AIX SPLPAR environment Symptoms of not following the recommended 'best practices' include no reporting on the Shared Pool utilization, AIX frame utilization under-reported, AIX partitions reported as "VIRTUAL" systems, partitions not showing as associated with a frame, AIX frame utilization over-reported, two (or more) frame configurations reported |
(1) Instrument all LPARs with a collector (introduced in release 7.3). This ensures proper identification of SMT as well as access to the specific metrics required to properly report on LPAR resource consumption. (a) Any uninstrumented DLPARs will compromise complete frame reporting (unless you've elected to use the HMC-reporting only option described in KA390247) (b) Any uninstrumented SPLPARs limit the 'what-if' options if you're using Predict to model a PowerVM frame (see NOTE A below) (2) Choose at least one of the following options to enable Pool and Frame reporting: (i) Enable Shared Pool Authority for one or more SPLPARs to obtain Shared Pool reporting (information about how to set the proper authority is covered in KA291081) (also see NOTE E below). Additional details of pool utilization support are contained in NOTE D. (ii) Use HMC Shared Pool Statistics (introduced with BPA 9.0 SP1 console and refined with 9.0 SP4 CHF2 console patch). This method requires an HMC connection and enabling HMC statistics (described in KA320135 -- the required metric groups are automatically enabled beginning with 9.0 data collection, but can be configured for 7.5.00/7.5.10 as well). (iii) If Shared Pool Authority hasn't been set and HMC statistics haven't been enabled (a) you must instrument every LPAR with a collector in order to get total frame utilization (b) you will not see explicit Shared Pool reporting (introduced in Release 7.5). (3) Ensure that at least one LPAR per physical system is collecting the frame configuration data from the HMC (page 98, http://documents.bmc.com/supportu/documents/76/88/107688/107688.pdf). See NOTE C below. For maximum frame reporting, it's recommended to collect HMC frame statistics in addition to the frame configuration data (described in KA320135). (4) LPARs from the same frame should be processed together in one Manager domain/policy. If you choose to split LPARs from the same physical system across multiple domains/policies: (a) Item (3) requires that a least one LPAR per physical system per domain/policy is collecting the HMC configuration. Thus, some customers have chosen to configure HMC collection for all LPARs in order to support arbitrary analysis groupings. An increasingly common approach which respects partition mobility requirements recommends enabling access from each VIO server, and assigning one VIO server per domain. Beginning with Perceiver 7.5.10 SP2 CP3, this requirement is now optional. However, if you consume data directly from the Visualizer CDB, it's still recommended to meet this requirement. (b) All LPARs from a frame must be populated to the same Visualizer database. (c) If you are consuming CPU utilization data from the CAXNODE/D tables (via custom CDB queries or BPA Consoles 7.4.10 and earlier) and Shared Pool Authority is set, splitting a frame over multiple domains/policies is not recommended because the “ROP” object cannot be computed correctly and the resulting CPU utilization for the frame and pool will be incorrect (too high).
BCO REQUIREMENTS
If AIX frame information is being input to BCO, the requirements are stronger: all lpars must have collectors deployed and HMC data is required for BCO 4.0. For BCO 4.5/9.0, HMC data is required.
INVESTIGATE/REAL-TIME REQUIREMENTS
There are no additional requirements imposed for real-time monitoring, but depending on the AIX analysis use cases, certain data configurations can be more or less useful. Please see KA390247 for a sample of this.
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NOTE A: Note that even when collectors have not been deployed, a high-level representation of CPU utilization of the missing LPAR(s) is included in the Predict model. This ensures that basic capacity planning can be done. However, this CPU utilization is fixed, i.e. it won’t be affected by workload increases, scenario plans, etc. and it doesn’t carry the particulars of actual entitlements and virtual processors which could affect calculated performance results. NOTE B: For 7.5.00 console, Visualizer will show the correct total frame utilization only if all LPARS have been instrumented with collectors. This restriction is removed when using 7.5.10. NOTE C: Although HMC frame configuration data is still recommended for a complete frame view, it is not strictly required once the 7.4.10 console is patched after 24 April 2009. This efficacy of this alternate processing approach depends on having collectors on all partitions and having all partitions assembled within a single domain/policy. This patch is very useful for environments with intermittent HMC data or no HMC data. NOTE D: Here are the details of the pool utilization support for earlier releases (a) For Releases 7.4.00/7.4.10, “ROP” represents the total CPU utilization of all SPLPARs without collectors. So the sum of the instrumented SPLPARs plus “ROP” is the total Shared Pool utilization. (b) For Release 7.5.00 (and later), Shared Pool CPU utilization is reported explicitly. But graphics which report the sum of the instrumented SPLPARs will account for only a portion of the actual Shared Pool utilization (because “ROP” is no longer used). See NOTE B. (c) For Release 7.5.10 (and later), “ROP” is once again available, but only for use from the pre-7.5.00 tables (CAXNODE, CAXNODED). NOTE E: There must be a collector on at least one SPLPAR in the physical pool (Pool 0). Enabling Shared Pool Idle on an SPLPAR means that whatever pool it's assigned to will be reported. If you want pool reporting for multiple shared pools (Pools 1, 2, 3, etc.), you must have a collector on at least one SPLPAR in each pool, Shared Pool Authority must be set, and an adequately patched infrastructure KA351266. As noted above, beginning with 9.0 SP1, HMC-based pool reporting can be substituted for this.
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