Uses of Virtual Partitions

I have worked on many vPars installations that have a variety of uses for vPars. The following are a sampling of the reasons to use vPars:

Increased System Utilization -	Many servers are underutilized . With vPars you can devote a subset of system resources to each vPar. With each vPar running its own instance of HP-UX 11i and associated applications, you'll get higher overall system utilization.
Flexibility -	Many applications have resource needs that change. With vPars you can devote fewer system components when application needs are low and additional resources when an application needs them. An increased end-of-the-month workload, for instance, can be given more system resources to complete faster.
Server Consolidation -	Running multiple instances of HP-UX 11i and their assoicated applications on one HP server reduces the overall number of servers required. Web servers that had run on different servers can now be run in different vPars on the same computer.
Application Isolation -	HP vPars are fully software-isolated from one another. A software failure in one vPar does not affect other vPars.
Mixed Production, Test, and Development -	Production and testing can take place on the same server with vPars. When testing is complete, the test vPar can become the production vPar. Similarly, development usually takes place on a separate system. With the software isolation of vPars, however; development can take place on the same system with other applications.

These are just a sampling of the uses I've seen for vPars. Many others will emerge as vPars become widely used and systems experts implement them in more computing environments.