Re: IBM i vs VIOS for Host Partition

I have done both, many times.

My largest IBM i host partition currently has over 30 client LPARs (A
couple Linux, a couple AIX, rest are IBM i.) The host uses 5913 RAID
cards and 24 15K SAS disk units in the host partition. POWER7.

Performance is excellent.
Rule 1) Have enough virtual arms.
Rule 2) Have enough physical arms.
Rule 3) Have enough virtual arms.
Rule 4) Have enough vSCSI links.
Rule 5) Have enough virtual arms.
Rule 6) Configure an I/O Buffer storage pool.
Rule 7) Have enough virtual arms.

I have several customers with VIOS on internal disks hosting IBM i clients.

1) IMHO Performance is not as good.
2) Maintenance of internal disks in VIOS, well, David would clobber me
for what I really think so I'll just say it's 'sub-optimal.'
3) IBM Service isn't anywhere NEARLY as schooled up on VIOS vs IBM i. In
one case this caused my customer to lose three IBM i client partitions.
Long story, ugly.

I do an entire presentation comparing VIOS and IBM i as a host
partition. You didn't want to hear all that so I'll quit now. :-)


- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com
www.iInTheCloud.com

On 4/17/2013 12:34 PM, Kirk Goins wrote:

I am curious about the Performance differences, if any, when hosting IBM

i

on IBM i vs IBM i on VIOS. Are the 2 methods about the same? Wildly
Different?
Do I need more Memory or CPU generally speaking for one vs the other etc?

I don't need or want a discussion on what features/capabilities of each
method, but just how well the guest partitions perform. Looking for real
life experiences and any book type references..

Thanks

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