Workload Management Overview

Ron Barker
Consulting IT Specialist
IBM System p Advanced Technical Support
Coppell, TX

© 2007 IBM Corporation IBM Systems

Agenda

ƒ Review of AIX Workload Manager (WLM)

ƒ How CPU and memory access priorities are calculated
ƒ The future of workload management

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Review of AIX WLM

ƒ Granular control of system CPU, real memory and disk I/O

ƒ Integrated with the AIX kernel
► AIX Scheduler (CPU)
► Virtual Memory Manager (Memory)
► Disk device drivers (Disk)
ƒ Allows users to define how resources are allocated
► Tiers
► Classes (Superclasses)
► Subclasses
ƒ Active and passive modes

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Review of WLM

ƒ Tiers 0 through 9 – most-favored to least-favored

ƒ Superclasses and subclasses
ƒ Targets – relative shares of total available resource
► Values from 1 to 65535
ƒ Limits – percentages of total available resource
► Minimum
► Soft maximum
► Hard maximum
ƒ Defined limits take precedence over shares

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Review of WLM

ƒ Defining classes
► Name

► Tier

► Number of shares
► Limits, if any
► Additional characteristics
● e.g., inheritance, localshm
ƒ Assigning threads to classes based on
► Process owner ID
► Process group ID
► Executable name (full path)
► Application tags

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WLM Monitor and Control Resource Utilization

ƒ WLM monitors all threads by class and determines utilization

ƒ Define minimum and maximum utilization values
► Per class
► Per resource
ƒ Define target values (shares)
► Per class
► Per resource

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More on Shares

ƒ Shares are a relative entitlement to available resource

► Superclass share values compared to other classes in the
same tier
► Subclassshare values compared to other subclasses in the
same superclass
ƒ Limits may be imposed on classes using shares
► Limit values take precedence over shares
● If there is a conflict between shares and limits, limits
prevail

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Example of Automatic Target Adjustment

ƒ Example 1 – three classes running

► Classes A, B and C with 50, 30 and 20 shares, respectively
► Total number of active shares is 100
► A’s target is 50/100, or 50 percent
► B’s target is 30/100 or 30 percent
► C’s target is 20/100 or 20 percent

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Example of Automatic Target Adjustment

ƒ Example 2 – one class exits, two continue running

► Class A stops (0), class B is 30, class C is 20
► Total active shares is 50
► Class B’s target is now 30/50 or 60 percent
► Class C’s target is now 20/50 or 40 percent

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Resource Limits

ƒ Class resource limits define the minimum and maximum

amount that may be allocated from total system resources
ƒ The minimum is the percentage that must be available when
requested until the target utilization has been reached
ƒ The maximum is the percentage that can be made available
when there is contention with other classes
► Soft maximum can be exceeded if there is no contention for the
resource
► Hard maximum cannot be exceeded, even if there is no contention

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Rules for Limits

ƒ A minimum must be less than or equal to the soft maximum

ƒ The soft maximum must be less than or equal to the hard
maximum
ƒ The sum of all superclass minimums within a tier cannot
exceed 100
ƒ The sum of all subclass minimums within a superclass in a tier
cannot exceed 100
ƒ WLM will not allow users to set a hard limit on the System class

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Uniform Resource Access Priority (URAP)

ƒ WLM gathers CPU utilization for all threads in each class

► Once a second in AIX 5.2, ten times a second in AIX 5.3
● /usr/samples/kernel/wlmtune command
► CPU time used by all threads for the interval produces a time-
delayed average for each class
ƒ WLM then compares the average against
► Tier values
► Class targets
► Class limits
ƒ The comparison results in a number produced by the Uniform
Resource Access Priority (URAP) subsystem that either favors
or penalizes each thread when dispatched by the scheduler

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Uniform Resource Access Priority

