aix virtualization

An Intro to AIX Virtualization

Philadelphia CMG September 14, 2007

Mark Vitale

Septemberl 2007AIX Virtualization 2

Copyright The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved

Generic disclaimer

• All trademarks referenced in this presentation are the properties of their respective companies.

• Most diagrams are from IBM Redbook SG24-7940-02 Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5: Introduction and Configuration



A complete solution

• Dynamic hardware management– Advanced POWER Virtualization (APV)

• Application balancing– Partition Load Manager (PLM)

• “IRD” for AIX

– Workload Manager (WLM)• “WLM” for AIX

• Availability – High Availability Clustering Multi-Processing

(HACMP)• “parallel sysplex” for AIX



Advanced POWER Virtualization

• available on System p5 and higher • a marketing umbrella term for a number of

hardware and software technologies:– Dynamic LPAR (DLPAR)– Shared Processor Pool (Micro-partitioning)– Virtual IO Server (VIO)– Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT)– Virtual LAN (VLAN)– Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)– Capacity on Demand (CoD)– Live Partition Mobility (POWER6 only)– Shared Dedicated Capacity (POWER6 only)



Overview

HMC

intranetintranet

hypervisorfirmware

AIX LPAR

Linux LPAR

VIO Server LPAR

p5 server



Comparison of virtualization technologies

p5 APV z9 PR/SM z9 z/VM

Max virtualized servers

Up to 254 LPARs, max 10 per processor

Up to 60 LPARs “unlimited” virtual machines

Processor allocation

Virtual - backed by physical dedicated or shared, no mixing

Logical – backed by physical dedicated or shared

Virtual – backed by physical dedicated or shared

Interpartition load management

Partition Load Manager (PLM)

Intelligent Resource Director (IRD)

Virtual Machine Resource Manager (VMRM)

I/O (network, disk)

Virtual IO Server LPAR; hypervisor VLAN

Enhanced Multiple Image Facility (EMIF); HiperSockets

Virtual devices

Memory Dedicated, dynamic

Dedicated, dynamic

Virtual memory source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG24-7940-02



POWER architecture

• RS/6000 (1990)• POWER2 (1993)• PowerPC (1993)• POWER3 (1998)• POWER4 (2001)

– first use in both AIX and AS/400 servers– static LPAR– dynamic LPAR (2002)– no resource sharing



POWER architecture (cont’d)

• POWER5 (2004)– aka pSeries– Hypervisor– dual cores - Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT)– Processor Utilization Resource Register (PURR)– shared processor pools (Micro-partitioning) (AIX 5.3 only)– Virtual IO resource sharing

• POWER5+ (2005)– aka p5– quad cores– faster, smaller, more instructions

• POWER6 (2007)– Live Partition Mobility – Shared Dedicated Capacity

• dedicated processors may donate unused cycles to the shared processor pool



POWER Hypervisor

• system firmware – introduced w/ POWER5– always enabled (think “NO BASIC MODE”)

• key features– Dynamic LPAR (DLPAR)

• allows dynamic reallocation of resources • ... but only if the OS supports it!

– shared processor pool (Micro-partitioning)• AIX 5.3 & Linux only (no i5/OS support)• allows fractional physical CPU entitlement

– virtual device support (VLAN, SCSI, consoles)



POWER Hypervisor

source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG24-7940-02



Virtual IO Server

• a software appliance that runs in a dedicated LPAR

• as the name implies, it provides virtual IO services to other (“client”) LPARs– virtual disks– virtual Ethernet adapters– shared Ethernet adapters (SEA)

• Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM)– feature added w/ VIO Server 1.2– provides a browser-based subset of HMC function– main restriction – all resources are owned by VIO, no

dedicated resources



Hardware Management Console (HMC)

• hardware appliance to manage one or more managed systems (CECs)

• includes partition management and many other management functions

• provides optional web interface for remote access



Web-based System Manager (WebSM)



Processor allocations



Physical, virtual, and logical processors




SMT and PURR




Performance questions

• SMT on or off?• dedicated or shared processors?• real or virtual IO?



Best practices

• SMT– usually best to leave it on (default), but for some CPU-

intensive loads it may be better to turn it off• CPU allocation

– dedicated for sustained heavy workloads (WebSphere)– shared for light workloads (DNS)– make sure virtual processors are close to entitlement

• IO allocation– dedicated disk and network for best performance– shared Ethernet adapter and virtual SCSI can be great for

light workloads– use VLAN between LPARs when possible

• Virtual IO Server– if you use it, give it a shared, uncapped processor

entitlement



Prototype chart



Questions and Responses



References

• Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5: Introduction and Configuration (IBM Redbook SG24-7940-02)

• IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization Best Practices (IBM Redpaper)

• System p Logical Partitioning Guide (SA76-0098-00)

aix virtualization

Technology

virtual scsi

virtual devices

dedicated lpar

virtual io services

possible virtual io

ibm system p5 sg24

shared processors

sure virtual processors