IBM logical partition (LPAR)

A virtual server with a subset of the physical server's processors, memory, and I/O adapter with its own operating system instance and applications.

Dynamic Logical Partition (DLPAR)

A virtual server with the ability to add or remove processors, network, or storage adapters while the server remains online.

Micro-partition

A virtual server with shared processor pools with support for up to10 micro-partitions per processor core. Depending upon the Power server, you can run up to 254 independent micro-partitions within a single physical Power server. Processor resources can be assigned at a granularity of 1/100th of a core. Also known as shared processor partition.

IBM LPARs with dedicated I/O

The baseline configuration is a traditional AIX deployment with dedicated HBAs and NICs. The deployment may include partitions with virtual CPUs or partitions that support dynamic re-configuration.

IBM LPARs with Virtual I/O Servers

With Virtual I/O Servers LPARs can share physical resources. The VIOS provides virtual SCSI, virtual fibre channel, and virtual networking for sharing. Sharing of resources between LPARs enables more efficient utilization of physical resources and facilitates consolidation.

POWER Hypervisor

The POWER Hypervisor is responsible for dispatching the logical partition workload across the shared physical processors. The POWER Hypervisor also enforces partition security, and provides inter-partition communication that enables the Virtual I/O Server's virtual SCSI and virtual Ethernet function.

Virtual I/O Server (VIOS)

The Virtual I/O Server facilitates the sharing of physical I/O resources among LPARs within the server. The Virtual I/O Server provides virtual SCSI target, virtual fibre channel, Shared Ethernet Adapter, PowerVM Active Memory Sharing and PowerVM Client Partition Mobility capability to client logical partitions within the physical server.

VIO client

The VIO client is a client LPAR that consumes resources shared by the VIO Server.

Virtual SCSI

Virtual disks vSCSI provided by the VIO server to reduce the need for dedicated physical disk resources for client partitions. vSCSI can be full LUNs or logical volumes.

Virtual Ethernet

In-memory network connections between partitions by POWER Hypervisor that reduce or eliminate the need for separate physical Ethernet Adapters in each LPAR.

Shared Ethernet Adapter

The Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA) enables network traffic outside the physical server by routing it through a software-based layer 2 switch running in the VIO Server.

N_Port ID Virtualization

Virtual HBAs which enable multiple LPARs/micro-partitions to access SAN devices through shared HBAs providing direct Fibre Channel connections from client partitions to storage. Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) are owned by VIO Server Partition.

Workload Partitions (WPARs)

Workload Partitions enable administrators to virtualize the AIX operating system, by partitioning an AIX operating system instance into multiple environments. Each environment within the AIX operating system instance is called a workload partition (WPAR). One WPAR can host applications and isolate the applications from applications executing in other WPARs. WPAR is a pure software solution and has no dependencies on hardware features.

WPAR Manager

The WPAR manager allows an administrator to create, clone, and remove WPAR definitions, or start and stop WPARs. It enables Live Application Mobility which allows relocation of WPARs from one server to another without restarting the application. The WPAR Manager includes a policy engine to automate relocation of WPARs between systems based on system load and other metrics.

Application WPAR

An application Workload Partition (WPAR) is a lightweight partition in which individual applications run. An application WPAR can only run application processes, not system daemons such as inetd cron. An application WPAR is a temporary object which is removed when the application is completed.

System WPAR

A system Workload Partition (WPAR) has a private copy of many of the AIX OS parameters. If desired, it can have its own dedicated, completely writable file systems. Most OS daemons can run, and each system WPAR has its own user privilege space.

Live Partition Mobility

Live Partition Mobility enables greater control over the usage of resources in the data center by enabling the migration of a logical partition from one physical system to another. This feature enables the transfer of a configuration from source to destination without disrupting the hosted applications or the setup of the operating system and applications

Live Application Mobility

Live Application Mobility enables the planned migration of workloads from one system to another without interrupting the application and can be used to perform a planned firmware installation on a server.

Active Memory Sharing

Active Memory Sharing is a virtualization technology that enables multiple partitions to share a pool of physical memory. AMS increases system memory utilization and reduces the amount of physical memory that the system requires.

Active Memory Expansion

Active Memory Expansion relies on compression of in-memory data to increase the amount of data that can be placed into memory. This feature expands the effective memory capacity of a POWER7 system. The operating system manages the in-memory data compression, which is transparent to applications and users.

Hardware Management Console (HMC)

Dedicated hardware/software to configure and administer a partition capable POWER server.

Integrated Virtual Manager

Management console which runs in the VIO for partition management of entry level systems.

Lx86

Supports x86 Linux applications running on POWER.