ƒ When calculating URAP, WLM constraints are given

precedence in the following order:
► Hard limits
► Tiers

► Soft limits
► Shares

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Memory Management

ƒ WLM monitors memory consumption at the same interval as

CPU usage
ƒ Percentage-based memory limits are enforced by the Virtual
Memory Manager’s (VMM) Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm
ƒ Classes receive a URAP priority for accessing new memory
pages
ƒ Beginning in AIX 5.3 TL 5, virtual memory hard limits may be
set (real memory + paging space)
– Limits enforced with SIGKILL

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 What are AIX Workload Partitions?
Created via software as virtualized OS environments within a single instance of AIX

ƒ Partitioned system capacity

► Each Workload Partition (WPAR) AIX Image
obtains a regulated share of the
processor and memory resources
► Each WPAR has its own network, file
systems and many system services Workload Workload
(e.g. telnetd, etc.) Partition Partition
App Svr Billing Svr
ƒ Separate admin control
Workload
► Each WPAR is a separate Partition
administrative and security domain Workload Test Svr
Workload
Partition
Partition
ƒ Shared system resources Web Svr E

► I/O Devices, CPUs, OS, shared library

and text

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AIX Workload Partitions can be used inside LPARs

Dedicated Dedicated MicroPartition Processor Pool

Processor Processor
LPAR LPAR LPAR LPAR LPAR LPAR
Finance Planning Americas Asia EMEA

WPAR #1 WPAR #1 WPAR #1

Bus Dev MFG eMail

VIO
Server WPAR #2
Test

WPAR #2
Planning WPAR #3
Billing

POWER Hypervisor

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 IBM System p5 Flexible Resource Management
AIX Workload Partitions complement Logical Partitions
Ease of Administration

AIX
Workload
Partitions
MicroPartition
LPAR
Dedicated
Processor
AIX Workload LPAR
Manager

Workload Isolation

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Positioning WPARs

ƒ IBM Logical partitioning is “best-of-breed” and is

based on decades of IBM experience
ƒ Challenge: How to reduce the number of OS images
being maintained?
ƒ WPARs reduce administrative effort
► Single AIX image can support multiple workloads
► Separate administrative control for each WPAR
► Application Mobility adds even more flexibility
ƒ WPARs can greatly increase administrative efficiency
and flexibility and are appropriate for many workloads

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When to use Workload Partitions

Requirement MicroPartitions Workload Partitions

Hardware enforced Isolation x

Minimal number of AIX images x

Server Consolidation x x

Greatest Flexibility x

Cross system workload management x x

Move workload between systems x x

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WPAR and Application Mobility Terminology

ƒ Global environment

ƒ Checkpoint and restart

ƒ Mobility

ƒ Departure system

ƒ Arrival system

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WPAR Types

ƒ Types of WPARS
► System WPAR
► Application WPAR
● Exists only as long as the application is running

ƒ Both types can be configured for mobility via the AIX Workload
Partition Manager product

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Characteristics of WPARs

ƒ Devices
► Managed and administered in the global environment
► Support pseudo-devices in WPARs
ƒ Networking
► Supports multiple addresses for login and network services
► A WPAR’s IP address is aliased to an IP address in the global
environment
► Configurable at creation time or later
ƒ Security
► Limited interaction with global environment
► Limited interaction with persistent objects

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Characteristics of WPARs

ƒ WPAR isolation
► System WPARs and application WPARs are isolated from each other
► System WPARs are integrated with AIX Role Based Access Control
(RBAC) facility, which is not true for Application WPARs
ƒ Resource Control
► Ability to change resource allocations dynamically within a WPAR
► Allows share based allocation or percentage based allocation for
processor and memory resources
● Based on AIX WLM infrastructure

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Summary

ƒ WPARs reduce administration expense by leveraging a single

AIX image

ƒ LPARs and WPARs drive higher system utilization and

optimize the customer’s investment

ƒ WPARs provide dynamic resource allocation capabilities

ƒ WPARs provide “good enough” isolation for many workloads

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