Getting started with HP-UX Workload Manager

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Introduction
Today, most servers are highly underutilized. While average utilization varies by customer and
operating system, in the HP-UX environment, it is often around 30%. There are myriad reasons for
this, but one of the primary reasons is that customers often have one application per server, and they
size that server for a peak load of typically three to five times the average utilization. This means that
millions of dollars in server resources—CPU and memory—can lie idle for most of the time.
Resource optimization, which is one of the goals of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy, enables you
to combine applications but still maintain performance. The Adaptive Enterprise strategy helps
customers synchronize business and IT to adapt to and capitalize on change. To help you realize the
promise of becoming an Adaptive Enterprise, HP provides virtualization technologies that pool and
share resources to optimize utilization and meet demands automatically.
HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM) is a virtualization solution that helps you achieve a true Adaptive
Enterprise. As a goal-based policy engine in the HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE), WLM integrates
virtualization techniques—including partitioning, resource management, utility pricing resources, and
clustering—and links them to your business priorities and service level objectives (SLOs). WLM
enables a virtual HP-UX server to grow and shrink automatically, based on the demands and SLOs for
each application it hosts. You can consolidate multiple applications onto a single server to receive
greater return on your IT investment while ensuring that end-users receive the service and performance
they expect.
Audience
This paper is intended for individuals who are interested in using WLM but would prefer to learn as
little of the WLM configuration file syntax as possible.
The paper explains how to configure and monitor HP-UX WLM A.03.02 (product B8843CA) running
on HP-UX 11i v1 (B.11.11) or HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23) and HP-UX WLM A.03.02.02 (product
B8843CA) running on HP-UX 11i v3 (B.11.31).
What is HP-UX Workload Manager?
WLM is a software product that assesses resource usage in real time and then automatically allocates
resources and manages application performance based on your SLOs and business priorities. WLM is
available as a stand-alone product and as part of the HP-UX Mission Critical Operating Environment
(MCOE) bundle.
WLM automates many of the features of the Process Resource Manager (PRM) and HP-UX Virtual
Partitions (vPars). WLM manages CPU resources within a single HP-UX instance as well as within and
across hard partitions and virtual partitions. It automatically adapts system or partition CPU resources
(cores) to the demands, SLOs, and priorities of the running applications. (A core is the actual data
processing engine within a processor, where a single processor can have multiple cores.) On systems
with HP Instant Capacity, WLM automatically moves cores among partitions based on the SLOs in the
partitions. Given the physical nature of hard partitions, the “movement” of cores among partitions is
achieved by deactivating a core on one nPartition and then activating a core on another.
WLM is most effective in managing applications that are CPU-bound. It adjusts the CPU allocation of
a group of processes known as a workload, basing the adjustment on the current needs and
performance of applications in that workload. A workload can be based on the collection of
processes in:
• nPartitions that uses Instant Capacity
• Virtual partitions (vPars)