IBM DLPAR Tool Set for pSeries
A set of tools that enhance the usability of the Dynamic Logical Partitioning feature in AIX 5.2 and later releases running on pSeries P4 and P5 servers (such as models p690, p670, p570, p550, etc.).
Date Posted: November 22, 2002
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Update: October 18, 2004
Code fixed so that it works on AIX 5.3 as well as AIX 5.2 on P4 and P5 systems.
What is DLPAR Tool Set for pSeries?
Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR) Tool Set for pSeries® is a set of tools that enhance the usability of the Dynamic LPAR (DLPAR) feature in AIX® 5.2 running on pSeries P4 and P5 servers (such as models p690, p670, p570, p550, etc.).
The DLPAR feature allows processor, memory, and I/O-slot resources to be added to or deleted from running partitions, or moved between running partitions without requiring any AIX instance to be rebooted. In this tool set, both time-based and load-based scenarios for moving processor resources and memory resources among partitions are explored. The purposes of the DLPAR Tool Set include the following:
- to provide sample scripts for monitoring LPARs and automating DLPAR operations, which customers can use and/or customize to fit their installation's needs
- to get feedback on customer requirements in the area of automated, cross-partition workload management.
How does it work? Scripts enable the customer to easily use DLPAR in the following sample scenarios:
Time-based usage scenario: Consider a (simplified) customer environment with a batch partition and an interactive partition. During the day, the customer wants the interactive partition to have the bulk of the processors; and at night, the customer wants the processor resources to be moved to the batch partition. A cron job on the AIX manager instance can be used to initiate the resource movements between the LPARs.
Load-based usage scenario: In this scenario, a group of LPARs in a user-defined <hostList> file co-operate to share processor (and/or memory) resources based on workloads. If the load of one LPAR rises above a certain threshold, a Resource Manager script running in the AIX manager instance will attempt to acquire a processor from the free pool. If no processor is available from the free pool, this script will choose the best donor LPAR from the <hostList>, probably the one with the least load. This Resource Manager will not initiate a DLPAR add operation if doing so will put this LPAR above its "maximum allowed resource" as defined in this LPAR's "activated" profile. Similarly, it will not initiate a DLPAR remove operation if doing so will put this LPAR below its "minumum allowed resource."
The DLPAR Tool Set provides four main scripts and many other related tools.
Further information is available:
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| | About the technology author(s):
Joefon Jann is a senior technical staff member in IBM Research, and she works on scalable and partitionable systems software and architecture. The concept of Dynamic Logical PARTitioning (DLPAR) for the pSeries was conceived and prototyped by Ms. Jann and a small team that she leads at IBM Research. Ms. Jann is now working on enhancing and automating DLPAR to make it user-friendly and to provide customers with "on-demand" computer provisioning.
Ramanjaneya Burugula is an advisory software engineer at IBM Research, Yorktown, NY. He has been working on the pSeries platform since 1996, and he has participated in the development of various parallel and scalable subsystems. Mr. Burugula was a member of the Dynamic Logical PARtitioning team at IBM Research. He is currently working on various technologies that automatically vary an operating system's resources and tunable parameters in order to adapt to its workload.
Niteesh K. Dubey is a software engineer at the IBM software lab in India, and he is currently stationed at Yorktown, NY. He has worked on the development of the prototype of Dynamic Logical PARtitioning for the pSeries, particularly the processor reconfiguration aspects. Currently, Mr. Dubey is working on enhancing and automating this DLPAR.
AIX and pSeries are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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