HP Global Workload Manager 7.0 User Guide

2 Configuring gWLM to manage workloads
This chapter describes the various aspects of configuring gWLM to effectively manage the resources
for your workloads.
Policy types
You can define several types of policies to instruct gWLM how to manage the resources for your
workloads. These types are:
Fixed Allocates a fixed (constant) amount of CPU resources to a workload’s
compartment.
gWLM satisfies these policies before attempting to satisfy any other type of
policies.
Utilization Attempts to keep a workload’s CPU utilization close to a target percentage by
requesting more CPU resources when the workload is using too much of its
current CPU resource allocation or by requesting fewer resources when the
workload is using too little of its allocation. For example, assume a workload
has a utilization policy with a target of 80% and an allocation of 5 cores. If
the workload is consuming 4.5 cores, its utilization percentage is 4.5/5, or
90%. gWLM would attempt to allocate additional CPU resources to the
workload’s compartment to meet the target. An allocation of 6 cores would
result in a utilization percentage of 4.5/6, or 75%, meeting the target.
With a utilization policy, you specify the minimum and maximum CPU resource
requests. Workloads with this type of policy are always allocated at least the
minimum request. Utilization policies allow you to prioritize workloads.
OwnBorrow Allows you to set the following values:
• Amount of CPU resources, in cores, a workload’s compartment owns.
• Minimum amount of CPU resources, in cores, a workload’s compartment
must have (after lending resources to other workloads).
• Maximum amount of CPU resources, in cores, a workload’s compartment
can have (after borrowing resources from other workloads).
The compartment of a workload with an OwnBorrow policy is allocated the
owned CPU resources when needed. The minimum and maximum sizes allow
you to specify how much the workload can lend (when resources are not needed)
or borrow (when additional resources are needed and available). If a
compartment has lent out cores and that compartment’s workload becomes
busy, the compartment re-acquires those lent-out cores.
Custom Available for advanced users. For information on custom policies, refer to the
online help or gwlmxml(4).
Conditional Specifies the existing policy to use when a time-based condition, a file-based
condition, or a Serviceguard condition is met.
You can define your own policies or use one of the numerous policies that come with gWLM. You
can use one policy for multiple workloads, minimizing the number of policies, if desired.
Choosing a policy type
How do you decide which policy type to use? Table 3 answers this question for several common
use cases. The section following the table helps you decide between using an OwnBorrow policy
or a utilization policy.
Policy types 13