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iSeries at the Forefront of Partitioning Technologies

As the scalability of iSeries continues to increase dramatically, the opportunity to realize cost savings by consolidating multiple iSeries or AS/400 systems into fewer, more manageable systems also increases. Since its introduction, logical partitioning (LPAR) has re-energized server consolidation strategies for both iSeries and AS/400 users.

Hundreds of customers have successfully implemented LPAR, quickly consolidating multiple workload environments, time zones and footprints within a single or at least fewer iSeries or AS/400 systems. (For a look at LPAR customer experiences, see, "Early LPAR Users Sound Off.") These customers have taken advantage of logical partitions to benefit from the industry trend and optimize IT investments through consolidation of hardware, software, networks, data centers and, more importantly, skills.

In a year that marks the introduction of seventh generation 64-bit RISC processors, the team that successfully architected logical partitions for the AS/400 systems in 1999 will deliver some of the most dynamic and exciting V5R1 enhancements, which include extending LPAR support to the new iSeries Model 270 processor features. For more information on the new processors, see, "iSeries Enters a New Age." Let's examine these OS/400* V5R1 enhancements.

Dynamic Resource Movement
Until now, users have been able to dynamically move some of the I/O resources, such as tape IOP, without a system restart. However, moving processors, memory and interactive performance required users to restart the affected partitions to achieve resource movement.

With V5R1, it's no longer necessary to restart affected partitions in order to move resources. V5R1 also allows for dynamic movement of resources such as processor(s), memory or interactive performance. For example, during workload peaks in a production partition, users will be able to move entire processors or partial processors from one partition to another with simple graphical navigation tools provided through Operations Navigator interfaces. Users also will be able to schedule resource movement to occur at a specific time.

Dynamic resource movement will be supported on both iSeries and AS/400 systems with V5R1 partitions, the main difference being granularity of processor movement. With the iSeries, users will be able to move 1/100th of a processor between V5R1 partitions. However, with the AS/400 systems, users must move a full processor between V5R1 partitions. In addition to these resources, users also will be able to enable virtual OptiConnect, virtual LAN and change bus ownership without requiring a restart of the affected partitions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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