wlmparconf(4)wlmparconf(4)NAMEwlmparconf - HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM) global arbiter configuration
file
DESCRIPTION
The WLM global arbiter configuration file allows you to control set‐
tings for HP-UX WLM's global arbiter, which governs cross-partition
management and management of Temporary Instant Capacity and Pay per use
resources.
WLM can manage CPU resources for virtual partitions and nPartitions.
WLM's virtual partition management migrates CPU resources (cores)
across virtual partitions. (A core is the actual data-processing engine
within a processor, where a processor might have multiple cores.) With
nPartitions being physical entities, WLM's nPartition manage‐
ment--through the use of Instant Capacity, or iCAP, software--only
gives the appearance of migrating CPU resources. This pseudo-migration
is achieved by deactivating a core on one nPartition while activating a
core on another nPartition. WLM can manage virtual partitions and nPar‐
titions separately or with virtual partitions inside nPartitions.
Temporary Instant Capacity and Pay per use (PPU) resources provide a
utility pricing model: You only pay for what you use. (With PPU v7, you
only pay for the number of cores currently active.) WLM can minimize
your use of these resources while ensuring your workloads still meet
their SLOs.
The configuration file is required. This file allows you to use values
other than the defaults discussed below--or manage Temporary Instant
Capacity or Pay per use resources to regulate the total CPU capacity
available.
The file's syntax is free-form, allowing white space to be used freely
in formatting the file. Comments are preceded with the hash mark (#)
and continue to the end of the line. Use to activate a global arbiter
configuration file.
The WLM global arbiter configuration file consists of a structure,
which allows you to specify:
· How frequently the WLM global arbiter checks for input from the
individual WLM instances running in the partitions
· The port that the WLM global arbiter should monitor for input from
the individual WLM instances
· The size, in megabytes, at which the wlmpardstats file is automati‐
cally truncated
· The lowest priority SLO at which WLM should use Temporary Instant
Capacity or Pay per use resources to manage the total CPU capacity
available
To specify this lowest priority, you use the keyword. Specifying
this priority ensures WLM maintains compliance with your usage
rights for Temporary Instant Capacity. For more information, see
the section on the keyword. Note that WLM will not activate Tempo‐
rary Instant Capacity when 15 (the default) or fewer processing
days of temporary capacity are available; in this case, you must
purchase extra capacity. Before adding the capacity, be sure to
stop (using the option) as well as all clients running on the com‐
plex being managed by WLM. For more information on the command,
refer to the wlmpard(1M) manpage.
You can change the 15-day default by setting the WLM global arbiter
keyword. For more information, see the section on the keyword.
To use WLM's cross-partition management, you must run WLM on each of
the partitions. On each partition, the active WLM configuration file
must use the keyword to specify the host running the global arbiter.
Similarly, with management of Temporary Instant Capacity and Pay per
use resources, you must run WLM on each system where you have resources
you want managed. On each system, the active WLM configuration file
must use the keyword to specify the host running the global arbiter.
The global arbiter can run on any HP-UX system that has network connec‐
tivity to the partitions being managed by WLM.
Also, if you specify a port number in the statement of any of the WLM
configuration files or in the WLM global arbiter configuration file,
you must specify the same port number in all the files.
STRUCTURE FORMAT
The structure is shown below, followed by an example structure and then
an explanation of the syntax.
If your configuration uses a previously supported structure type, such
as or WLM silently interprets these as a structure.
par structure
The structure takes the following format:
par {
[ interval = number_of_seconds; ]
[ port = port_number; ]
[ wlmpardstats_size_limit = number_of_megabytes; ]
[ utilitypri = integer; ]
[ utility_reserve_threshold = integer; ]
}
Here is an example structure:
par {
interval = 180;
port = 3701;
wlmpardstats_size_limit = 3;
utilitypri = 2;
utility_reserve_threshold = 10;
}
These keywords are discussed below.
interval
Is an optional keyword specifying how often the WLM global arbiter is
to check for input from the WLM instances and potentially alter the
number of cores for the partitions. The syntax is:
interval = number_of_seconds;
where
Is an optional keyword.
number_of_seconds
Is an integer value greater than or equal to 1 indi‐
cating how often, in seconds, WLM should consider mov‐
ing cores across partitions.
