User's Manual

Load-Balancing Active Cores
Active cores can be redistributed across any or all partitions of a hardware-partitionable system
if those partitions contain inactive cores.
For example, consider a system with two partitions:
• Partition 1 has 5 active cores and 3 inactive cores.
• Partition 2 has 8 active cores and 0 inactive cores.
You need to add processing power to Partition 1 because of application demand and you notice
that the active cores in Partition 2 are underutilized.
Deactivating an active core in Partition 2 decreases the number of active cores in that partition,
and activating one of the cores in Partition 1 increases the number of active cores in that partition.
The total number of active cores in the complex is the same at the end of this operation.
IMPORTANT: To remain in compliance, you must perform the deactivation operation first.
The two partitions are left with the following:
• Partition 1 now has 6 active cores and 2 inactive cores.
• Partition 2 now has 7 active cores and 1 inactive core.
Redistribution of active cores does not affect compliance. This is because you do not change the
overall number of active cores in the complex. If the complex was in compliance prior to the
redistribution, it remains in compliance. Make sure that you have proper licensing for all
proprietary and nonproprietary software when performing load balancing.
62 Using Instant Capacity to Manage Processing Capacity