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Table 3-4 PowerVM capabilities by edition for POWER7-based blades
PowerVM Offerings
Maximum VMs
Management
Virtual I/O Server
PowerVM Lx86
Suspend/Resume
NPIV
Shared Processor Pools
Shared Storage Pools
Thin Provisioning
Active Memory Sharing
Live Partition Mobility
The PowerVM Editions Web site also contains useful information:
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/virtualization/editions
3.4.2 Logical partitions
Logical partitions (LPARs) and virtualization increase use of system resources and add a new
level of configuration possibilities. This section provides details and configuration
specifications. A logical partition can be regarded as a virtual server, capable of starting an
operating system and running a workload. SDMC-managed systems use the term virtual
server.
Dynamic logical partitioning
LPAR was introduced with the POWER4™ processor-based product line and the IBM AIX
Version 5.1 operating system. This technology offered the capability to divide a pSeries®
system into multiple logical partitions, allowing each logical partition to run an operating
environment on dedicated attached devices, such as processors, memory, and I/O
components.
Later, dynamic logical partitioning increased the flexibility, allowing selected system resources
(such as processors, memory, and I/O components) to be added and deleted from logical
partitions as they are executing. IBM AIX Version 5.2, with necessary enhancements to
enable dynamic LPAR, was introduced in 2002. The ability to reconfigure dynamic LPARs
encourages system administrators to redefine available system resources dynamically to
reach the optimum capacity for each defined dynamic LPAR.
Micro-partitioning
Virtualization of physical processors in POWER5, POWER6, and POWER7 systems
introduces an abstraction layer that is implemented in POWER Hypervisor. Micro-partitioning
is the ability to distribute the processing capacity of one or more physical processors among
one or more logical partitions. Thus, processors are shared among logical partitions.
Micro-partitioning technology allows you to allocate fractions of processors to a logical
partition.
Express
Standard
Up to 3 per server
10 per core
VMControl, IVM,
VMControl, IVM,
SDMC
SMDC
Yes
Yes (Dual)
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
No
No
Enterprise
10 per core
VMControl, IVM,
SDMC
Yes (Dual)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Chapter 3. Virtualization
99
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