AIX LPAR Information Test

This test auto-discovers the LPARs on a pSeries server, reports the amount of CPU and memory resources that each LPAR is configured with, reveals the extent of usage of the allocated resources by every LPAR, and also updates you with the powered-on status of these LPARs. Using the measures reported by this test, the following can be quickly ascertained:

  • Which LPAR is currently powered-off?
  • Which LPAR is utilizing virtual CPU and virtual memory optimally? Are there any resource-hungry LPARs? If so, which ones are they?
  • Is any LPAR under-sized/over-sized in terms of the CPU and memory allocated to it? If so, which one is it?
  • What is the maximum limit to which the processing capacity of an LPAR can be allowed to grow?
  • What is the processing capacity configuration of every LPAR's shared resource pool?

Target of the test : An IBM pSeries server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each LPAR configured on the IBM pSeries server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.

Port

Indicate the port at which the specified Host listens. By default, this is NULL.

Real ServerName

Specify the name of the pSeries server in the Real ServerName text box. If the target pSeries server has been auto-discovered using HMC, the server name will be set automatically in the Real ServerName text box. However, while configuring this test for a pSeries server that has been manually added, you have to explicitly provide the server name in the Real ServerName text box.

Note:

To obtain the real server name, a user can login to the target pSeries server as a valid pSeries user, go to the shell prompt of the server, and execute the following command: lssyscfg - r sys -F name

Is Managed By

By selecting an option from the Is Managed By list, indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed using an HMC server or an IVM (Integrated Virtual Manager) server. If the target server has been auto-discovered via an HMC server, the HMC option will be automatically chosen from this list.

Management Server, Management User, Management Password

This test connects to an HMC/IVM server to perform LPAR discovery and to collect host-level and "outside view" metrics from the pSeries server. To enable this communication, first, provide the IP address/host name of the HMC/IVM server in the Management Server text box. If the eG manager had automatically discovered the target pSeries server by connecting to an HMC server in the environment, then, the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that HMC server will be automatically displayed in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

However, if the pSeries server being monitored was manually added to the eG Enterprise system (and not auto-discovered via the HMC server), then, you will have to explicitly indicate whether the target pSeries server is managed by an HMC server or an IVM server by selecting an option from the Is Managed By list. If the HMC option is chosen, then, you will have to provide the IP address of the HMC server that manages the target pSeries server in the Management Server text box. In such a case, in the Management User and Management Password text boxes, you will have to provide the credentials of an HMC user who is assigned the hmcviewer role.

On the other hand, if the IVM option is chosen from the Is Managed By list, it implies that the IP address/host name and user credentials pertaining to that IVM server has to be explicitly provided in the Management Server, Management User, and Management Password text boxes.

Confirm Password

Confirm the HMC Password by retyping it here

Domain

Set the Domain parameter to none.

Admin User, Admin Password, Confirm Password

The eG agent remotely communicates with each discovered LPAR on the pSeries server to obtain their "inside view". For this, the eG agent will have to be configured with the credentials of a valid user with access rights to each LPAR. If a single user is authorized to access all the LPARs on the pSeries server, provide the name and password of the user in the Admin User and Admin Passsword text boxes, and confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box. On the other hand, if the test needs to communicate with different LPARs using different user accounts, then, multiple user names and passwords will have to be provided. To help administrators provide these multiple user details quickly and easily, the eG administrative interface embeds a special configuration page. To know how to use this page, refer to Configuring Users for LPAR Monitoring.

SSL

By default, the HMC/IVM server (as the case may be) is not SSL-enabled. This indicates that by default, the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTP. Accordingly, the SSL flag is set to No by default. If you configure the HMC/IVM server to use SSL, then make sure that the SSL flag is set to Yes, so that the eG agent communicates with the HMC/IVM server using HTTPS.

Ignore VMs Inside View

Administrators of some high security LPAR environments might not have permissions to internally monitor one/more LPARs. The eG agent can be configured to not obtain the 'inside view' of such ‘inaccessible’ VMs using the Ignore VMs Inside View parameter.  Against this parameter, you can provide a comma-separated list of LPAR names, or LPAR name patterns, for which the inside view need not be obtained. For instance, your Ignore VMs Inside View specification can be: *lp,aixlp*,lin*. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside view of all LPARs on a pSeries server by default.

