box at a disadvantage," he said.
With Sans, IBM has good reason either to introduce support now,
or to delay doing so indefinitely. There are factions in IBM
fighting both corners and it is not clear whether the pro-San lobby
will win.
Currently, an AS/400 or iSeries can only be attached to a San
using a SCSI adaptor, which offers a prehistoric level of
performance and limits the distance between the server and the San
storage to a maximum of 25m. This is a consequence of IBM's
decision in the mid-1990s to move disc storage under the covers.
The stated reason was to improve performance; the effect was to
kill off the plug-compatible competition.
As Titcombe put it, "If it makes the AS/400 open-ended, a lot of
other suppliers' products will go into those accounts. It doesn't
have to be much - anything less than 100% means IBM is losing out.
So, while acknowledging that users are pressing IBM to introduce
San support, I don't think that will happen now."
Payne agreed, and added that IBM's San strategy is being driven
by its software subsidiary Tivoli which is weak on AS/400. "I'd
wait for a Tivoli commitment to the platform before expecting
anything," he said.
Tony Lock, senior analyst at Bloor Research, takes the opposite
view, "I would not expect IBM to try to hold back the tide," he
said.
He pointed out that IBM has been concentrating on adding
features such as capacity upgrade on demand and probably wants
these capabilities to be available on all platforms, including the
iSeries. "I would expect them to do anything they can to enhance
their capabilities in the storage area," he said.