Partitioning with the Integrated Virtualization Manager
The Integrated Virtualization Manager is a browser-based system management interface for the Virtual I/O Servers. The Integrated Virtualization Manager provides you with the ability to create and manage partitions on a single server.
Virtual I/O Server is software that provides virtual storage and shared Ethernet resources to the other partitions on the managed system. Virtual I/O Server is not a general purpose operating system that can run applications. Virtual I/O Server is installed on a partition in the place of a general purpose operating system, and is used solely to provide virtual I/O resources to other partitions with general purpose operating systems. You use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to specify how these resources are assigned to the other partitions.
To use the Integrated Virtualization Manager, you must first install Virtual I/O Server on an unpartitioned server. Virtual I/O Server automatically creates a partition for itself, which is called the management partition for the managed system. The management partition is the Virtual I/O Server logical partition that controls all of the physical I/O resources on the managed system. After you install Virtual I/O Server, you can configure a physical Ethernet adapter on the server so that you can connect to the Integrated Virtualization Manager from a computer with a Web browser.
The following figure illustrates an IBM® Power Systems™ server or an IBM BladeCenter blade server with Power Architecture® technology. The Virtual I/O Server is in its own partition, and the client partitions are managed by the Virtual I/O Server logical partition. The browser on the PC connects to the Integrated Virtualization Manager interface over a network, and you can use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to create and manage the partitions on the server.
Resource assignment
When you use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to create partitions, you can assign memory and processor resources directly to partitions. If a partition uses dedicated processors, you specify the exact number of dedicated processors for the partition to use. If a partition uses shared processors, you can specify the number of virtual processors for the partition, and the Integrated Virtualization Manager calculates the number of processing units it assigns to the partition based on the number of virtual processors. If the partition uses dedicated memory, you can specify the amount of physical memory for the partition to use. If the logical partition uses shared memory, you can specify the amount of logical memory for the partition to use. In all cases, the amount of resources that you assign to a partition is committed to the partition from the time that you create the partition until the time that you change this amount or delete the partition. You cannot overcommit processor and memory resources to partitions by using the Integrated Virtualization Manager.
A partition that is created by using the Integrated Virtualization Manager has minimum and maximum processor values. The minimum and maximum values are used when you use a workload management application on the managed system, when you restart the managed system after a processor failure, or when you dynamically move resources to or from the Virtual I/O Server management partition. By default, the minimum and maximum values are set to the same value as the actual amount of committed resources. You can change the minimum and maximum processor values at any time.
A partition that is created by using the Integrated Virtualization Manager has minimum and maximum memory values. For partitions that are configured to use dedicated memory, these values refer to physical memory. The minimum and maximum values are used when you use a workload management application on the managed system, when you restart the managed system, or when you dynamically move memory to or from the Virtual I/O Server management partition. For partitions that are configured to use shared memory, these values refer to logical memory. The minimum and maximum values are used when you use a workload management application on the managed system, when you restart the managed system, or when you dynamically add or remove memory to or from a partition that uses shared memory. For partitions that are configured to use either dedicated or shared memory, you can change the minimum and maximum memory values only while the partition is not running.
When you use the Integrated Virtualization Manager to create logical partitions on your managed system, a fraction of the memory and a fraction of the processors on the managed system are assigned to the Virtual I/O Server management partition. If desired, you can change the memory and processor resources that are assigned to the management partition to match your Virtual I/O Server workload. Physical disks can be assigned directly to partitions, or they can be assigned to storage pools, and virtual disks (or logical volumes) can be created from these storage pools and assigned to logical partitions. Physical Ethernet connections are generally shared by configuring the physical Ethernet adapter as a virtual Ethernet bridge between the virtual LAN on the server and an external, physical LAN.
