IBM i > Administrator > Systems Management

On-Demand Memory and Processor Capacity Improves Flexibility

On-Demand Memory and Processor Capacity Improves Flexibility

A popular feature of the Power Systems enterprise-class servers is capacity on demand (CoD) for processors and memory. With it, you can purchase servers with inactive, spare capacity that can be implemented in a variety of ways. Let’s explore the various configuration and enablement options for CoD resources.

Businesses that have implemented Power Systems servers periodically need to increase system resources for application growth or the deployment of new workloads. When their servers are configured with CoD it’s easy to quickly increase processor and memory resources without a system outage. These resources can be activated permanently or temporarily using one of several options.

Enterprise Server COD Configuration Options

By default, all of the processor and memory resources configured on Power Systems enterprise-class servers begin with CoD status. The quantity of CoD resources is then reduced by permanent activations ordered with the server. If you don’t permanently activate all of the processor cores and memory, you will be left with some CoD resources for future use.

The following rules specify the minimum number of processor cores and memory that must be activated:

• Model 770 and 780 servers require just four processor activations regardless of how many total processors are installed.
• Model 795 servers must have at least 24 activated cores. For Model 795 servers with greater than 96 cores installed, at least 25 percent of the cores must be activated.
• For all enterprise-class servers, at least 50 percent of the installed memory must be permanently activated.

If you order a processor or memory upgrade, you’re not required to order activations as long as the minimum configuration rules are satisfied for the final, installed server configuration.

Tweet