Multiple shared processor pools

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PowerVC supports multiple shared processor pools. This support allows you to share a group of processors between multiple virtual machines. You can group your applications together and set a shared processor pool size limit on the total number of processing units for each pool, which limits the software license exposure for that pool. This feature is supported during virtual machine deployment, resize, and migration. Additionally, virtual machines that are assigned to the default and non-default processor pools can be remote restarted.

Note: You must configure the shared processor pools within the scope of your licenses as PowerVC does not manage the software licenses.
When migrating a virtual machine, the name of the shared processor pool associated with the virtual machine must stay the same. Therefore, to migrate a virtual machine that is associated with a shared processor pool, these conditions must be met:
  • There must be a shared processor pool on the target host that has the same name as the pool currently associated with the virtual machine.
  • The shared processor pool on the target host must have enough available capacity.

Specifying a shared processor pool

To specify a shared processor pool for a virtual machine, follow these steps:
  1. Configure the shared processor pool on the host.
  2. Create a new compute template or edit an existing compute template and specify the shared processor pool.
  3. Deploy the virtual machine and specify the compute template from the previous step. You can optionally specify the virtual machine's processor configuration (virtual processors and processing units). After deployment, the shared processor pool details are listed on the virtual machine properties page.
Note: You cannot modify the shared processor pool name after a virtual machine is deployed within PowerVC.

Limitations

Be aware of the following limitations when using multiple shared processor pool support:

  • You cannot modify the shared processor pool name while resizing.
  • After making shared processor changes outside of PowerVC, wait until the updates are reflected on PowerVC before you perform resize, migrate or deploy operations. You can verify the updates on virtual machine details and host details panels.