Workload Partition Management in IBM AIX Version 6.1

Workload Partition Management in IBM AIX Version 6.1

by Shane Brandon, Anirban Chatterjee, Henning Gammelmark, Vijayasekhar Mekala, Liviu Rosca, Arindom Sanyal, Chris Almond
Released December 2008
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

Workload partition functionality, originally introduced in 2007 with the release of IBM AIX Version 6, is a strategic component of the IBM AIX Operating System. With the release of AIX V6.1 TL2 in November 2008, both the core functionality and features related to managing workload partitions have been improved and expanded.

This IBM Redbooks publication provides an updated introduction and “how to” guide for system administrators and architects using workload partitions in AIX V6.1 TL2. It builds on the original concepts and practices described in the first Redbooks publication about this topic, Introduction to Workload Partition Management in IBM AIX Version 6.1, SG24-7431 , published in 2007.

In AIX 6.2 TL2, significant enhancements to core workload partition functions and new features have been added. Some of the important feature updates provide more flexibility and support for enhanced mobility, improved isolation, and NIM integration. A new and significantly updated version of IBM Workload Partitions Manager for AIX (WPAR Manager), the Web browser-based graphical user interface for managing and monitoring WPARs, is also available. WPAR Manager is a platform management solution that provides a centralized point of control for managing WPARs across a collection of managed systems running AIX.

