On Friday, 03/23/2007 at 01:52 EST, "Huegel, Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:
> I don't use the share settings as you suggested I have 7 full production 
VSE's 
> and use VM Resource Manager to dynamically change the share settings as 
the 
> workloads change. This seems to work very well. But I don't seem to 
totally 
> understand is what advantages (or disadvantages) there are to giving the 
VSE's 
> multiple virtual CPU's. I seem to remember some discussion that z/LINUX 
will 
> eat up as many cpu's as it can get.. and one must be carefull.
> 
> Does VM really dispatch the guest on more than one processor? Just how 
does it 
> work? 

Each virtual CPU is running some work.  CP has some number of logical 
processors to choose from.  When a logcial CPU becomes available, pick the 
next virtual CPU and plops it down on a real one.  (An extremely 
simplified version of what really happens.)  And away we go...

The implication is that multiple virtual CPUs in a guest are interesting 
only if the guest is capable of using multiple CPUs.  VSE is certainly 
capable of that.  Whether you get *benefit* is another story and is based 
on what VSE performance reports show you.  If you have work that is 
waiting on a CPU, an extra virtual CPU may help.  I get the impression 
that a lot of old, expired "wisdom" about VSE is running around Out There 
based on the days when it only ran on one CPU.

But it is a Bad Idea to every allocate more virtual CPUs to a guest that 
you have logical CPUs defined to the VM LPAR. 

Alan Altmark
z/VM Development
IBM Endicott

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