SMC for Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE

Linux Distribution for IBM Z and LinuxONE with SMC Support

SMCv1

Provides SMC-Dv1 and SMC-Rv1 support, features z/OS compatibility. SMC-Rv1 link failover/high availability to be added in future versions.
Provided by:

• RHEL 8
• SLES 12 SP4: Update to Linux kernel 4.12.14-122.12.1 or higher for essential bug fixes.
• SLES 15 SP1: Update to Linux kernel 4.12.14-197.29.1 or higher for essential bug fixes.
• Ubuntu 18.10

SMCv2

If you want to learn more about SMCv2, check out this video here.

SMC-Dv2 is available in Linux kernel 5.10 or later, and the following (or later) Linux distribution(s)

• Ubuntu 21.04
• RHEL 8.4
• SLES 15 SP3
  

SMC-Rv2 is available in Linux kernel 5.16 (also requires smc-tools v1.17), and the following (or later) Linux distribution(s):

• Ubuntu 22.04
• RHEL 8.7
• RHEL 9.1
• SLES 15 SP4 
  

SMC-Dv2 Compatibility Support 

z/OS announced SMC-Dv2 support here, see section "Shared Memory Communications Version 2 (SMCv2) multiple IP subnet support". When SMC-Dv2 support is enabled in z/OS, a compatibility patch is required in Linux on Z, which is available in the following minimum Linux distribution levels:

• RHEL 8.1, Linux kernel 4.18.0-147.27.1
• RHEL 8.2, Linux kernel 4.18.0-193.28.1
• RHEL 8.3, Linux kernel 4.18.0-228
• SLES 12 SP5, Linux kernel 4.12.14-122.41.1
• SLES 15 SP1, Linux kernel 4.12.14-197.61.1
  
• SLES 15 SP2, Linux kernel 5.3.18-24.9.1 
• Ubuntu 20.04, Linux kernel 5.4.0-45.49
  

More to come!

Supported Environments

Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE

• LPAR: Yes (no prerequisites)
• z/VM: Requires z/VM 6.3 or later
• KVM: Support for PCI devices pending

Other Platforms

z/OS

• See this page for a comprehensive overview.

AIX

• AIX 7.2 supports SMC-R, as announced here. See here for further details.

Usage

See here.

Troubleshooting

See here.

FAQ

See here.

References

• smc-tools package:
• Homepage: https://github.com/ibm-s390-tools/smc-tools
  
• Whitepaper: Performance Evaluation of SMC-D with SAP Banking on IBM Z