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PowerVM and VMware

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What this presentation is Basic Terms that can be used to discuss multiple forms

of virtualization

Concepts common to virtualization platforms thatmake planning easier

Notable differences between virtualization platformsthat should be understood when planning

IMHO

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What this presentation is not In anyway comprehensive

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Basic Terms and Common Things

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Virtualization Basics

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Virtualization Basics Physical Capacity

The amount of resources physically present

Virtual systems have little or no visibility

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Virtualization Basics Hypervisor

Abstraction layer between physical hardware and virtualsystems

PowerVM Firmware

VMWare - Software

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Virtualization BasicsAccessible Capacity

Amount of resource that a virtual system can potentiallyhave access to

Also the amount of resource that a virtual system thinksit has access to

PowerVM

Virtual CPUs VMWare Virtual CPUs

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Virtualization Basics Guaranteed Capacity

Amount of resource that a virtual system can have nomatter what other demands are placed on the physical

resources Limiting factor that determines how many virtual

systems can be started

Cannot guarantee more resources than physically

present

PowerVM Entitlement

VMWare - Reservation

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Virtualization Basics Limit

Maximum amount of resources that a virtual system canaccess

PowerVM Cap Tied to guaranteed capacity

VMWare - Limit Not tied to guaranteed capacity

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Virtualization Basics Priority

How resources are divided when demand is greater thanphysical capacity

Only affects access to accessible resources above theamount guaranteed

PowerVM

Priority Weight VMWare Shares

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Virtualization Basics Mobility

Ability to move virtual systems from one physicalhardware device to another with no disruption in serviceto the virtual system

Independence from physical hardware

PowerVM

Live Partition Mobility (LPM) VMWare - vMotion

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Cluster vs. HostVMWare Cluster centric focus

PowerVMHost centric focus

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CPU Scalability

Number of vCPUs supported for a single virtual system

Performance rating of physical hardware Coscheduling and Processor Folding

Configuration flexibility

Adding/removing resources

Hot Add/Hot Plug

Threading Differences

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Memory Committed vs. Not Committed

VMWare Transparent Page Sharing

Balloon Driver

PowerVM Active Memory Sharing

Active Memory Expansion

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Storage - SpaceVMWare Cluster/Pool Storage

Storage allocations are presented to all of the hostswithin a cluster and formatted with a proprietary file

Virtual system is a set of files within the filesystemcontrolled by the hypervisor.

PowerVM Direct Storage Storage allocations are presented to VIO servers which

then proxy them to the virtual system (vscsi) or storageallocations are presented directly to the virtual system(npiv)

Virtual system directly formats and manages storage

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Storage - Throughput Multipathing support

Quality of Service (Storage IO Control)

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Priority vs. Guarantee Reverse order of application

PowerVM Guarantee applied first then Priority Weight

VMWare

Shares applied first then Reservations

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Performance Measurement CPU

Contention for physical resources

PowerVM Involuntary Context Switches

VMWare CPU Ready

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Performance Measurement CPU

Measurements from inside the virtual system

PowerVM

PURR

Entitlement vs. Virtual Utilization

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Performance Measurement CPU

Measurements from inside the virtual system

VMware

Skew

Run Queue in single vCPU virtual systems

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Performance Measurement Memory

Tracking memory allocation and usage by virtual systems

PowerVMN/A?

VMWare

Actively used

Shared

Balloon/vmmemctl Swap

Consumed

Overhead

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Performance Measurement IO Measurement

PowerVM NPIV configurations have a measurementgap at the the physical HBA

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Performance Measurement Cluster Vs. Host Measurement

PowerVM Virtual systems collect their ownperformance information

VMWare Hypervisor collects performance information