Method, system and program products for managing logical processors of a computing environment

• US 20060020944A1
• Filed: 09/06/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nick, Jeffrey M., Kubala, Jeffrey P., Yocom, Peter B., King, Gary M., Kaberon, Daniel A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,714 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45541 Bare-metal, i.e. hypervisor runs directly on hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

The configuration of the logical processors of a logical partition is managed dynamically. A logical partition is initially configured with one or more logical processors. Thereafter, the configuration can be dynamically adjusted. This dynamic adjustment may be in response to workload of the logical partition.

Claims

1. A method of managing logical processors of a computing environment comprising a plurality of shared physical processors, said method comprising:

configuring a logical partition of said computing environment with a number of logical processors, wherein the number is greater than or equal to 1;

employing a workload manager to dynamically adjust configuration of the logical partition based on workload of the logical partition, the workload manager;

automatically evaluating workload of the logical partition and automatically determining therefrom that said configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted based, in part, on a percentage of physical processor capacity assigned to the logical partition and a percentage of physical processor capacity currently being used by the logical partition; and

dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition in response to workload of the logical partition, said dynamically adjusting the configuration comprising dynamically adjusting the number of logical processors of the logical partition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said dynamically adjusting comprises increasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said dynamically adjusting comprises decreasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically determining is performed at a plurality of time intervals.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatically determining comprises using a predefined equation in making the determination, and wherein said automatically determining that the configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted is further based, in part, on the number of logical processors configured to the logical partition and the number of physical processors that can be allocated on a central processor associated with the logical partition.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said automatically determining further comprises comparing a result of said predefined equation with one or more thresholds to determine whether the adjustment is to be made.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically adjusting comprises dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition without negotiating with another logical partition of the computing environment.

2. (canceled)

5. (canceled)

8. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

11. A system of managing logical processors of a computing environment, said system comprising:

means for configuring a logical partition of said computing environment with a number of logical processors, wherein the number is greater than or equal to 1;

means for employing a workload manager to dynamically adjust configuration of the logical partition based on workload of the logical partition, the workload manager;

means for automatically evaluating workload of the logical partition and means for automatically determining therefrom that said configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted based, in part, on a percentage of physical processor capacity assigned to the logical partition and a percentage of physical processor capacity currently being used by the logical partition; and

means for dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition in response to workload of the logical partition, said means for dynamically adjusting the configuration comprising means for dynamically adjusting the number of logical processors of the logical partition.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said means for dynamically adjusting comprises means for increasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said means for dynamically adjusting comprises means for decreasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for automatically determining is performed at a plurality of time intervals.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein said means for determining comprises means for using a predefined equation in making the determination, and wherein said means for automatically determining that the configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted is further based, in part, on the number of logical processors configured to the logical partition and the number of physical processors that can be allocated on a central processor associated with the logical partition.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein said means for automatically determining further comprises means for comparing a result of said predefined equation with one or more thresholds to determine whether the adjustment is to be made.

33. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for dynamically adjusting comprises means for dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition without negotiating with another logical partition of the computing environment.

12. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

21. (canceled)

22. At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of managing logical processors of a computing environment comprising a plurality of shared physical processors, said method comprising:

configuring a logical partition of said computing environment with a number of logical processors, wherein the number is greater than or equal to 1;

employing a workload manager to dynamically adjust configuration of the logical partition based on workload of the logical partition, the workload manager;

automatically evaluating workload of the logical partition and automatically determining therefrom that said configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted based, in part, on a percentage of physical processor capacity assigned to the logical partition and a percentage of physical processor capacity currently being used by the logical partition; and

dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition in response to workload of the logical partition, said dynamically adjusting the configuration comprising dynamically adjusting the number of logical processors of the logical partition.

24. The at least one program storage device of claim 22, wherein said dynamically adjusting comprises increasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

25. The at least one program storage device of claim 22, wherein said dynamically adjusting comprises decreasing a number of logical processors allocated to said logical partition.

27. The at least one program storage device of claim 22, wherein the automatically determining is performed at a plurality of time intervals.

28. The at least one program storage device of claim 22, wherein said automatically determining comprises using a predefined equation in making the determination, and wherein said automatically determining that the configuration of the logical partition is to be adjusted is further based, in part, on the number of logical processors configured to the logical partition and the number of physical processors that can be allocated on a central processor associated with the logical partition.

31. The at least one program storage device of claim 28, wherein said automatically determining further comprises comparing a result of said predefined equation with one or more thresholds to determine whether the adjustment is to be made.

34. The at least one program storage device of claim 22, wherein the dynamically adjusting comprises dynamically adjusting the configuration of the logical partition without negotiating with another logical partition of the computing environment.

23. (canceled)

26. (canceled)

29. (canceled)

30. (canceled)