HP-UX Workload Manager overview

resources across partitions; within an Integrity VM guest, you can use WLM to manage the HP-UX

resources but not using Instant Capacity (iCAP, formerly known as HP Instant Capacity on Demand, or

iCOD), Pay per use (PPU), or virtual partition integration.

This white paper explains the capabilities and benefits of HP-UX WLM A.03.02 and HP-UX WLM

A.03.02.02. WLM A.03.02 is available with the following operating system and hardware

combinations:

Operating systems Hardware

HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) HP 9000 servers

HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23) HP Integrity servers and HP 9000 servers

HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) and

HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23)

Servers combining HP 9000 partitions and HP Integrity

partitions (in such environments, HP-UX 11i v1 supports HP

9000 partitions only)

WLM A.03.02.02 is available with the following operating system and hardware combinations:

Operating systems Hardware

HP-UX 11i v3 (B.11.31) HP 9000 servers and HP Integrity servers

What is HP-UX Workload Manager?

WLM is a software product that assesses resource usage in real time and then automatically allocates

resources and manages application performance based on your SLOs and business priorities. WLM is

available as a stand-alone product, but is also included in the HP-UX Mission Critical Operating

Environment (MCOE) bundle.

Key uses of HP-UX WLM include:

• Using excess server capacity by consolidating multiple applications on fewer servers while ensuring

that mission-critical applications still get the resources they need during peak demand times

• Reallocating system resources automatically in response to changing priorities, conditions that

change over time (night/day, month-end processing, and so on), package movement in a cluster,

resource demand, and application performance

• Automating the deployment of reserve capacity so that customers pay only for what they need when

they need it

• Enabling higher utilization in clusters by enabling you to define, monitor, and enforce SLOs when a

failure occurs, causing a workload to fail over a server or partition already running other workloads

You can use WLM within a whole server that can be clustered in an HP Serviceguard high-availability

cluster, Extended Campus Cluster, Metrocluster, or a Continentalcluster configuration. You can also

use WLM on an Integrity VM host and within any individual Integrity VM (guest). You can use WLM

within nPartitions and virtual partitions as well as across partitions.

WLM is most effective managing applications that are CPU-bound. It adjusts the CPU allocation of a

group of processes known as a workload, basing adjustments on the current needs and performance

of the applications in that workload.

To have WLM migrate resources among workloads as needed, you must define in the WLM

configuration file one or more SLOs for each workload. In defining an SLO, you must specify its