Virtualization - IBM p5 590 System Handbook

1.3.5 Virtualization

The IBM Virtualization Engine can help simplify IT infrastructure by reducing
management complexity and providing integrated Virtualization technologies and
systems services for a single IBM Sserver p5 server or across multiple server
platforms. The Virtualization Engine systems technologies added or enhanced
the systems using the POWER5 architecture are as follows. A detailed
description of these features can be found in Chapter 3, "POWER5 virtualization
capabilities" on page 57.
POWER™ Hypervisor™
Is responsible for time slicing and dispatching the logical partition workload
across the physical processors, and enforces partition security, and can
provide Virtual LAN channels between partitions, reducing the need for
physical Ethernet adapters using I/O adapter slots.
Simultaneous multi-threading
Allows two separate instruction streams (threads) to run concurrently on the
same physical processor, improving overall throughput and improving overall
hardware resource utilization.
LPAR
Allows processors, memory, and I/O adapters, and attached devices to be
grouped logically into separate systems within the same server.
Micro-Partitioning
Allows processor resources to be allocated to partitions in units as small as
1/10th of a processor, with increments in units of 1/100th of a processor.
Virtual I/O
Includes virtual SCSI for sharing SCSI attached disks and virtual networking
to enable sharing of Ethernet adapters.
Virtual LAN (VLAN)
Enables high-speed, secure, partition-to-partition communications using the
TCP/IP protocol to help improve performance.
Capacity on Demand
Allows system resources such as processors and memory to be made
available on an as-needed basis.
Multiple operating system support
The POWER5 processor-based Sserver p5 products supports IBM AIX 5L
Version 5.2, IBM AIX 5L Version 5.3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
(SLES 9), and Red Hat Enterprise AS Linux 3 (RHEL AS 3). IBM i5/OS V5R3
is also available on Sserver p5 models 570, 590, and 595.
Chapter 1. System overview
11