Resizing partitions automatically with HP-UX Workload Manager

2
Audience
This paper is intended for individuals interested in using one or both of the following technologies to
isolate applications while also maintaining a desired level of performance from those applications:
• HP-UX virtual partitions
• nPartitions with HP Instant Capacity
You must have Instant Capacity software installed on each nPartition to be managed by HP-UX
Workload Manager (WLM).
The paper explains how to manage partitions, adding and removing processors as needed, using
HP-UX WLM A.03.02 (product B8843CA) running on HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) or HP-UX 11i v2
(B.11.23) or HP-UX WLM A.03.02.02 (product B8843CA) running on HP-UX 11i v3 (B.11.31).
Introduction
Today, most servers are highly underutilized. While average utilization varies by customer and
operating system, in the HP-UX environment, it is often around 30%. There are myriad reasons for
this, but one of the primary reasons is that customers often have one application per server, and they
size that server for a peak load of typically three to five times the average utilization. This means that
millions of dollars in server resources—CPU and memory—can lie idle for most of the time.
Resource optimization, which is one of the goals of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy, enables you
to combine applications within a partitioned server or a single HP-UX instance and still maintain
performance. The Adaptive Enterprise strategy helps customers synchronize business and IT to adapt
to and capitalize on change. To help you realize the promise of becoming an Adaptive Enterprise, HP
provides virtualization technologies that pool and share resources to optimize utilization and meet
demands automatically.
HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM) is a virtualization solution that helps you achieve a true Adaptive
Enterprise. As a goal-based policy engine in the HP Virtual Server Environment, WLM integrates
virtualization techniques—including partitioning, resource management, utility pricing resources, and
clustering—and links them to your business priorities and service level objectives (SLOs). WLM
enables a virtual HP-UX server to grow and shrink automatically, based on the demands and SLOs for
each application it hosts. You can consolidate multiple applications onto a single server to receive
greater return on your IT investment while ensuring that end-users receive the service and performance
they expect.
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 and as part of the HP-UX Mission Critical Operating Environment
(MCOE) bundle.
WLM automates many of the features of the Process Resource Manager (PRM) and HP-UX Virtual
Partitions (vPars). WLM manages CPU resources within a single HP-UX instance as well as within and
across hard partitions and virtual partitions. It automatically adapts system or partition CPU resources
(cores) to the demands, SLOs, and priorities of the running applications. (A core is the actual data
processing engine within a processor, where a single processor can have multiple cores.) On systems
with HP Instant Capacity, WLM automatically moves cores among partitions based on the SLOs in the
partitions. Given the physical nature of hard partitions, the “movement” of cores among partitions is
achieved by deactivating a core on one nPartition and then activating a core on another.