To clarify some points. In the 12M lpar, linux saw 8424 KB, the 12M EC saw 68 KB less (8356 kb). The 68 KB difference was a constant difference in all experiments - this is probably VM control blocks local to the EC.
The experiment was run in increments of 4M LPAR and EC size. The memory was manipulated using the mem=xxm parameter of the /etc/zipl.conf file. EC Total size Linux Memory used free buffers cached swap result 8M n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a kernel panic 12M 8356 8132 224 620 1760 2852 iplable, slow, no QETH 16M 12404 12036 368 716 2968 1184 ditto 20M 16452 16104 348 876 5360 68 ditto, reasonable ipl speed 24M 20500 19908 592 712 2336 2152 OSA, eth0, ssh available 28M 24548 23844 704 760 3768 656 ditto 32M 28596 28000 596 1144 5236 360 ditto (in LPAR, swap was 0) The total is from the "free" command. Some reasonable conclusions, then, seem to be: An LPAR or EC takes a minmum of about 4M for "hardware" overhead. An EC takes 68 KB more that an LPAR The minimum memory size with QETH/OSA is 24M. The OSA QETH interface/modules take about 12M. Use of the swap space at ipl stops about 32M or a bit larger. The reason Linux uses 4K memory blocks on a zSeries is pretty obvious. That is the size of the page size on a zSeries. As to adequate performance vs minimum memory size, YMMV based on your apps and load. Regards, Jim Linux S/390-zSeries Support, SEEL, IBM Silicon Valley Labs t/l 543-4021, 408-463-4021, [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Grace Happens ***
