Dynamic Platform Optimizer
POWER7® or POWER8® processor-based servers with firmware at level FW760, or later, can support the Dynamic Platform Optimizer (DPO) function. DPO is a hypervisor function initiated from the Hardware Management Console (HMC). DPO rearranges logical partition processors and memory on the system to improve the affinity between processors and memory of logical partitions. When DPO is running, mobility operations that target the system that is being optimized are blocked. Also, when DPO is running, many virtualization features are blocked. When a DPO operation is in progress and you want to dynamically add, remove, or move physical memory to or from running logical partitions, you must either wait for the DPO operation to complete or manually stop the DPO operation.
To help assess when DPO might be beneficial, you can use the HMC to determine affinity scores for the system and logical partitions by using the lsmemopt command. An affinity score is a measure of the processor-memory affinity on the system or for a partition. The score is a number in the range 0 - 100, 0 represents the worst affinity and 100 represents perfect affinity. Based on the system configuration, a score of 100 might not be attainable. A partition that has no processor and memory resources does not have an affinity score, and none is displayed for the score on the command line, when you run the lsmemopt command.
- The current server affinity score of the managed system is less than or equal to the server affinity threshold that you provided.
- The affinity delta (which is the potential score minus the current score) of the managed system is greater than or equal to the affinity delta threshold of the server that you provided.
The scheduled operation sends a DPO report after the successful completion of a DPO operation, only if it is enabled in the HMC Notifications.
