Versioned workload partitions

A versioned workload partition (WPAR) provides a different version runtime environment than the global system.

The versioned WPARs do have some limitations as compared to local system WPARs. A versioned WPAR has a runtime environment from an older AIX system backup and runs on a global system with a newer level of AIX. The AIX commands and libraries inside the WPAR support the older AIX level's syntax and semantics, even though the AIX kernel on the system is running a newer level. Applications running in the versioned WPAR need not be aware that the global system is a different version. However, there are some limitations related to running in any WPAR that might affect some applications.

A mksysb backup of a system running the earlier version of AIX is used to create the versioned WPAR.

Applications running in a versioned WPAR use the commands and libraries from the operating system files where the backup was made to create the versioned WPAR. If you have applications that have not been certified on newer versions of the AIX operating system, the versioned WPAR commands and libraries provide a way to run them in the original AIX environment on top of an AIX 7.1 kernel. Such a setup allows running those applications on currently available hardware that might not support the use of the older AIX level as the base operating system. A versioned WPAR is always a system WPAR and is not shared. Versioned WPARs own writable /opt and /usr file systems.

SMIT panels for administering versioned WPARs are available using SMIT fast path vwpar.