Family paper

Manageability: Dynamic Partitioning
and Hot Plug Components
The Intel Itanium processor 9300 series includes a rich set of capa-
bilities for partitioning and managing system resources. These
capabilities can help organizations maintain uninterrupted opera-
tion in response to error events. They can also help them optimize
utilization and power efficiency by dynamically responding to chang-
ing workloads. Many of these capabilities were supported in earlier
Itanium®-based systems, but were based on proprietary technolo-
gies developed and integrated by the various system vendors. They
are supported natively in the Intel Itanium processor 9300 series,
which simplifies integration and helps to establish more consistent
implementations.
These new capabilities are best understood within the context of
the three types of partitioning models supported by Itanium-based
systems (Figure 5).
Physical (Hard) Partitions provide full electrical isolation so hardware
and software faults in one partition will not impact any other partition.
A number of new features in the Intel Itanium processor 9300 series
support flexible and dynamic control of hard partitions. For example,
physical partitioning boundaries can be dynamically changed among
running partitions and resources can be added, removed or replaced
without restarting the system or rebooting the affected operating
systems
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(Table 2). These capabilities are enabled by Intel QuickPath
Interconnect Technology, which supports hot pluggable processor,
Processors Memory I/O
OS
OS
App
App
VMM/Hypervisor
Shared OS
Management
Software
OS
App
App
App
OS VirtualizationVirtual PartitionsPhysical Partitions
Intel® Virtualization Technology for
Itanium®-based solutions (Intel® VT-i2)
Figure 5. Itanium-based servers support multiple partitioning options to
enhance IT flexibility and resource utilization. Advancements in the Intel®
Itanium® processor 9300 series – such as Intel® VT-i2 and native support for
dynamic partitioning and dynamic resource allocation – deliver enhanced
support to provide organizations with greater flexibility, better perform-
ance and more consistent solutions across vendor implementations.
memory and I/O components, as well as dynamic reconfiguration of
parameters such as snoop control, interrupt routing, address decoding
and packet routing.
OS Partitions enable multiple applications to operate under a
single OS, while each appears to have a dedicated OS. This capability
is provided by special manageability firmware and is therefore
independent of the OS.
Virtual Partitions are created using Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)
software, which is available from some system vendors and from a
number of third-party software vendors. The VMM enables each
physical partition to host multiple OS and application images, and
provides the most dynamic and granular control of partitioning
boundaries and system resources. Most VMM software also provides
substantial isolation for software errors, though it does not provide
the electrical isolation of a physical partition.
Intel® Virtualization technology
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(Intel® VT-i) was integrated into
the previous-generation processor to provide a better foundation for
virtualization. It provides a clean and stable interface for the VMM as
well as hardware assists for many core virtualization functions. The
Intel Itanium processor 9300 series includes enhanced support for
virtualization (Intel® VT-i2). Intel VT-i2 provides additional hardware
assistance designed to improve performance by reducing the amount
of time spent running the VMM emulation code. It also reduces the
number of required transitions between the OS and the VMM.
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White Paper: The Intel® Itanium® Processor 9300 Series
Table 2. The Intel® Itanium® processor 9300 series provides
mainframe-class support for adding, replacing and managing
system resources
Function Component
a
CPU Memory I/O
Onlining/Ofining – System resources
can be logically added to or removed
from a running partition (does not imply
physical insertion or removal).
Processor
socket or
core
Channel pair Hub or
PCIe card
Sparing – A failed or failing component
can be taken ofine and a spare
component can be brought online
without downtime.
Processor
socket or
core
DIMM pair or
channel pair
Hub or
PCIe card
Physical Hot Swap – A physical
component can be added, removed
or replaced without downtime.
Processor
socket
Channel pair Hub or
PCIe card
a
Many Itanium®-based system vendors add additional redundancy with hot swap and failover capabilities
(fans, power supplies, etc.).