Winning With

Winning

With

The most comprehensive partitioning solution in the world !

Note: This presentation is best viewed in animation mode.

What is Partitioning

At the most granular level, it is the ability to divide a single CPU and its associated resources amongst various tasks to guarantee QOS levels

On a server basis, it is the ability to support multiple instances of the operating system, thus facilitating isolation and optimization of the server

At the infrastructure level, it is the ability to share and move resources and tasks to maximize utilization and, hence, ROI of computing systems

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There are four basic concepts of computer partitioning that need to be understood and grasped to effectively interpret the product offerings of the 3 main vendors.

The concepts are:

- Processor virtualization

- Processor affinity

- Hard partitions

- Soft partitions

Partitioning Concepts

Don’t you hate concepts that don’t mean anything

to “normal” people

Don’t you hate concepts that don’t mean anything

to “normal” people

Note: I/O and Memory can also be “partitioned” and virtualized

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•Processor virtualization Is the complete virtualization of the executionenvironment (i.e. the execution environmentexecutes on a “virtual CPU“)

•Processor Affinity Is the association of a physical CPU with theexecution environment (i.e. the executionenvironment executes on a real CPU)

•Hard partitions Electrical isolation of groups of CPUs,associated components and the execution

environment

•Soft partitions Programmatic isolation of groups of CPUs, associated components and the execution environment

Partitioning Definitions

Name Description

Complicated isn't it ? Bear with me for a moment

longer

Complicated isn't it ? Bear with me for a moment

longer

Note: I/O and Memory can also be “partitioned” and virtualized

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Processor virtualization Is the complete virtualization of the execution environment (i.e. the execution environment executes on a “virtual” CPU environment)

•Up side: You can have many more virtual executing environments than you have CPUs

•Down side: You lose up to 25% of the power of the machine to the partitioning virtualization system.

Processor Affinity Is the association of a physical CPUs with the execution environment (i.e. the execution environment executes on a real CPU)

•Up side: There is little or no penalty for the partitioned system.

•Down side: You can only have as many partitions as you have physical CPUs.

Processor virtualization verses processor affinity

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How to understand computer partitioning….Imagine you live in a house….And the house is wonderful because you can have as many rooms as you want...

The only draw back to the totally “virtualized” house is that the walls are very thick and use

about 25% of the total space of the house

So the effective space left is only 75% of the house..

The computer equivalent is a processor virtualized partitioning system like Lpars

processor virtualized partitioning systems have the advantage of allowing more partitions than

CPUs

However, processor virtualization has a significant performance overhead of up to 25%

(a high price to pay)….

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So what is the alternative

Opportunities

Imagine you bought a house….And the house was just what you wanted…more or less

And if your new house could magically combine and then separate rooms when you wantedAnd the only rule was that you would have a “limit” to the number of rooms in the house

But the upside was there was no 25% penalty for the flexibility..

-> The computer equivalent is a processor affinity partitioning system like

HP-UX vPars

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How to understand hard partitioning….Imagine you bought an apartment complexAnd it was a special complex because you could dynamically change the size of each apartment

at will

And even when you changed the size of the apartments by moving space between them they

remain completely isolated...The computer equivalent is hard partitioningHard partitioning provides electrically isolated

partitions on the same serverAnd these partition have resources that can be

moved between them dynamically...Hard partitioning is like

having several servers in the same physical box.

Except that you can dynamically change the

size of the servers.

So, how are hard partitions different from virtual or

soft (software) partitions...

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Hard partitions Soft/virtual partitions

Electrical isolation Software isolation

Can perform hardware mainten- Cannot perform hardware mainten-

ance on one without affecting ance on one without affecting

the others the others

Suitable for mixing production Not suitable for mixing R&D and and R&D environments production environments

Suitable for hosting multiple Not suitable for mixing customers or customers or entities different financial entities

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nPartition 2 “development”

HP Partitioning- vPars within nPars

nPartition 1 “test”- HPUX 11i + latest patch

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

vPar 2HPUX11i +

web

vPar 3HPUX 11i, large I/O

buffer cache

vPar 4HPUX 11i, tuned for

large memory

vPar 1HPUX 11i +

batch

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

cpu0

CC

memory

I/O

cpu1 cpu2 cpu3

memory

•electrical h/w isolation

If you have both hard and soft/virtual partitions(like HP-UX nPartitions and vPars),

You can have the electrical isolation of hard partitions,With the flexibility of virtual partitions

The most comprehensive

solution- Competitive Positioning

- Competitive Comparison

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The most comprehensive partitioning offeringfor the UNIX operating system

Hard partitions

Soft partitions

Integration with goal-based workload mgmtt

Dynamic reconfig. of soft partitions

Dynamic reconfig. of hard partitions

nPars

vPars

Practical usesof Partitioning

- Resource utilization

- Server Consolidation

HP-UX Virtual Partitions:

multiple O/S instances per nPartition with S/W & resource

isolation, and flexibility

increased system utilization• up to 80-90%, since additional

partitions can use unused parts of system

greater flexibility

• multiple independent OSs 1 CPU granularity per vPar dynamic movement of CPU

power between vPars resources not tied to physical

config. (like hard partitions)vPars on low to high-end

isolation

• of OS, applications, resources

• individual reconfig & reboot

HP-UX Revision A.1

HP-UX Revision A.2

HP-UX Revision B.3

HP-UX Revision B.3

Dept. A

App 1

Dept. A

App 1’

Dept. B

App 2

Dept. B

App 3

1st Unix

software

partitioning

1st Unix

software

partitioning

vPar Monitor

New w/

HP-UX 11iNew w/

HP-UX 11i

Built on HP

resiliencyBuilt on HP

resiliencywith performance

& availabilitywith performance

& availability

HP Restricted

HP-UX Rev X

Dept.AApp 1

HP-UX Rev Y

Dept. BApp 1

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

HP-UX RevY

Dept. BApp 1

HP-UX Rev Z

Dept. BApp 2

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

WLM

WLM Rules Sets

Business need defines the relative priority and

response time for the various applications

Dynamic feedback from vPars regarding load and

response times

Dynamic adjustment of resources by migration of

CPUs between vpars when required

HP-UX RevY

Dept. BApp 1

HP-UX RevZ

Dept. BApp 2

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

HP-UX RevY

Dept. BApp 1

HP-UX Rev Z

Dept. BApp 2

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

HP-UX RevY

Dept. BApp 1

HP-UX RevZ

Dept. BApp 2

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

Resource Utilization

MCSG Backup Server

Discrete Application Servers

HP-UX Rev X

Dept. AApp 1

HP-UX Rev X

Low priority

taskHP-UX RevZ

App 1

HP-UX RevX

App 2

HP-UX RevA

App 3

HP-UX RevT

App 4

HP-UX RevA

App 5

HP-UX RevZ

App 6

HP-

UX Rev X

Low priority task

HP-UX RevZ

App 1

HP-UX RevX

App 2

HP-UX RevA

App 3

HP-UX RevT

App 4

HP-UX RevA

App 5

HP-UX RevZ

App 6

WLM Rules Sets

Business need defines the relative

priority and response time for the various

applications

WLM Product

Dynamic adjustment of resources by migration of

CPUs between vpars when required

Server Consolidation

Other Information

Sources

ESP "vParsindex" http://esp.mayfield.hp.com:2000/nav24/ext/vpars/sr/index.htm