Table of contents

  1. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  2. Preface
    1. The team that wrote this book
    2. Acknowledgements
    3. Become a published author
    4. Comments welcome
  3. Part 1: Introduction
  4. Chapter 1: Introduction to AIX workload partitions
    1. Workload management and partitioning in AIX systems
      1. AIX Workload Manager
      2. Logical partitions
      3. PowerVM (formerly Advanced POWER Virtualization)
    2. AIX6 Workload Partitions
      1. Global environment
      2. System WPAR
      3. Application WPAR
    3. WPAR isolation and security
      1. Processes
      2. Users
      3. Resources
    4. Other WPAR features
      1. Checkpoint/restart
      2. Live application mobility
    5. When to use workload partitions
      1. Improve application reliability and availability
      2. Simplify operating system and application management
      3. Optimize server utilization
      4. Manage application resource utilization
      5. Scoping administrative privileges by application
      6. Protect the existing hardware investment
      7. Easily clone application environments
      8. Support “green” computing strategies
  5. Chapter 2: Understanding and planning for workload partitions
    1. High-level planning information
    2. General considerations
      1. Software prerequisites
      2. File system considerations
      3. Network considerations
    3. Considerations for the global environment
    4. Application WPARs
    5. System WPARs
    6. Mobility
    7. WPAR and LPAR comparison
  6. Part 2: Managing workload partitions
  7. Chapter 3: Functional overview of workload partitions
    1. Understanding application WPARs and system WPARs
      1. Comparing application WPARs and system WPARs
    2. WPAR tools overview
    3. WPAR Manager
    4. WPAR commands
    5. Modified AIX commands
    6. WPAR description database
  8. Chapter 4: Overview of workload partition operations
    1. WPAR administration
      1. Creating and managing simple WPARs
      2. Deployment states and transitions
      3. Network considerations
    2. File system setup
      1. Creating a new filesystem
      2. Changing an existing file system
      3. Shared /usr with writable subdirectory (filesystem)
    3. Software installation
      1. Software availability
      2. Installing software
    4. Backing up, restoring, and cloning WPARs
      1. Backup considerations
      2. WPAR considerations
      3. Backing up the global environment
      4. Backing up and restoring a system WPAR
      5. Cloning a system WPAR
    5. User and group management
      1. Defaults access: Users and root
      2. Recovering a password for users inside WPARs
    6. Relocation
      1. Administrative locking
    7. CLI walkthrough
      1. Static mobility
      2. Creating WPARs eligible for Live mobility from CLI
      3. Live mobility prerequisites
      4. Live mobility
    8. Checkpointing and restarting
  9. Chapter 5: Managing workload partitions
    1. WPAR Manager components and functions
      1. Common Agent Service
      2. Agent Manager
      3. Resource Manager
      4. Common Agent
    2. WPAR Manager installation
      1. Check WPAR Manager prerequisites
      2. WPAR Manager installation and configuration
      3. Verifying WPAR Manager installation
    3. WPAR agent installation
      1. Checking WPAR agent prerequisites
      2. Installing and configuring WPAR agent
      3. Verifying agent installation
    4. Preparing and creating mobile WPARs
      1. Preparing your NFS server
      2. The mobility process
      3. Logging on to WPAR Manager
      4. Creating an application WPAR eligible for static mobility (1/2)
      5. Creating an application WPAR eligible for static mobility (2/2)
      6. Creating an application WPAR eligible for live mobility
      7. Creating a system WPAR eligible for static mobility (1/2)
      8. Creating a system WPAR eligible for static mobility (2/2)
    5. Compatibility API
      1. Compatibility test flow
      2. Compatibility test cases
      3. API usage
    6. Performance monitoring
    7. WPAR groups and load management
    8. WPAR Manager availability
  10. Part 3: Advanced topics
  11. Chapter 6: Security in workload partition environments
    1. WPAR isolation
      1. APIs
      2. Commands
      3. Kernel changes
    2. File system isolation and security
      1. Discretionary Access Control
      2. Access Control Lists
      3. Controlling file access
    3. Encrypted File Systems
      1. Confidentiality of WPAR data
      2. Granting global environment users access to WPAR data
      3. Granting WPAR users access to global environment data
    4. Users and groups
      1. Security credentials WPAR environments (1/3)
      2. Security credentials WPAR environments (2/3)
      3. Security credentials WPAR environments (3/3)
    5. RBAC in WPAR environments
      1. Using RBAC to secure WPAR operations
    6. Network isolation
      1. Using the global environment routing table
      2. Using the WPAR-specific routing table
      3. Managing WPAR-specific routing
    7. Auditing and accounting in WPAR environments
      1. Overview of auditing in WPAR environments
      2. Using auditing in WPAR environments
      3. Global-initiated WPAR auditing
      4. Overview of accounting in WPAR environments
      5. Using accounting in WPAR environments
      6. Global-initiated WPAR accounting
  12. Chapter 7: Advanced configuration features
    1. WPAR administrative scalability
    2. Specification files
    3. NIM client support
      1. Machine definition
      2. NIM operations applicable to WPARs
      3. WPAR NIM states
      4. Additional resource types
    4. Advanced file system considerations
      1. Creating additional file systems for WPARs
      2. Configuring writable shared file systems
      3. Network File System (NFS) considerations
    5. Backup considerations
      1. The mkwpardata command
      2. The savewpar command
      3. The restwpar command
    6. Software maintenance
      1. Software availability
      2. Shared install
      3. Non-shared install
    7. Print spooling
    8. System environment notes
    9. Processes and subsystems (1/2)
    10. Processes and subsystems (2/2)
    11. WPAR resource limiting
    12. IPv6
    13. Network Name Mapped Interface Support
    14. WPAR static settings resolution
      1. Sample case
      2. Static settings resolution flow
    15. PowerHA (formerly HACMP) and WPARs
      1. Planning for High Availability
  13. Chapter 8: Resource control
    1. Resource control
    2. Workload partition resource control overview
      1. CPU and memory allocation to a WPAR
      2. Processes and threads in a WPAR
      3. Virtual memory of a single process within a WPAR
      4. Resource sets
    3. Workload partition resource control attributes
    4. Default and recommended values of resource control attributes
    5. Using resource allocation
      1. Resource control command line interface
      2. Using CPU resource control
      3. Using memory resource control
      4. Processes and threads
      5. Process virtual memory
    6. Using WPARs instead of WLM classes
    7. WPAR resource control changes to WLM
      1. Number of user-defined superclasses
      2. Resource limit granularity
      3. Changes to WLM commands
    8. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding WLM and WPAR resource control
      1. The tier
      2. Superclass and subclass
      3. Class assignment rule
      4. Enabling resource control when creating a WPAR
      5. Enabling resource control for selected WPARs
      6. Using WLM commands directly for resource control
      7. Using WLM to manage other workloads
  14. Chapter 9: Tracing and logging
    1. Trace support for WPARs
      1. System trace enablement for WPARs
      2. Dynamic trace (probevue) enablement for WPARs
    2. Error logging
    3. System logging
  15. Chapter 10: Developer considerations
    1. Device management
      1. Device visibility in a workload partition
      2. Supported device categories in a WPAR environment
      3. Fine granularity logical volume control (1/2)
      4. Fine granularity logical volume control (2/2)
    2. AIX IOCP API and mobility of I/O completion reports
      1. IOCP mobility requirements
      2. IOCP mobility APIs
    3. Application licensing and compliance support
      1. Application licensing support for WPAR
      2. Tivoli License Compliance Manager for WPARs
    4. WPAR messaging and logging
      1. Message classifications
      2. Environment variables
      3. Application programming interfaces
    5. XTISO mobility
      1. XTISO checkpoint and restart flow
      2. XTISO library changes
    6. Network File System client mobility support
    7. System V and POSIX IPC in WPAR
  16. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Other publications
    3. Online resources
    4. How to get Redbooks
    5. Help from IBM
  17. Index (1/3)
  18. Index (2/3)
  19. Index (3/3)
  20. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: Workload Partition Management in IBM AIX Version 6.1
  • Author(s): Shane Brandon, Anirban Chatterjee, Henning Gammelmark, Vijayasekhar Mekala, Liviu Rosca, Arindom Sanyal, Chris Almond
  • Release date: December 2008
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None