Using SAP with HP Virtualization and Partitioning

Figure 5. “Sweet spots” for non-production systems
Having identified partitioning and virtualization options for production systems, consider the various
alternatives for deploying non-production systems:
• “Systems not requiring separate OS” represents multiple non-production systems that can share one
OS. Check the previous chapter “to partition or not to partition”. If you don’t find a good reason to
partition among your non-production systems, this is the sweet spot for your non-production systems.
If you find a reason to partition for any of your systems (most probably you will!), go to the next
bullet.
• “Systems requiring separate OS” are ideal candidates for Integrity VM. The nature of non-
production systems, being normally small systems, in connection with very dynamic load patterns,
makes them the ideal match for Integrity VM. Automatic resource sharing will optimize resource
usage, and more than compensate for the performance overhead that comes with the virtualization
layer. If however your systems exceed a capacity of 2 processor cores on a regular basis, or are
performance sensitive, please go to the next bullet.
• “Systems requiring separate OS, high capacity needs, performance sensitive” are well suited to
virtual partitions. Typical candidates here are QA systems doing stress tests or training systems for a
large number of people. For these systems, vPars are the better alternative, providing higher
scalability and better performance.
If you find that you’ll have several systems that are deployed best on Integrity VM, and only few
others that are “one OS” candidates, you should think about running them all on Integrity VM. You’ll
need separate nPars or separate servers to deploy both models, which might cause more cost than
you save by running a few applications on “one OS”.