IBM introduced a new era in UNIX® and Linux® operating environment computing
with the introduction of the IBM eServer™ p5 server family. These systems
revolutionize information technology economics with lightning-quick POWER5™
processors and new IBM Virtualization Engine™system technologies options that
included:
- Processing resources in eServer p5 systems can be fine tuned to have more
"virtual servers" or dynamic logical partitions (LPARs) than processors.
Partitions can be allocated in units as small as 1/10th of a processor and may be
incremented in units of 1/100th of a processor.
- This fine tuning capability allows consolidation of multiple independent
workloads, resulting in the equivalent of a "server farm in a box".
- Businesses get the benefit of high systems utilization and easier administration of
consolidated systems, helping lower their total cost of ownership (TCO).
- Partitions can be assigned to a shared processor pool, providing automatic, non-disruptive
balancing of processing power and improved service levels as
processing needs change.
- The virtual I/O option includes virtual SCSI for sharing Fibre Channel and SCSI
adapters and the attached disk drives and virtual networking to enable the sharing
of Ethernet adapters, providing greater flexibility to configure cost-effective
systems.
This paper describes the practical uses of virtual I/O and provides hints and tips for
exploiting this new capability. Virtual I/O is included in the Advanced POWER
Virtualization feature for eServer p5 systems. The Advanced POWER Virtualization
feature requires AIX 5L™ V5.3, SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 for POWER™
(SLES 9) or Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3 for POWER, Update 3 (RHEL AS 3).
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