The interval for your global arbiter should be larger
than the largest WLM interval being used on the sys‐
tem.
When generating audit data (with the option), num‐
ber_of_seconds should be no more than 120 (twice the
suggested interval for the WLM instances when audit‐
ing). This value ensures the audit data sampling rate
is sufficiently frequent to:
· Minimize the amount of audit data lost if the WLM
global arbiter daemon exits unexpectedly
· Minimize the effect of changes in the number of
available cores (due to WLM's management of parti‐
tion resources)
port
Is an optional keyword specifying which port the WLM global arbiter
should monitor for input from the various WLM instances.
For information about using with firewalls or HP's security product
Bastille, see the DEPENDENCIES section.
Indicate a port using the following syntax:
port = port_number;
where
Is an optional keyword.
port_number
Is a port number greater than 0 that the WLM global
arbiter should monitor to collect input from the WLM
instances running on the partitions. If you specify a
port number in the WLM global arbiter configuration
file, you must specify the same port number in each
partition's WLM configuration file.
If you do not specify a port, searches the file
/etc/services for the first line with the following
format:
hp-wlmpar port_number/tcp
If such an entry is found, port_number is used as the
port. If such an entry is not found, the default port
of 9691 is used, assuming it is not in /etc/services
with protocol tcp. If it is, an error is issued.
wlmpardstats_size_limit
Is an optional keyword specifying the size at which the
/var/opt/wlm/wlmpardstats file should be automatically truncated. This
file is created when you use the option. Indicate the size using the
following syntax:
wlmpardstats_size_limit = number_of_megabytes;
where
Is an optional keyword.
number_of_megabytes
Is an integer value from 0 to 2048. Once the file's
size is greater than number_of_megabytes, the file is
trimmed. The default value is 0, which disables auto‐
matic trimming. The wlmpardstats file is trimmed by
renaming it wlmpardstats.old. Then a new wlmpardstats
file is started. The wlmpardstats.old file includes a
line at the end of the file indicating that the file
has been automatically trimmed.
utilitypri
Is an optional keyword specifying the lowest priority SLO at which WLM
is allowed to use Temporary Instant Capacity or Pay per use resources
to meet service-level objectives for your workloads. Using this keyword
allows WLM--when Temporary Instant Capacity is available--to adjust the
total CPU resources to meet demand.
Using this keyword also ensures WLM maintains compliance with your
usage rights for Temporary Instant Capacity. Note that WLM will not
activate Temporary Instant Capacity when 15 (the default) or fewer pro‐
cessing days of temporary capacity are available; in this case, you
must purchase extra capacity. Before adding the capacity, be sure to
stop (using the option). For more information on the command, refer to
the wlmpard(1M) manpage.
You can change the 15-day default by setting the WLM global
arbiter keyword. For more information, see the section on the
keyword.
Indicate the priority using the following syntax:
where
integer
Is an integer value greater than or equal to 1. If Temporary
Instant Capacity or PPU resources exist, they are used whenever
SLOs with a priority from 1 to integer (inclusive) are demanding
more CPU resources.
utility_reserve_threshold
Is the reserve threshold that determines when WLM stops activating Tem‐
porary Instant Capacity resources. The default is 15, meaning that when
15 or fewer processing days of temporary capacity resources remain
available, WLM stops activating temporary capacity resources. You must
then purchase additional resources. The value assigned to the keyword
determines how long the WLM global arbiter continues allocating tempo‐
rary capacity resources (above the owned number of cores). For example,
if you set the keyword to the value 10, the global arbiter continues
allocating temporary capacity resources until 10 or fewer processing
days of temporary capacity resources remain available.
