Dedicated processors

Dedicated processors are whole processors that are assigned to a single partition.

If you choose to assign dedicated processors to a logical partition, you must assign at least one processor to that partition. Likewise, if you choose to remove processor resources from a dedicated partition, you must remove at least one processor from the partition.

Different partitioning tools assign dedicated processors to logical partitions in different ways. For more information about dedicated processor assignment by a specific partitioning tool, see Partitioning tools.

By default, a powered-off logical partition using dedicated processors will have its processors available to the shared processor pool. When the processors are in the shared processor pool, an uncapped partition that needs more processing power can use the idle processing resources. However, when you power on the dedicated partition while the uncapped partition is using the processors, the activated partition will regain all of its processing resources. If you use the Hardware Management Console, you can prevent dedicated processors from being used in the shared processor pool by disabling this function in the partition properties panels.

The following Flash demo explains how a powered-off partition using dedicated processors has its processors available to the shared processor pool. The following Flash demo requires the Flash plug-in .

Alternatively, you can use the Logical Partitions - Dedicated Processors of this demo.

You can also set the properties of a logical partition using dedicated processors so that unused processing cycles on those dedicated processors can be made available to the shared processor pool while the dedicated processor logical partition is running. This effectively allows the dedicated processor partition to act as if it were a capped processor partition. You can change the processor sharing mode of the dedicated processor partition at any time, without having to shut down and restart the logical partition.