HP Partitioning | HP Process Resource Manager (PRM)

Content starts here

Dynamic resource management for applications

HP Process Resource Manager can assist you with:

Reducing costs: Run multiple mission-critical applications on the same system.
Dedicating resources: Make application resources non-shareable to meet performance goals.
Reconfiguring: Meet your new resource requirements by reconfiguring HP PRM dynamically, with zero downtime.

Note: HP PRM is included with HP-UX 11i v3 and can be purchased for use with HP-UX 11i v1 and HP-UX 11i v2.

What´s new

HP PRM version C.03.05 includes the following new features:

Placement of processes in PRM groups based on real user IDs. The prmconfig -M option provides the following two modes for enabling and disabling the process placement based on real user ID:
- REALUIDON
- REALUIDOFF
Support for IPv6.

Business benefits

PRM supports the consolidation of workloads on a single HP-UX server by allocating system resource entitlements to groups of associated processes.

Take advantage of integration with Secure Resource Partitions (SRP): You can use PRM independently, or you can use SRP to consolidate your workload into SRP containers, and use the SRP utility to assign CPU and memory allocations per container via PRM.
Run multiple mission-critical applications on a single system.
Improve response time for critical users and applications.
Set and manage user expectations for performance.
Take advantage of budget-based sharing. Allocate resources on shared servers for departments based on funding.
Manage new resource allocation requirements with zero downtime.

Technology advantages

HP PRM supports the deployment of multiple applications within a single operating system image by managing CPU and memory entitlements per workload.

Workload consolidation: PRM is integrated with Secure Resource Partitions (SRP), which provides a lightweight workload deployment environment that enables you to consolidate multiple workloads within a single instance of the HP-UX 11i operating system.
Dynamic reconfiguration to meet changing demands, even under load.
Easy to use. Applications do not have to be modified.
HP PRM with Secure Resource Partitions allows consolidation of multiple applications within a single operating system image with both dedicated resources and operating system level security from other applications.
Ensures that an application package in a Serviceguard cluster has sufficient resources in a failover.
With Processor sets and the memory isolation feature of memory resource groups, applications can be provided dedicated resources.

How it works

HP PRM manages resources by partitioning a system based on PRM groups. A PRM group is a collection of processes that is assigned system resources. The system administrator assigns applications and users to PRM groups and establishes resource allocations for each group. PRM then manages each group's CPU and memory resources according to the current configuration.

HP PRM manages the allocation of the following resources:

CPU: Ensures a minimum allocation of CPU; can also simultaneously cap the CPU resource usage for each group in the configuration. In HP-UX 11i v3 and later, per-group capping is available.
Memory: Ensures a minimum allocation of private real memory; can also cap private memory usage. Allows you to allocate an exact amount of shared memory.

PRM allocates system resources among a set of workloads (PRM groups). You can assign users, applications, or SRP containers (compartments) to PRM groups.

You can dedicate processor cores (PSET), or you can assign Fair Share Scheduler (FSS) shares of the total CPU to a PRM group. When a system has reached maximum CPU capacity, PRM will allocate CPU to the FSS groups based on their relative share size. You may also specify the amount of physical memory (private and shared) available to a PRM group.

PRM group definitions may be configured manually, or through the HP-UX System Management Home Page or SRP Manager GUI. These administration utilities will allow you to configure and track PRM group resource entitlements and usage.

PRM and Oracle database resource manager
HP recommends using SRP with PRM PSETs to address Oracle database licensing requirements for a subset of server CPUs.

At a Glance

For HP-UX 11i v3 and later, PRM is included as part of HP-UX. For HP-UX 11iv2 and earlier, a separate license must be purchased.

Current version: C.03.05.01
Hardware platforms: HP Integrity servers, HP 9000 servers
Operating System : HP-UX 11i v1, HP-UX 11i v2, HP-UX 11i v3
Resources managed: Processor (dedicated or share-based), memory (dedicated or share-based)

Learn more

White papers

Technical documentation

Training and support