An Intro to AIX Virtualization Philadelphia CMG September 14, 2007 Mark Vitale

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 2 Generic disclaimer All trademarks referenced in this presentation are the properties of their respective companies. Most diagrams are from IBM Redbook SG Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5: Introduction and Configuration

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 3 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 4 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)

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 5 Overview HMC intranet hypervisor firmware AIX LPAR Linux LPAR VIO Server LPAR p5 server

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 6 Comparison of virtualization technologies p5 APVz9 PR/SMz9 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 Virtual memory source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 7 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 8 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 9 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)

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 10 POWER Hypervisor source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 11 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 12 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 13 Web-based System Manager (WebSM)

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 14 Processor allocations

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 15 Physical, virtual, and logical processors source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 16 SMT and PURR source: Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5 – SG

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 17 Performance questions SMT on or off? dedicated or shared processors? real or virtual IO?

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 18 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

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 19 Prototype chart

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 20 Questions and Responses

Copyright  The Information Systems Manager 2007 – All rights reserved Septemberl 2007 AIX Virtualization 21 References Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM System p5: Introduction and Configuration (IBM Redbook SG ) IBM System p Advanced POWER Virtualization Best Practices (IBM Redpaper) System p Logical Partitioning Guide (SA )