HP Integrity Virtual Machines Release Notes Version A.03.50

NOTE: The use of cell local memory on Integrity Virtual Machine hosts is an experimental
feature for this release. In general, you should see performance improvement by using cell
local memory when running on cell based systems. If you encounter performance issues
with this feature, you should revert back to using 100% interleaved memory.
1.5 Using the IGNOREWWID=YES Attribute
Use the IGNOREWWID=Yes attribute as a work-around if you have a disk that produces
Wordwide-ID (WWID) values with which Integrity VM device management has a problem (for
example, it causes an Integrity VM device database corruption.). The device WWID is the last
field stored and displayed for a device entry in the device database.
Specifying this attribute sets the WWID to WWID_NUL and forces the Integrity VM device
management utilities to ignore the WWID field and not do WWID field checking. For example:
# hpvmdevmgmt -m gdev:/someguestdevice:attr:IGNOREWWID=YES
NOTE: If you specify IGNOREWWID=YES, use only one path of a multipath device; otherwise,
serious device and guest conflicts might occur.
1.6 Specifying Memory Type
For those sites that must configure the host with CLM, Integrity VM selects the best available
pool at boot time. If your application performance benefits from ILM or CLM, you can make
note of that preference. If cell is chosen, the cell with the most CPU and memory space is selected.
When the guest is active, the scheduler optimizes where the guest runs, so that it can be closest
to its memory.
Databases with high I/O can benefit from this model. Guests that are larger than any single cell,
and some highly threaded applications, should be placed in ilm. If your application is
predominantly CPU bound, either model should perform the same. Therefore, you can leave it
as the default preference of none. The selection is called a preference, because if there is only one
type of memory left, Integrity VM determines the type of memory that will enable your guest
to boot. If you do not know which model is better for your application; boot with one setting,
measure performance, reboot with the opposite setting, and re-measure with the same test. If
there is no difference, then set the preference back to none.
The hpvmstatus command shows the general preference you selected for guests that are down,
and the actual cell number selection for booted guests.
1.7 Guest Management Software
Integrity VM provides specific software for each type of guest operating system. This guest
management software enhances guest performance, enables Integrity VM commands, and
includes providers for virtual management software, such as VM Manager. The locations and
contents of the guest management kits are modified in this version of Integrity VM. The guest
management software is required on each guest.
Guest management software is installed on the guest either remotely, from a software depot, or
locally, after being copied to the guest. The guest management software is located in the /opt/
hpvm/guest-images directory. Table 1-1 lists the location of the guest management software
kit for each type of guest operating system. The instructions for installing the guest management
software are provided in README.txt files in these directories.
1.5 Using the IGNOREWWID=YES Attribute 17