In recent years, more and more IBM i clients are using logical partitioning in their Power Systems environments. IBM has many resources available to you regarding PowerVM and logical partitioning, as well as some excellent white papers on related performance topics. I thought it might be helpful to give a list of some of these resources in case you were not aware of them.
Redbooks
There are several Redbooks publications that have been published on PowerVM and most of these have been recently updated. Brief descriptions of each Redbooks publication are listed below.
IBM PowerVM Getting Started Guide
This Redbooks publication is a quick start guide to help you install and configure a complete PowerVM virtualization solution on IBM Power Systems. It highlights how to use the management console interfaces to configure PowerVM.
IBM PowerVM Virtualization Introduction and Configuration
An introduction guide for system administrators, providing instructions for these tasks (last updated June 2017):
• Configuration and creation of partitions and resources on the HMC
• Installation and configuration of the Virtual I/O Server
• Creation and installation of virtualized partitions
• Examples using AIX, IBM i and Linux
IBM PowerVM Virtualization Managing and Monitoring
This Redbooks publication provides an organized view of best practices for managing and monitoring your PowerVM environment concerning virtualized resources managed by the Virtual I/O Server.
This Redbooks publication provides best practices for planning, installing, maintaining and monitoring the IBM PowerVM Enterprise Edition virtualization features on IBM POWER7 processor technology-based servers.
Papers
The following papers were authored or coauthored by members of the IBM i Performance team, IBM i developers or PowerVM developers.
Under the Hood: POWER7 Logical Paritions
Under the Hood: What’s This Multi-Core Computing Really?
Under the Hood: NUMA on POWER7 in IBM i
Under the Hood: Simultaneous Multi-Threading on POWER7 Processors
Under the Hood: Performance Implications of POWER7 TurboCore Mode
Under the Hood: GigaHertz and CPWs
POWER7 Virtualization Best Practice Guide
developerWorks Wiki
There is the PowerVM Wiki on the IBM developeWorks site; this wiki is still available, but should have a new home at some point.
And finally, there is a PowerVM LinkedIn Group you can find a tremendous amount of additional information on partitioning, the Virtual I/O Server, HMC and all related PowerVM technologies.
Happy reading!
This blog post was edited to fix broken links on March 26, 2020.
This blog post was originally published on IBMSystemsMag.com and is reproduced here by permission of IBM Systems Media.