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Overview
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Overview
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Process Resource Manager |
| Introduction |
| Traditional IT environments are often silos
where both technology and human resources are aligned around an application
or business function. Capacity is fixed, resources are over-provisioned
to meet peak demand, and systems are complex and difficult to change. Costs
are based on owning and operating the entire vertical infrastructure-even
when it is underutilized. Resource optimization is one of the goals of HP's adaptive enterprise strategy-a strategy for helping customers to synchronize business and IT to capitalize on change. Virtualization is a cornerstone of HP's approach to helping customers realize the promise of becoming an adaptive enterprise. It is an approach to IT that pools and shares resources so that utilization is optimized and supply automatically meets demand. HP Process Resource Manager (PRM) is an important part of virtualization. This paper provides an overview of PRM. It describes the features and benefits and also provides links for more detailed information. The paper covers PRM version C.03.02 which supports HP 9000 servers running HP UX 11.0 and HP UX 11i v1.0 (B.11.11) and for HP Integrity and HP 9000 servers running HP UX 11i v2.0 (B.11.23). |
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| What is HP Process Resource Manager? | ||||||||||||
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HP Process Resource Manager, or PRM, is a resource management tool that allows system administrators to fine tune how processor, real memory, and disk bandwidth are used on a server. This enables the administrator to ensure that critical applications and users get system resources in a timely manner. PRM is policy-based: It manages resources based on policies you define. These policies govern resource consumption by users and applications. You can define multiple policies to manage resources. For example, you may have one policy during the day and another one at night. You can specify resource policies to PRM through a text configuration file or via an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI). A central idea behind PRM is the PRM group. Each PRM group is a conceptual partition of the system's resources. Because this partitioning is accomplished in the operating system, it can be changed at any time, even while the system is in use. When PRM is configured on an HP UX system, each executing process belongs to one of the defined PRM groups. The administrator defines PRM groups by assigning a meaningful name and a share of the processor cycles. Optionally, the administrator can also assign shares of real memory and disk I/O bandwidth. PRM provides several options for assigning users and applications to the PRM groups. PRM has two reserved PRM groups: PRM_SYS and OTHERS. These groups, which are created automatically if you do not explicitly define them, are the default PRM groups for superuser and non-superuser processes, respectively. Any process that is not explicitly assigned to an administrator-defined PRM group is automatically placed in the appropriate default group. Consequently, all user and application processes on the system belong to a PRM group. You assign resource shares to PRM groups. A resource share is a guaranteed minimum when the system resource is fully utilized. If the system resource (processor, real memory, or disk I/O bandwidth) is not fully used, busy groups can use the excess capacity (unless you specifically disallow sharing). When the activity on the system consumes all of the available resource, PRM enforces the shares to ensure that the specified policies are met. The resources you assign your PRM groups are what remain after PRM assigns resources to the PRM_SYS group. Resource shares allow simple additions and removals of groups to a configuration
because each group's resource allocation is determined by its number of
shares relative to the total number of shares assigned in the configuration
for the given resource. The following table illustrates the concept. Note that the OTHERS group is included automatically with its minimum one share. The processor shares assigned below are what remain after the PRM_SYS group takes the resources it needs. Thus, even though the percentages add up to 100, it is not 100% of the system. |
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| HP-UX 11i v2 offers Security Containment. Security containment allows users to define kernel level security compartments that isolate workloads running in the same operating system instance from each other. Security Containment is combined with HP Process Resource Manager 3.0+ to create secure resource partitions. This adds additional security when multiple workloads are running on single operating system instance. | ||||||||||||
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| Why use HP Process Resource Manager? |
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PRM provides a number of features and benefits, as indicated below:
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| Summary | All
aspects of business today are under increasing pressure to do more with fewer
resources. This is especially true in the IT environment. IT departments must
meet service-level agreements, provide superior service to disparate departments,
as well as provision and maintain the information engine that helps enable company
growth. It is clear that reducing system management costs and improving computer
system resource utilization is an important part of the solution. HP Process Resource Manager is a key technology for providing an approach to IT that pools and shares resources so that utilization is optimized and supply automatically meets demand. |
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Requirements
| Supported HP UX Releases |
NOTE: When upgrading HP UX, the appropriate version of PRM must be ordered. |
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Miscellaneous
| Documentation |
ABA–
English License |
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| Ordering Information | Each system must license one copy of HP PRM-product number B3835DA for HP UX 11.0 or higher-for HP servers running HP UX. The product has an English version (option ABA) and a Japanese version (option ABJ). PRM is available in the HP UX Enterprise Operating Environment and the HP UX Mission-Critical Operating Environment. For more information on PRM, visit http://www.hp.com/go/prm. |
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| For More Information | Refer to the external website: http://www.hp.com/go/prm or to the Source, with a keyword search of sellvse. Additional information on Secure Resource Partitions is available at http://www.hp.com/go/srp. |
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© Copyright 2003-2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. |