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Note: Dynamic logical partitioning is supported by SUSE 9 and RHEL AS 4 or later.
Changing memory attributes dynamically is not supported at the time of writing.
Micro-Partitioning technology
The OpenPower 710 POWER Hypervisor, when enabled, provides Micro-Partitioning
virtualization technology. With Micro-Partitioning, a partition may be defined with a processor
capacity as small as 10 processor units. This represents 1/10 of a physical processor. Each
processor can be shared by up to 10 shared processor partitions and can increment
fractionally as little as 1/100th of the processor. The shared processor partitions are created
and managed by the HMC. Dedicated and micro-partitioned processors can co-exist on the
same POWER5 server as long as resources allow. Table 2-7 lists processor partitioning
information related to the OpenPower 710 server.
Table 2-7 Processor partitioning overview of the OpenPower 710 server
Partitioning implementation (based on 2-way configuration)
Processors
Dedicated processor partitions
Shared processor partitions
It is important to point out that the maximums stated are supported by the hardware, but the
practical limits based on production workload demands may be lower. Table 2-8 on page 30
lists operating systems supported with Micro-Partitioning.
Virtual I/O adapters
The OpenPower 710 POWER Hypervisor, when enabled, also supports virtual I/O adapter
virtualization technology. Three types of virtual I/O adapters are supported by the POWER
Hypervisor.
Virtual SCSI
The POWER5 server uses SCSI as the mechanism for virtual storage devices. This is
accomplished using two paired adapters: A virtual SCSI server adapter and a virtual SCSI
client adapter. Virtual SCSI requires FC 1965, the appropriate level of Linux, and an HMC to
define the virtual SCSI devices, as follows.
Virtual Ethernet
The POWER Hypervisor provides a virtual Ethernet switch function that allows partitions on
same server
the
a means for fast and secure communication. Virtual Ethernet working on LAN
technology allows a transmission speed in the range of 1 to 3 GB/sec depending on the MTU
size. Virtual Ethernet requires FC 1965, the appropriate level of Linux, and an HMC to define
the virtual Ethernet devices. Virtual Ethernet does not require the Virtual I/O Server.
Virtual Ethernet features include:
A partition supports 256 virtual Ethernet connections, where a single virtual Ethernet
resource can be connected to another Virtual Ethernet, a real network adapter, or both in
a partition. Each Virtual Ethernet adapter can also be configured as a trunk adapter.
Each partition operating system sees the virtual local area network (VLAN) switch as an
Ethernet adapter, without the physical link properties and asynchronous data transmit
operations. Layer-2 bridging to a physical Ethernet adapter is also included in the virtual
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Maximum transmission unit
Chapter 2. Architecture and technical overview
OpenPower 710
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