Changing the size of the shared memory pool using the HMC

You can increase or decrease the amount of physical memory assigned to the shared memory pool by using the Hardware Management Console (HMC).

You must be a super administrator of operator of the HMC to change the size of the shared memory pool.

If there is not enough physical memory available in the system by which to increase the amount of memory assigned to the shared memory pool, you can release to the hypervisor the physical memory that is currently assigned to dedicated memory partitions that are shut down. The hypervisor can then assign the released physical memory to the shared memory pool.

If the shared memory pool has insufficient physical memory by which to decrease the amount of memory in the shared memory pool, you can release to the hypervisor the I/O entitled memory that is currently assigned to shared memory partitions that are shut down. The hypervisor can then remove the released physical memory from the shared memory pool.

To change the size of the shared memory pool, complete the following steps:

In the navigation pane, expand Systems Management and click Servers.
In the work pane, select the server on which the shared memory pool is configured.
From the Tasks menu, click Configuration > Virtual Resources > Shared Memory Pool Management. The Pool Properties window is displayed.
In the Pool Size field, enter a new value for the pool size and click OK. You can enter the size in a combination of gigabytes (GB) plus megabytes (MB). If you need to assign more memory to the shared memory pool than the current maximum pool size, you can also enter a new value for the maximum pool size.
- If there is not enough physical memory available in the system by which to increase the maximum pool size, the Release Memory Resources window is displayed. Select dedicated memory partitions that are shut down until the available memory is equal to or greater than the requested memory and click OK.
- If the amount of memory by which you want to decrease the size of the shared memory pool is greater than the amount of available physical memory in the shared memory pool, the Release Memory Resources window is displayed. (For example, the amount of available physical memory in the shared memory pool is 8 GB and you want to decrease the size of the shared memory pool from 32 GB to 20 GB, a difference of 12 GB, which is greater than 8 GB.) Select shared memory partitions that are shut down until the amount of memory by which you want to decrease the size of the shared memory pool is equal to or less than the available physical memory in the shared memory pool, and click OK.