US 2008/0178191 A1 · UPDATING I/O CAPABILITY OF A LOGICALLY-PARTITIONED COMPUTER SYSTEM

Abstract

A hosting partition update mechanism allows updating I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system in a way that minimally affects the performance and availability of I/O in the computer system. When an update is needed, a new hosting partition is created with the desired update(s). I/O adapters in the current hosting partition are then migrated to the new hosting partition. The migration of an I/O adapter from the current hosting partition to the new hosting partition is relatively fast, thereby minimally impacting system performance and availability of I/O. Once all of the I/O adapters have been migrated to the new hosting partition, the current hosting partition may be kept as a backup, or may be eliminated. Providing a new or backup hosting partition allows updates to be performed in the new or backup hosting partition in a non-disruptive manner while the current hosting partition continues to service I/O requests.

Claims26

Dependent claims

An apparatus comprising:

(A) at least one processor;
(B) a memory coupled to the at least one processor;
(C) first and second logical partitions defined on the apparatus, the first logical partition executing a first operating system and controlling a plurality of shared I/O adapters and the second logical partition executing a second operating system and using at least one of the plurality of shared I/O adapters controlled by the first logical partition by communicating with a partition manager that controls the first and second logical partitions;
and
(D) a hosting partition update mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the hosting partition update mechanism updating a third logical partition and migrating less than all of the plurality of shared I/O adapters from the first logical partition to the third logical partition, and testing the migrated shared I/O adapters before migrating other of the plurality of shared I/O adapters to the third logical partition.

2 more elements

An apparatus comprising:

(A) at least one processor;
(B) a memory coupled to the at least one processor;
(C) first and second logical partitions defined on the apparatus, the first logical partition executing a first operating system and controlling a plurality of shared I/O adapters and the second logical partition executing a second operating system and using at least one of the plurality of shared I/O adapters controlled by the first logical partition by communicating with a partition manager that controls the first and second logical partitions;
(D) a hosting partition update mechanism residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the hosting partition update mechanism creating a third logical partition, updating the third logical partition, and migrating the plurality of shared I/O adapters from the first logical partition to the third logical partition, wherein the hosting partition update mechanism supports the following operational modes:
(D1) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism without further input by a user;
(D2) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism when at least one criterion is satisfied;
(D3) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed by the hosting partition update mechanism interacting with a user and according to input from the user;
and
(D4) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism at a specified time;
(E) wherein the hosting partition update mechanism performs the steps of:
(E1) allocating a portion of resources owned by the first logical partition to the third logical partition;
(E2) migrating at least one shared I/O adapter controlled by the first logical partition to the third logical partition;
(E3) repeating steps (E1) and (E2) until all shared I/O adapters controlled by the first logical partition have been migrated to the third logical partition;
and
(E4) allocating remaining resources owned by the first logical partition to the third logical partition.

12 more elements

A computer-readable program product comprising:

(A) a hosting partition update mechanism that updates I/O capability of a logically-partitioned computer system that includes first and second logical partitions defined on a computer apparatus, the first logical partition executing a first operating system and controlling a plurality of shared I/O adapters and the second logical partition executing a second operating system and using at least one of the plurality of shared I/O adapters controlled by the first logical partition by communicating with a partition manager that controls the first and second logical partitions, the hosting partition update mechanism creating a third logical partition, updating the third logical partition, and migrating the plurality of shared I/O adapters from the first logical partition to the third logical partition, wherein the hosting partition update mechanism supports the following operational modes:
(A1) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism without further input by a user;
(A2) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism when at least one criterion is satisfied;
(A3) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed by the hosting partition update mechanism interacting with a user and according to input from the user;
and
(A4) wherein the updating of the third logical partition and the migrating of the plurality of shared I/O adapters are performed automatically by the hosting partition update mechanism at a specified time;
wherein the hosting partition update mechanism performs the steps of:
(B) allocating a portion of resources owned by the first logical partition to the third logical partition;
(C) migrating at least one shared I/O adapter controlled by the first logical partition to the third logical partition;
(D) repeating steps (B) and (C) until all shared I/O adapters controlled by the first logical partition have been migrated to the third logical partition;
and
(E) allocating remaining resources owned by the first logical partition to the third logical partition;
and
(F) recordable media bearing the hosting partition update mechanism.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Updating i/o capability of a logically-partitioned computer system

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Updating i/o capability of a logically-partitioned computer system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims26