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PowerVM and VIOS on Power 11: What You Need to Know Before Migrating

Updated July 24, 2026

PowerVM remains the hypervisor underlying every Power 11 partitioning design, and VIOS remains the mechanism for sharing physical network and storage adapters across IBM i, AIX, and Linux logical partitions. Buyers migrating from Power10 or earlier will find the concepts unchanged, but should verify current version requirements before cutover.

What to check before migrating

VIOS level

Confirm VIOS 4.1.1.30 or later is installed or planned for your new Power 11 partitions.

HMC version

HMC v11 (7063-CR2 or vHMC) is required to manage Power 11 PowerVM partitions -- see our HMC v11 requirements article.

Adapter compatibility

Confirm any PCIe adapters you plan to carry forward are supported for shared use under VIOS on the new Power11 model.

Sources

Related Models

IBM Power L1122 (9856-22H)

The Linux-optimized sibling of the S1122: a dual-socket 2U server with the same hardware ceiling but licensed for Linux-first environments, with limited AIX/IBM i core use.

IBM Power L1124 (9856-42H)

The Linux-optimized sibling of the S1124: a high-throughput scale-out server for open-source databases and Red Hat OpenShift, with the same DCM processor ceiling as the S1124.

IBM Power S1122 (9824-22A)

A dense, dual-socket 2U scale-out server offering up to 60 Power 11 cores and 4 TB of DDR5 memory, IBM's mainstream choice for growing IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments.

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