Chapter 3. Virtualization
129
Figure 3-7 shows a diagram of the concepts discussed in this section.
Figure 3-7 Logical partitioning concepts
Dedicated mode
In dedicated mode, physical processors are assigned as a whole to partitions. The
simultaneous multithreading feature in the processor core allows the core to
execute instructions from two or four independent software threads simultaneously. To
support this feature we use the concept of
logical processors
. The operating system (AIX,
IBM i, or Linux) sees one physical processor as two or four logical processors if the
simultaneous multithreading feature is on. It can be turned off and on dynamically while
the operating system is executing (for AIX, use the
smtctl
command; for Linux, use the
ppc64_cpu --smt
command). If simultaneous multithreading is off, each physical processor
is presented as one logical processor, and thus only one thread.
Shared dedicated mode
On processor technology-based servers, you can configure dedicated partitions
to become processor donors for idle processors that they own, allowing for the donation of
spare CPU cycles from dedicated processor partitions to a shared processor pool. The
dedicated partition maintains absolute priority for dedicated CPU cycles. Enabling this feature
can help to increase system utilization without compromising the computing power for critical
workloads in a dedicated processor.
Shared mode
In shared mode, logical partitions use virtual processors to access fractions of physical
processors. Shared partitions can define any number of virtual processors (the maximum
number is 10 times the number of processing units that are assigned to the partition). From
the POWER Hypervisor perspective, virtual processors represent dispatching objects. The
Set of micro-partitions
KEY:
vp
Virtual processor
lp
Logical processor
PrU Processing Units
Shared-Processor Pool 0
Set of micro-partitions
Shared-Processor Pool 1
lp lp
lp lp
lp lp
lp lp
lp lp
lp lp
AIX V6.1
1.5 PrU
AIX V5.3
0.5 PrU
AIX V6.1
1.5 PrU
Li
nux
0.5 PrU
vp
vp
vp
vp
vp
vp
lp lp lp lp
lp lp
AIX V5.3
AIX V6.1
Dedicated processors
Dedicated processors
POWER Hypervisor
8-core SMP System