<snip> First off, I know what an LPAR is, but what benefits are provided by VM that make it preferable over LPAR's? I would guess that VM can share resources more efficiently, but from what I'm reading, LPAR's are supposed to be able to dynamically share resources as well? I'm sure there must be a clear and obvious reason that I'm missing, but I haven't found it. Also, is there a definite limit to how many LPAR's a given machine can run? </snip>
The number of LPARS on a give CEC is limited by the hardware design. IIRC for the 7050 it is less than 10. The number of application images is limited by the number of LPARS allowed. Change is disruptive. E.G. To change the memory allocation of an LPAR, at least the affected LPAR and maybe many more may need to be deactivated/reactivated. Under z/VM there is no architectural limit to the number of "guests" supported. IIRC, someone started > 32k LINUX guest images on a single instance of z/VM (1 LPAR). No word on performance of said 32k images. To change the memory allocation of a "guest" just tell z/VM and away you go. z/VM and LPAR are very similar in concept. LPAR is more static. z/VM is more flexible. IMO, for the purposes discussed in this thread, z/VM is the way to go. It will support a variable number of "guests" in a single LPAR. Additional LPARS can support other operating systems (z/OS z/VSE, z/TPF, Linux on Z...) and recently Open Solaris and soon Windows, all on the same box. The code for Open/Solaris and z/VOS (windows) is too new to be concerned with a box as old as the 7050, so I would not expect to be able to run those on the 7050. HTH, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
