With the introduction of POWER6 and POWER7 servers and a minimum of i/OS V6R1, the capability exists to create virtualised i/OS partitions (Guest) within a physical i/OS partition (Host). This is perfect for low activity production workloads and test / development environments. They are particularly easy to create and copy. They effectively take a slice of the physical resources of the Host partition; processor, memory and disk. With the ability to use virtualised Ethernet or dedicated physical cards to provide network access to the Guest partitions, the options are varied and flexible.
This functionality is key to taking advantage of the huge processing capacity of the POWER7 servers whilst avoiding using valuable tower counts on the restricted 12x loops.
The Guest partitions run their own copies of SLIC and i/OS and continue to require partition management, the same as a physical partition.
Caution is required however, there are still limitations on what can and cannot be virtualised in these environments, and this applies to both V6R1 and V7R1.
If you would like to discuss this further, then please contact:
