Questions LPAR support for snapshot and hibernation

[Rohit]

I am new to Aix and LPAR world. I would like to know certain things

1: Does LPAR support snapshot and hibernation(suspend + resume ) at
the 'guest os level' like some of the vmware's products ?

2: Also is there any API that LPAR supports that third party
application can use and access the state of LPAR guest machine and all
of its snapshot ? If many of them are there , any links to C/ C++
solution ?

3: Is there any common library (like libvirt on linux) that LPAR works
with , so that one can use interface from that library and access
snapshots , memory state etc

Thanks,
Rohit

[Gary R. Hook]

Rohit wrote:
> 1: Does LPAR support snapshot and hibernation(suspend + resume ) at
> the 'guest os level' like some of the vmware's products ?

No.

> 2: Also is there any API that LPAR supports that third party
> application can use and access the state of LPAR guest machine and all
> of its snapshot ? If many of them are there , any links to C/ C++
> solution ?

This information is acquired from the HMC, which talks to the
hypervisor. It's accomplished via commands, not an API.

Look here for documentation:
http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hmc/resources.html

> 3: Is there any common library (like libvirt on linux) that LPAR works
> with , so that one can use interface from that library and access
> snapshots , memory state etc

None that I'm aware of.

--
Gary R. Hook
________________________________________________________________________
Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit

[Paul Landay]

The 'workload partitions' function of AIX v6.1
have some of these capabilities:
http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/sysmgmt/wpar/index.html

The full set of AIX v6.1 publications are at:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/aix/index.jsp

Workload Partitions (WPARs) are different from the LPARs and DLPAR
support in earlier levels of AIX, but WPARs can run inside LPARs.

Paul Landay

[Rohit]

On Feb 14, 12:14 pm, "Gary R. Hook" <obfusc...@nospam.net> wrote:
> Rohit wrote:
> > 1: Does LPAR support snapshot and hibernation(suspend + resume ) at
> > the 'guest os  level'  like some of the vmware's products ?
>
> No.

How does LPAR compare with virtual machine concept from vmware and
logical domain from Sun then ?

>
> > 2: Also is there any API that LPAR supports that third party
> > application can use and access the state of LPAR guest machine and all
> > of its snapshot ? If many of them are there , any links to C/ C++
> > solution ?
>
> This information is acquired from the HMC, which talks to the
> hypervisor.  It's accomplished via commands, not an API.
>

What all info about LPAR can be achieved using HMC then ?

> Look here for documentation:http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/hmc/resources.html
>

Ok will check that .. Thanks for the link.

> > 3: Is there any common library (like libvirt on linux) that LPAR works
> > with , so that one can use interface from that library and access
> > snapshots , memory state etc
>
> None that I'm aware of.

Does each LPAR host different guest OS ? Or its instance of same host
os but different logical containers ?

Thanks,
Rohit

[Rohit]

> The 'workload partitions' function of AIX v6.1
> have some of these capabilities:
>    http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/software/aix/sysmgmt/wpar/index.html
>
> The full set of AIX v6.1 publications are at:
>    http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/aix/index.jsp
>
> Workload Partitions (WPARs) are different from the LPARs and DLPAR
> support in earlier levels of AIX, but WPARs can run inside LPARs.

I will check these links. Thanks a lot.

-Rohit

[Gary R. Hook]

Rohit wrote:
>
> Does each LPAR host different guest OS ? Or its instance of same host
> os but different logical containers ?

An LPAR is a virtual host. It runs a unique instance of an OS. Logical
containers are (I believe) comparable to AIX's Workload partitions.
Different beasts.

[No Body]

Gary R. Hook wrote:
> Rohit wrote:
>>
>> Does each LPAR host different guest OS ? Or its instance of same host
>> os but different logical containers ?
>
> An LPAR is a virtual host. It runs a unique instance of an OS. Logical
> containers are (I believe) comparable to AIX's Workload partitions.
> Different beasts.
>

There's a lot of hairs to be split in how IBM pSeries does this stuff,
so the v-word is a little too vague to simply tie to LPAR. Think it's a
little more accurate to say a LPAR is a collection of resources which
are combined together to support running a host.

one way to think of it all is like this:
* frame - a single collection of hardware resources. The physical
machine (i.e 8 CPUs, 64GB memory, <x> adapter slots with
ethernet/fiber-channel/scsi/etc installed). Has to be Power4 (P4) or
greater to support LPAR-ing at a minimum. Various features may or may
not be licensed/enabled (LPAR, Dynamic LPAR (DLPAR), micropartitioning,
Adv. Power Virtualization or Virtual Server, Mobility, etc..)
* LPAR/DLPAR - collection of dedicated hardware resources in a single
frame running a unique OS instance. P4/P5/P6 archs, AIX5/6.
* Micropartition (i call uPAR) - collection of shared hardware resources
in a single frame running a unique OS instance. Can use dedicated
hardware/resources too. P5/P6 archs, AIX5(.3)/6.
* Workload partitions (WPAR) - collection of hardware resources (LPAR or
uPAR) running a unique OS instance. Components of that instance can then
be shared to create multiple unique 'hosts' all based off this OS
instance. P4/P5/P6 archs, AIX 6 (both the base OS instance and its
children WPARs).

.. and then there's the multiple definitions of 'shared resource' for
all the types of resources: CPUs have processor pools along with
idle-cycle stealing of dedicated CPUs, physical networking can be shared
either via VIOS or IVE, physical storage connectivity can be shared via
VIOS (uPARS) or NFS (if you want WPAR mobility). Memory in p6 is
supposed to implement sharing/pool-type support later in the year. And
so on, and so on..

-r