HP Insight Global Workload Manager 6.0 Software: User Guide

For more information on these system divisions, visit:
• HP Virtual Server Environment website:
http://www.hp.com/go/vse
• The “Technical Documentation website for HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE)” website:
http://www.hp.com/go/insightdynamics/docs
• The “Global Workload Manager” topic and the glossary in the online help for gWLM,
available in gWLM’s graphical interface in HP SIM.
gWLM manages resources based on the following model:
1. You define an SRD by:
a. Deciding which of your systems you want to manage and what type of compartments
you want to use.
gWLM manages existing npars, vpars, and virtual machines. It can manage your existing
psets as well as create new ones. It creates fss groups for you.
b. Associating each workload with a compartment.
For npars, vpars, and virtual machines, the compartment itself defines the workload.
For psets and fss groups, you define the workload based on applications, users, or
process IDs.
c. Associating a policy with the workload indicating how gWLM should allocate resources
to the workload's compartment.
gWLM comes with several policies and also lets you define your own. You can use a
single policy for multiple workloads, minimizing the number of policies, if desired.
2. Once the SRD is deployed:
a. gWLM monitors the CPU resource consumption of all the workloads in the SRD during
the current allocation interval.
b. At the end of the interval, gWLM adjusts the CPU resource allocations for the
compartments in accordance with the policies. It also makes the allocation data available
for real-time and historical reports.
c. gWLM repeats the previous two substeps.
For information on what types of workloads to combine for optimal resource utilization, refer
to the online help topic “Getting the Most Out of gWLM.”
How gWLM allocates CPU resources
gWLM addresses priority levels from highest to lowest, allocating resources to all requests at a
given priority level before considering lower priority requests. If, at some priority level, all
requests cannot be satisfied, the remaining resources are distributed so that the total resource
allocation for each workload is as near the proportion of its weight relative to the sum of all the
weights as possible. If gWLM has satisfied all resource requests at all priorities and there are
resources still to be allocated, it will distribute the remaining resources by weight. Again, this is
so that the total resource allocation for each workload is as near the proportion of its weight
relative to the sum of all the weights as possible.
Table 1-1 lists the default weights for the various policy types. For policies with weights, you
can also set the weight explicitly.
How gWLM allocates CPU resources 11