Note:

While performing LPAR discovery, the eG agent will not discover the operating system of the LPARs configured in the Ignore VMs Inside View text box.

Exclude VMs

Administrators of some virtualized environments may not want to monitor some of their less-critical LPARs both from 'outside' and from 'inside'. The eG agent in this case can be configured to completely exclude such LPARs from its monitoring purview. To achieve this, provide a comma-separated list of LPARs to be excluded from monitoring in the Exclude VMs text box. Instead of LPARs, LPAR name patterns can also be provided here in a comma-separated list. For example, your Exclude VMs pecification can be: *lp,aixlp*,lin*. Here, the * (asterisk) is used to denote leading and trailing spaces (as the case may be). By default, this parameter is set to none indicating that the eG agent obtains the inside and outside views of all AIX LPARs on a virtual host by default. By providing a comma-separated list of LPARs/LPAR name patterns in the Exclude VMs text box, you can make sure the eG agent stops collecting 'inside' and 'outside' view metrics for a configured set of LPARs.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Is LPAR powered on?

Whether this LPAR is powered on or not.

 

If this measure returns the value 'Yes', it indicates that the LPAR is powered-on. The value 'No' on the other hand indicates that the LPAR is powered off. The table below displays the values that can be reported by this measure, and their numeric equivalents:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 0
No 1

Note:

By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed in the table above. The graph of this measure however will represent the VM status using the numeric equivalents - 0 or 1.

Online virtual CPUs

Indicates the number of virtual CPUs currently being used by this LPAR.

Number

A high value of this measure indicates excessive CPU usage by an LPAR. Comparing the value of this measure across LPARs will enable you to quickly and accurately point to that LPAR that is consuming too much CPU. To know whether the CPU resources of this LPAR are capped or uncapped, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure. This will additionally reveal the partition ID and type (whether dedicated or shared) as well.

Maximum virtual CPUs

Indicates the maximum number of virtual CPUs that can be utilized by this LPAR.

Number

 

Minimum virtual CPUs

Indicates the minimum number of virtual CPUs configured for this LPAR.

Number

 

Online memory

Indicates the amount of allocated memory resources currently utilized by this LPAR.

MB

A high value of this measure indicates excessive memory usage by an LPAR. Comparing the value of this measure across LPARs will enable you to quickly and accurately point to that LPAR that is consuming too much memory.

Maximum memory

Indicates the maximum amount of memory that this LPAR can use.

MB

 

Minimum memory

Indicates the minimum amount of memory allocated to this LPAR.

MB

 

Capacity increment

Indicates the minimum capacity (in units of 1/100 of a physical processor) that can be added to or removed from this partition's processor capacity.

Number

This measure indicates the granule at which changes to Entitled Capacity can be made. A value in whole multiples indicates a Dedicated LPAR.

Maximum capacity

Indicates the maximum number of processing units that this LPAR can use.

Number

The entitled capacity of the LPAR can go up to the value of this measure.

Minimum capacity

Indicates the minimum number of processing units required by this LPAR for its functioning.

Number

The entitled capacity of the LPAR cannot go down beyond the value of this measure.

Active physical CPUs in system

Indicates the current number of active physical CPUs in the system containing this LPAR.

Number

 

Maximum physical CPUs in system

Indicates the maximum number of physical CPUs that can be used by this LPAR.

Number

 

Active CPUs in pool

Indicates the maximum number of CPUs available to this LPAR's shared processor pool.

Number

 

Shared physical CPUs in system

Indicates the number of physical CPUs available for use by shared processor LPARs.

Number

 

Entitled capacity of pool

Indicates the number of processing units that this LPAR's shared processor pool is entitled to receive.

Number

 

Maximum capacity of pool

Indicates the maximum number of processing units available to this LPAR's shared processor pool.

Processing units

 

Unallocated capacity

Indicates the sum of the number of processor units unallocated from shared LPARs in an LPAR group.

Processing units

This sum does not include the processor units unallocated from a dedicated LPAR, which can also belong to the group. The unallocated processor units can be allocated to any dedicated LPAR (if it is greater than or equal to 1.0 ) or shared LPAR of the group.

Unallocated weight

Indicates the number of variable processor capacity weight units currently unallocated within the LPAR group.

Processing units

 

To know whether the CPU resources of an LPAR are capped or uncapped, use the detailed diagnosis of this Online virtual CPUs measure.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Online virtual CPUs measure