IBM Power 595, Technical Overview And Introduction

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Chapter 3. Virtualization
119
of LPARs running in that pool. A system with three pools configured is shown in Figure 3-2 on
page 119.
Figure 3-2 Multiple shared processor pools
Multiple shared pools can help you manage expenses for operating systems and ISV
software by grouping common applications in the same pool and then limiting the processor
resources that can be used by that pool. Use of multiple shared processor pools also provides
an additional level of control for processor allocation when system usage is high.
3.6 Virtual Ethernet
Virtual Ethernet enables logical partitions (within a single 595 server) to communicate with
each other directly through the POWER Hypervisor and without using a physical Ethernet
interface. The virtual Ethernet function is provided by the POWER Hypervisor. The POWER
Hypervisor implements the Ethernet transport mechanism as well as an Ethernet switch
which supports VLAN capability. Virtual LAN allows secure communication between logical
partitions without the need for a physical I/O adapter or cabling. The ability to securely share
Ethernet bandwidth across multiple partitions can improve hardware utilization.
The POWER Hypervisor implements an IEEE 802.1Q VLAN style virtual Ethernet switch.
Similar to a physical IEEE 802.1Q Ethernet switch it can support tagged and untagged ports.
A virtual switch does not really need ports, so the virtual ports correspond directly to virtual
Ethernet adapters that can be assigned to partitions from the HMC. There is no need to
explicitly attach a virtual Ethernet adapter to a virtual Ethernet switch port. To draw on the
analogy of physical Ethernet switches, a virtual Ethernet switch port is configured when you
configure the virtual Ethernet adapter on the HMC.
For AIX, a virtual Ethernet adapter is not much different from a physical Ethernet adapter. It
can be used:
To configure an Ethernet interface with an IP address
To configure VLAN adapters (one per VID)
As a member of a Network Interface Backup adapter
EtherChannel or Link Aggregation is not applicable to virtual Ethernet LAN adapters on the
Power 595 server.
The POWER Hypervisor’s virtual Ethernet switch can support virtual Ethernet frame sizes of
up to 65408 bytes, which is much larger than what physical switches support: 1522 bytes is
LPAR
#1
LPAR
#2
SPLPAR
#3
SPLPAR
#4
SPLPAR
#5
SPLPAR
#6
SPLPAR
#7
SPLPAR
#8
Hypervisor
Pool ID = 0 (default)
PU = 1.2
V V
PU = 0.5
V
PU = 1.5
V V
PU = 0.1
V
PU = 1.2
V V
PU = 1.2
V V V
Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core
1 Core
(dedicated)
2 Cores
(dedicated)
Pool ID = 1 Pool ID = 2
LPAR
#1
LPAR
#2
SPLPAR
#3
SPLPAR
#4
SPLPAR
#5
SPLPAR
#6
SPLPAR
#7
SPLPAR
#8
Hypervisor
Pool ID = 0 (default)
PU = 1.2
V V
PU = 0.5
V
PU = 1.5
V V
PU = 0.1
V
PU = 1.2
V V
PU = 1.2
V V V
Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core Core
1 Core
(dedicated)
2 Cores
(dedicated)
Pool ID = 1 Pool ID = 2