# IBM Power7 780 Server



## Watuwengi (Jan 26, 2012)

Hi everyone am new to this forum.

I basically have a client who currently has a HP platform that's running on freebsd FreeBSD but he is expected to change in the near future to IBM systems. He asked for my take on whether the IBM systems will work with freebsd FreeBSD and not seeing freebsd FreeBSD listed by IBM I became worried if it would work does anyone have a take on this?

What's the upside and the downside, they intend to deploy;
1) 2 IBM power7 servers 780.
2) 10 IBM HS22 blades
3) 2 IBM SAN 3524 Express storage devices.

Everyone's contribution is most welcome.


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## vermaden (Jan 26, 2012)

Watuwengi said:
			
		

> They intend to deploy;
> 1) 2 IBM power7 servers 780.


From what I know IBM POWER is not YET supported (PowerPC/PowerPC64 are), but there is ongoing project to port FreeBSD to the IBM POWER hardware, there are already some bits working, here: http://www.freebsd.org/news/status/...tml#FreeBSD/powerpc64-on-IBM-pSeries-machines You can also check latest changes of that project here: http://freshbsd.org/search?branch=PROJECT_PSERIES



> 2) 10 IBM HS22 blades


This is just plain x86/amd64 hardware, FreeBSD supports that architecture.


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## da1 (Jan 26, 2012)

Everyone's probably going to hate me for this but why not use good old AIX? There's no way in HELL I'm going to believe anything else performs the same or better on that hardware. AIX was designed for IBM platforms.

PS: You could take advantage of LPARS/WPARS with AIX.


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## vermaden (Jan 26, 2012)

Have You ever had a 'pleasure' of using AIX 'package management'?


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## da1 (Jan 26, 2012)

My knowledge about the package management is close to null but I believe this is where smitty comes in. However, I did see some AIX'es (in my lifetime) and I've seen how tight they were integrated with the hardware. Also "played" with a HMC (LPARS/WPARS) and with several tape libraries (TS3500). Back then, we had power5's. Maybe things improved (package management-wise?).

Anyway, I'm a bit off-topic (guessing nostalgia kicked in).


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## estrabd (Feb 4, 2012)

vermaden said:
			
		

> Have You ever had a 'pleasure' of using AIX 'package management'?




It could be worse ...I like AIX - what about going with Plan 9 if you want to use a real Unix?

Update - just realized this is Power 7. Yeah, I'd go with AIX. =)


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## Watuwengi (Feb 7, 2012)

Hey guys the Power7 seems to be a very "special" processor. An old acquaintance told me they had succeed in using freebsd FreeBSD on their 770 server and he says that though it's challenging it works and works very well. I'll keep you guys posted as I am off to their HQ to see it for myself. Thanks everyone.


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## vermaden (Feb 7, 2012)

estrabd said:
			
		

> It could be worse ...I like AIX - what about going with Plan 9 if you want to use a real Unix?



The Plan 9 Wiki [1] says that ... 



> *Plan 9 is not Unix.* If you think of it as Unix, you may become frustrated when something doesn't exist or when it works differently than you expected. If you think of it as Plan 9, however, you'll find that most of it works very smoothly, and that there are some truly neat ideas that make things much cleaner than you have seen before.



[1] http://www.plan9.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/plan_9_wiki/


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## estrabd (Feb 7, 2012)

Okay, Plan 9 is as much Unix as Go is C, but it's all the same vein. 

My point is that Plan 9 is available for PPC (via BG/x), and it's only a matter of time before it's available for Power7. There are a lot of benefits to a Plan 9 based system, especially in HPC.

And, yes, the userland is different, but it's an evolutionary jump from Unix to Plan 9 - command line utilities included. (yay http://www.freebsd.org/ports/plan9.html).


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