Introduction to the HP Virtual Server Environment

Chapter 7: Combining Virtualization Solutions
A unique feature of HP VSE is that the different partitioning solutions can be combined on a single
system. This provides the user with the flexibility to consolidate varied workloads with different
isolation and flexibility requirements onto the same platform comfortably.
You can use nPartitions, Virtual Partitions, Integrity Virtual Machines, and Secure Resource Partitions
on the same system at the same time. The key advantage is that you can decide which is the right
technology for any particular workload and then put it on the system using the most appropriate
partitioning technology. You can get the advantages of hardware fault isolation and the flexibility of
Virtual Partitions or Integrity Virtual Machines, as well as the application-stacking capabilities of
Secure Resource Partitions without having separate systems to run them. In addition, you can use HP
utility pricing solutions, such as iCAP, to augment the existing resources. A further advantage is that
the flexibility of all these technologies can be combined, and workload management tools can
provide the ability to automatically move resources wherever they are needed; from Integrity Virtual
Machines in one nPartition over to Virtual Partitions in another nPartition, as required.
Combining Partitioning Solutions
The following combinations of partitions are supported:
• nPartitions – You can run Virtual Partitions, Integrity Virtual Machines, or Secure Resource
Partitions inside of an nPartition. This provides the benefit of the hardware fault isolation
between the nPartitions and the granularity of any of the other partitioning options. Note,
however, that Integrity Virtual Machines and Virtual Partitions cannot run in the same
nPartition.
• Virtual Partitions – You can run Secure Resource Partitions inside of Virtual Partitions for
application stacking, which may be running inside an nPartition.
• Integrity Virtual Machines – You can run Secure Resource Partitions inside of an HP-UX virtual
machine guest, which may be running on a standalone server or within an nPartition.
However, because Integrity Virtual Machines already provides sub-CPU granularity and
shared I/O, using Secure Resource Partitions within an HP-UX virtual machine guest is not
likely to be commonly used.
Adding iCAP to Partitioning
Instant Capacity is supported with all of the partitioning solutions, but it is supported only on cell-
based systems. The only other thing to note is that iCAP needs to be managed on the VM Host for
Integrity Virtual Machines. This is because the CPUs inside a VM guest are virtual CPUs, and iCAP
operates only on physical CPUs. So the mechanism for applying iCAP to a VM guest is to activate
the CPU on the host and then apply the newly activated CPU cycles to the guest by increasing its
entitlement.
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