Logical partition in AIX

LPAR’s managed by HMC/ IVM/ Virual partition manager

AIX
IBM i
Linux
Virtual IO server

Logical partition

Ability to run a server as if it were two or more independent servers.
When you logically partitioning the server, you need to share the resources such as memory.
You can install software on logical partition and each one will run as an independent server.
Need tool to create logical partition. The tool depends upon the OS in which the server has.

Logical partitioning – Benefits

Consolidating servers
Instead of using several servers which occupies more space, we can use Logical partitions.

Sharing resources
We can easily move the hardware resources from one LPAR to another LPAR.

Maintaining Independent servers
By dedicating a part of resources such as memory, disk, IO etc., each LPAR runs as an Independent server.

Creating a mixed production and testing environment
On the same server, we can use the LPARs as test and production LPARs.

Integrated clustering
Using high availability application software, we can use the partitioned server as an integrated cluster. So that we can prevent the system from the unscheduled failure.

Before creating logical partitions we need to consider the following.

Processor and memory failure results in entire server failure.
IO device failure results in failure of the particular LPAR.
To reduce the possibility of failure, use Advanced System Management Interface (ASMI) to set the server to deconfigure the failing processors.
Administrating LPARs is difficult when compare to administrate the different systems.

Managed system

A managed system is a single physical server with all the connected resources wit h it.
We can use a managed system as a single server or we can create more LPARs on that.

Logical Partition tools

Hardware Management Console
Partition profile
It is a record on HMC which defines the configuration of LPARs.
System profile
It contains ordered list of partition profiles in the HMC to start the logical partitions.
Integrated Virtualization Manager
Virtual IO server

Physical and Virtual hardware resources

Processors
Dedicated – Whole processor will be assigned to a single logical partition.
Shared – Processing capacity is shared among multiple logical partitions.
Virtual - Represent as a physical processor to the OS but uses shared processor.
Memory
IO devices