Partition Information Test

Micro-Partitioning technology allows for multiple partitions to share one physical processor. Partitions using Micro-Partitioning technology are referred to as shared processor partitions. A partition may be defined with a processor capacity as small as 10 processor units. This represents 1/10 of a physical processor. Each processor can be shared by up to 10 shared processor partitions. The shared processor partitions are dispatched and time-sliced on the physical processors that are under control of the hypervisor.

A dedicated processor partition, such as the partitions that are used on POWER4 processor based servers, have an entire processor that is assigned to a partition. These processors are owned by the partition where they are running and are not shared with other partitions. Also, the amount of processing capacity on the partition is limited by the total processing capacity of the number of processors configured in that partition, and it cannot go over this capacity (unless you add or move more processors from another partition to the partition that is using a dynamic LPAR operation).

This test reports the number of shared partitions and dedicated partitions that have been configured on a pSeries server.

Target of the test : An IBM pSeries server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the IBM pSeries server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Indicate the port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is NULL.

Real ServerName

Specify the name of the pSeries server in the Real ServerName text box. If the target pSeries server has been auto-discovered using HMC, the server name will be set automatically in the Real ServerName text box. However, while configuring this test for a pSeries server that has been manually added, you have to explicitly provide the server name in the Real ServerName text box.

Note:

To obtain the real server name, a user can login to the target pSeries server as a valid pSeries user, go to the shell prompt of the server, and execute the following command: lssyscfg - r sys -F name

Is Managed By

By selecting an option from the Is Managed By list, indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed using an HMC server or an IVM (Integrated Virtual Manager) server. If the target server has been auto-discovered via an HMC server, the HMC option will be automatically chosen from this list.

Management Server, Management User, Management Password

This test connects to an HMC/IVM server to perform LPAR discovery and to collect host-level and "outside view" metrics from the pSeries server. To enable this communication, first, provide the IP address/host name of the HMC/IVM server in the Management Server text box. If the eG manager had automatically discovered the target pSeries server by connecting to an HMC server in the environment, then, the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that HMC server will be automatically displayed in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

However, if the pSeries server being monitored was manually added to the eG Enterprise system (and not auto-discovered via the HMC server), then, you will have to explicitly indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed by an HMC server or an IVM server by selecting an option from the Is Managed By list. If the HMC option is chosen, then, you will have to provide the IP address of the HMC server that manages the target pSeries server in the Management Server text box. In such a case, in the Management User and Management Password text boxes, you will have to provide the credentials of an HMC user who is assigned the hmcviewer role.

On the other hand, if the IVM option is chosen from the Is Managed By list, it implies that the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that IVM server has to be explicitly provided in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the HMC Password by retyping it here

SSL

By default, the HMC/IVM server (as the case may be) is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the HMC/IVM server to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTPS.

High Security

In highly secure environments, eG Enterprise could not perform agentless monitoring on the pSeries server using SSH. To enable monitoring of the target pSeries host in such environments, eG Enterprise offers the High Security flag. Setting this flag to Yes indicates that eG Enterprise will connect to the target pSeries server in a more secure way and collect performance metrics. However, you can set this flag to No if the eG Enterprise is allowed to connect to the target host normally.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Shared partitions

Indicates the number of shared partitions currently available in the pSeries server.

Number

Each processor can be shared by up to 10 shared processor partitions. To know the names and IDs of the shared partitions on the server, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Dedicated partitions

Indicates the number of dedicated partitions currently available in the pSeries server.

Number

To know the names and IDs of the dedicated partitions on the server, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

To know the names and IDs of the shared partitions on the server, use the detailed diagnosis of the Shared partitions measure.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Shared partitions measure

To know the names and IDs of the dedicated partitions on the server, use the detailed diagnosis of the Dedicated partitions measure.

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Dedicated partitions measure