Summary

Workload Manager builds on many of the technologies available in HP's Virtual Server Environment. WLM allows administrators to configure the desired service level objective for a set of workloads, and it takes over from there.

One of the many capabilities of Workload Manager is its ability to dynamically migrate CPUs between vPars as shown in the first example scenario. Running WLM in this model allows multiple operating systems to retain a high level of isolation yet attain an unsurpassed level of resource sharing. Workload Manager can also be used to monitor Serviceguard packages and activate SLOs only when a package is active. This integration allows significant flexibility, especially when Instant Capacity, Temporary Instant Capacity, or Pay per use technologies are integrated into the solution, as shown in the second example scenario. The result is a highly available application that will receive the required resources but does not require resources to be left idle or underutilized. Instead, the idle resources are inactive and are only activated when the workload requires.

This chapter has described just a small subset of the capabilities available through WLM. WLM integrates with almost every technology in HP's Virtual Server Environment. Toolkits are available for a variety of widely used enterprise applications. Each of these technologies and integration points can be implemented as the workloads require. It should also be apparent from the example scenarios covered in this chapter that WLM configurations can start as very simple goal-based SLOs and can be incrementally augmented as additional features and integrations are required.