Indicate the reserve temporary capacity threshold using the following
syntax:
where
integer
Is an integer value greater than or equal to 0. Specify a value
appropriate for the amount of temporary capacity resources
available on your system. As long as the number of processing
days of temporary capacity resources is greater than integer,
WLM continues allocating temporary capacity resources. When the
number of available processing days becomes equal to (or less
than) integer, you must purchase additional resources. Before
adding the capacity, be sure to stop (using the option). For
more information on the command, refer to the wlmpard(1M) man‐
page.
You can set the keyword to 0 to cause the global arbiter to
always activate temporary capacity resources when any number of
temporary capacity resources are available.
If you assign a value that is too high, the amount of temporary
capacity can reach the threshold too quickly, causing WLM to
stop using temporary capacity sooner than preferred. Although
you can set the value to 0 (enabling WLM to activate temporary
capacity when any amount is available), you could set the value
too low in certain circumstances, such as on systems with large
workloads. When the value is too low, temporary capacity could
be consumed so quickly that WLM might not detect the threshold
breach in time and would continue allocating reserves that no
longer exist. This would result in errors when WLM attempts to
move these temporary capacity cores across partitions. For
information on additional restrictions involving activation of
temporary capacity resources, see the Instant Capacity (iCAP)
documentation. HP recommends keeping some quantity of temporary
capacity in reserve. Purchase of TiCAP codewords (required to
activate additional temporary capacity cores) may take one or
more days, so having a buffer of temporary capacity allows you
to avoid delays activating additional cores. Instant Access
Capacity (IAC) is provided with the initial purchase of a tempo‐
rary capacity component to give you an immediate buffer of tem‐
porary capacity in case extra capacity is needed before you can
purchase a TiCAP codeword. However, IAC only provides an initial
buffer; ongoing purchases of additional temporary capacity are
recommended to replenish this capacity.
DEPENDENCIES
HP recommends running WLM global arbitration in secure mode; otherwise,
a rogue user could manipulate the communications, resulting in one or
more partitions being granted an incorrect number of cores. To enable
secure communications, you must set up security certificates and dis‐
tribute them to all systems in question. For more information, refer to
the section HOW TO SECURE COMMUNICATIONS in the wlmcert(1M) manpage.
Assuming you have completed the required steps for setting up and dis‐
tributing security certificates, WLM global arbitration runs in secure
mode by default when you use the /sbin/init.d/wlm script to start WLM.
If you upgraded WLM, secure mode might not be the default. Ensure that
the variable is enabled in the /etc/rc.config.d/wlm file. You can
change the default by editing the value of this and other secure mode
variables in that file.
You can also activate global arbitration in secure mode by using the
option. HP recommends using secure communications. If you must disable
secure communications, use global arbitration only on trusted local
area networks. For information on disabling secure communications,
refer to the HP-UX Workload Manager User's Guide.
By default, communicates to the partitions on a system through port
9691.
If the partitions use a firewall or if you are using the HP-UX Bastille
product on the partitions, it is likely that communications on this
port are being blocked. To use in your environment, specifically allow
port 9691 or another port to be open to incoming connections. If you
use a port other than 9691, be sure to restart to communicate on the
new port.
If you use Bastille or the Install-Time-Security Levels to configure
the IPFilter firewall, you may want to put the rules regarding which
port to leave open in the file /etc/opt/sec_mgmt/bastille/ipf.custom‐
rules and run to load the rules and make sure that Bastille does not
remove them later during subsequent runs/lockdowns.
AUTHOR
was developed by HP.
FEEDBACK
If you would like to comment on the current HP-UX WLM functionality or
make suggestions for future releases, please send email to:
wlmfeedback@rsn.hp.com
FILES
Workload Manager daemon
Workload Manager global arbiter daemon
optional global arbiter statistics log
example WLM global arbiter configuration file
example WLM global arbiter configuration file
SEE ALSOicapstatus(1M), icod_stat(1M), parmodify(1M), vparstatus(1M), wlmd(1M),
wlmpard(1M), wlm(5), wlmconf(4)
HP-UX Workload Manager User's Guide (/opt/wlm/share/doc/WLMug.pdf)
HP-UX Workload Manager homepage (http://www.hp.com/go/wlm)
wlmparconf(4)
