AIX Workload partitions (WPARs) are a software implementation of
operating system-level virtualization technology introduced in the
IBM's AIX 6.1 operating system that provides application environment isolation and resource control.
WPARs are software partitions that are created from, and share the resources of a single instance of the AIX OS. WPARs can be created on any
IBM Power Systems
Power Systems is a family of server computers from IBM that are based on its Power processors. It was created in 2008 as a merger of the System p and System i product lines.
History
IBM had two distinct POWER- and PowerPC-based hardware l ...
or
system p hardware that supports AIX 6.1 or higher versions. There are three kinds of WPARs: System WPARs; Application WPARs; and Versioned WPARs.
System WPAR
A system WPAR behaves as a complete installation of AIX.
Application WPAR
Application WPARs are lightweight environments used for isolating and executing a single application process.
Versioned WPAR
A WPAR which contains an instance of either AIX 5.2 or AIX 5.3. Versioned WPARs are only supported in AIX 7.1 and later LPARs.
Mobility
WPAR mobility is an extension to WPARs that provides the ability to move a running workload from one physical machine to another. Both System and Application WPARs can be moved from one machine to another. To continue having access to the same files before/after mobility; the
filesystems of a mobile WPAR must either be stored in a disk or NFS mounted (both of which should be shared and accessible from all the machines where WPAR is being moved to).
The feature can be helpful in the following scenarios :
* During hardware upgrades or other planned outages.
* To transfer the load of the running application to another machine.
See also
*
Operating system-level virtualization
*
Logical Partitioning (LPAR)
*
Dynamic Logical Partitioning
Dynamic Logical Partitioning (DLPAR), is the capability of a logical partition (LPAR) to be reconfigured dynamically, without having to shut down the operating system that runs in the LPAR. DLPAR enables memory, CPU capacity, and I/O interfaces to ...
(DLPAR)
*
FreeBSD jail
The jail mechanism is an implementation of FreeBSD's OS-level virtualisation that allows system administrators to partition a FreeBSD-derived computer system into several independent mini-systems called ''jails'', all sharing the same kernel, with ...
*
Solaris Containers
Solaris Containers (including Solaris Zones) is an implementation of operating system-level virtualization technology for x86 and SPARC systems, first released publicly in February 2004 in build 51 beta of Solaris 10, and subsequently in the fi ...
*
OpenVZ
*
Linux-VServer
Linux-VServer is a virtual private server implementation that was created by adding operating system-level virtualization capabilities to the Linux kernel. It is developed and distributed as open-source software.
Details
The project was started ...
External links
Basic management of Workload Partitions in AIX IBM developerworks
IBM developerworks
All about WPAR
{{Virtualization software
Virtualization software
UNIX System V
IBM operating systems
Power ISA operating systems
PowerPC operating systems