Multiple Shared Processor Pools - IBM Power 720 Overview

POWER Hypervisor dispatches virtual processors to physical processors according to the
partition's processing units entitlement. One processing unit represents one physical
processor's processing capacity. At the end of the POWER Hypervisor's dispatch cycle
(10 ms), all partitions receive total CPU time equal to their processing unit's entitlement. The
logical processors are defined on top of virtual processors. So, even with a virtual processor,
the concept of a logical processor exists and the number of logical processors depends
whether the simultaneous multithreading is on or off.

3.4.3 Multiple shared processor pools

Multiple shared processor pools (MSPPs) is a capability that is supported on POWER6,
POWER6+, POWER7, and POWER7+ processor-based servers. This capability allows a
system administrator to create a set of micropartitions with the purpose of controlling the
processor capacity that can be consumed from the physical shared processor pool.
To implement MSPPs, there is a set of underlying techniques and technologies. Figure 3-8
shows an overview of the architecture of multiple shared processor pools.
Unused capacity in SPP
redistributed to uncapped
micro-partitions within SPP
Shared Processor Pool
Set of micro-partitions
AIX V5.3 AIX V6.1
EC 1.6 EC 0.8
vp1
vp0 vp2
p0 p1
Figure 3-8 Overview of the architecture of multiple shared processor pools
Micropartitions are created and then identified as members of either the default shared
processor pool
within the set of micropartitions are monitored by the POWER Hypervisor, and processor
capacity is managed according to user-defined attributes.
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IBM Power 720 and 740 Technical Overview and Introduction
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EC 0.5
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vp3
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Physical Shared-Processor Pool
or a user-defined shared processor pool
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Unused capacity in SPP
redistributed to uncapped
micro-partitions within SPP
Shared Processor Pool
Set of micro-partitions
AIX V6.1 AIX V6.1
EC 1.6 EC 0.8
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vp6
vp5 vp8
POWER Hypervisor
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. The virtual processors that exist
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KEY:
EC Entitled Capacity
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