LinuxONE

Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE training

Linux on IBM Z runs three ways: directly in an LPAR, under z/VM, or on KVM. Which one you pick changes the daily work, and none of the three is administered like Linux on x86: the architecture is s390x, so the distribution has to be built for it, storage arrives over DASD or FCP, and networking over OSA devices or HiperSockets. LinuxONE is IBM’s Linux-only server line, built on the same architecture as IBM Z.

What usually brings a company here is consolidation: many Linux machines on a single box, with mainframe encryption and availability. These two courses are for the team that has to keep that running, and both work on z/VM.

The ideal path

For a team taking on Linux on IBM Z from scratch the order is short and allows no shortcuts: first the z/VM and Linux bootcamp (ZL00G), five days installing z/VM and leaving Linux running on top of it, then advanced solutions (ZL15G), four days getting the platform to work for you. Nine days in total, and they need not be back to back: between the two it helps if the team has spent time in its own environment.

Anyone who already has Linux installed and running can come straight in through the second one.

By level

Beginner. The ZL00G bootcamp. It assumes nothing about z/VM: it starts from what it is and installs it. What it does expect is that you administer Linux somewhere else.

Intermediate. ZL15G, which starts with Linux already installed and goes into LVM, journal file systems, the virtual switch, cloning over shared DASD, shared segments and clustering.

There is no third step in the official catalogue for this platform. When more is needed — automation, integration with the rest of the estate — it gets built to order on your environment.

The courses

IBM Z is not IBM Power

They get mixed up often, since both are IBM platforms and both run Linux, but they are different architectures (s390x and ppc64le) with their own tooling and their own training. For Power there is Linux on IBM Power Systems, and for Linux in general, the Linux category.

How they are delivered

We are an IBM Business Partner: official material and labs, taught by our own engineers, at your premises or remotely with a live instructor. If your environment is already built, we fit the labs to the distribution and the z/VM release you run. Tell us what hardware and distribution you use and we will say which of the two courses fits.