The HP Virtual Server Environment (VSE) is an integrated solution for both HP 9000 and HP Integrity server platforms that delivers the highest degree of integrated virtualization for allowing your business to quickly respond to changing business demands. Through the seamless integration of several virtualization technologies, VSE provides a flexible computing environment that maximizes usage of server resources. Since management of the VSE is automated, it provides an environment that dynamically grows and shrinks based on the requirements of your business applications.

As a part of the HP Virtual Server Environment, HP resource partitions provide a powerful mechanism for consolidating applications within a single operating system image. Entitlement (fixed size) resource partitions can be created with HP Process Resource Manager (PRM). HP-UX Workload Manager (WLM), the intelligent policy engine of the VSE, resizes resource partitions, hardware partitions with utility pricing and virtual partitions. WLM allows the partitions to be resized based on business policies or in goal-based mode where the partitions are sized based on actual application performance.

The combination of PRM or WLM and security containment to create secure resource partitions is very powerful. While PRM dedicates resources to each application instance, by default those application instances can still interact with other processes, access files, and interact with the system processes. When security containment is combined with PRM, applications can be consolidated on a single operating system while ensuring that any application, file or system interaction is carefully controlled. Using security containment, customers can ensure that application instances can not access processes or files from other applications or the system. This ensures that multiple application instances run securely in a consolidated environment, providing the benefits of consolidation while preserving the security of a scale out environment.

HP-UX WLM and security containment provide an environment where the secure resource partitions are automatically resized based on business policy or application performance. This allows customers to take advantage of consolidation and virtualization techniques to improve server utilization and reduce operating system management costs while still maintaining or improving on the security benefits that are inherent in a standalone, scale out environment.

HP-UX Workload Manager will ensure the configuration of the Virtual Server Environment with security containment is straight forward. The HP-UX Workload Manager configuration wizard will provide a single interface to configure PRM, WLM, and security containment from one tool. The single configuration wizard will also provide workload management and security templates and best practices for common applications.

Secure Resource Partitions will be available for HP 9000 and HP Integrity Servers.

Secure Resource Partitions will be supported on HP-UX 11i Version 2. Secure Resource Partitions will require HP-UX Workload Manager 3.0 for automated setup.

Secure Resource Partitions will be available on the HP-UX March 2005 Application Release (AR0503).

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