Announcement of V5 server and VPM support on IBM Power System (POWER9™ processor based) on AIX version 7.2

Announcement of V5 server and VPM support on IBM Power System (POWER9™ processor based) on AIX version 7.2

Dassault Systèmes and IBM announce the support of the IBM Power System (POWER9 processor based) server platform using AIX version 7.2.

This support is effective immediately for the following list of products:

• ENOVIA VPM Navigator server with V5-6R2019 SP4 as minimum supported level
• ENOVIA VPM Lifecycle Server Configuration with V5-6R2019 SP4 as minimum supported level ENOVIA VPM Product Design Web Services server with V5-6R2019 SP4 as minimum supported level
• ENOVIA Lifecycle Management Web Services server with V5-6R2019 SP4 as minimum supported level ENOVIA VPM V4 products with VPM 1.12 SP4 as minimum supported level

IBM Power System (POWER9 processor based) Server support requires the following minimum software levels:

AIX 7.2 Technology Level 02 Service Pack 2 using 64-bit kernel

• XL C/C++ Runtime for AIX, V16.1.0.4 Fix Pack (December 2019)
• XL Fortran Runtime for AIX, V16.1.0.1 Fix Pack (December 2018)
• Java 1.8.0 64 bit Service Refresh 4 Fix Pack 10
  • Fileset: Java8_64.jre 8.0.0.410

Database and Application Server level may depend on V5 Release targeted. Refer to the Program Directory of targeted V5 or VPM Product level.

Hardware used

Certification of the IBM Power System (POWER9 processor based) Server has been run for V5-6R2019 SP4 and VPM V4 1.12 using the above Software prerequisites installed on the following hardware configuration:

Model

• System Model: IBM Power System S922, 9009-22A
• Machine Serial Number: 7889390
• Characteristics:

• Firmware Version: IBM,FW940.00 (VL940_027)

Architecture

For certification purpose, 5 partitions were used

• A Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) at level 3.1.1.10 for sharing physical resources between LPARs including virtual SCSI and virtual networking
• 4 Dynamic Logical PARtition (DLPAR) using disks resources shared by the VIOS for rootvg, using micro partitioning.
• Active memory expansion factor: 1.6
• Multithreading: SMT 4 (default value, max is SMT 8)

This architecture was used for certification purpose and is not mandatory.

Required Customization

IBM Power System server does not support 3D Graphic adapters, thus an X Server using the Virtual Frame Buffer technology (XVFB) has to be configured.

The XVFB technology requires installation of the following filesets:

• OpenGL.OpenGL_X.dev.vfb : OpenGL Virtual Frame Buffer
• X11.vfb : Virtual Frame Buffer Software

Those filesets could be found on the AIX 7.2 installation media.

To start the X Server with the XVFB and proper extensions:

export LDR_CNTRL=MAXDATA=0x50000000; /usr/bin/X11/X -force -vfb -x abx -x dbe -x GLX :0 >/dev/null

To restart the X Server automatically at the next reboot, add an entry to the /etc/inittab file:

mkitab "xvfb:2:respawn:export LDR_CNTRL=MAXDATA=0x50000000; /usr/bin/X11/X -force -vfb -x abx -x dbe -x GLX :0 >/dev/null"