Workload Partitions

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AIX Workload partitions (WPARs) are a software implementation of operating system-level virtualization technology introduced in the IBM's AIX 6.1 operating system that provides application environment isolation and resource control.

WPARs are software partitions that are created from, and share the resources of a single instance of the AIX OS. WPARs can be created on any IBM Power Systems or system p hardware that supports AIX 6.1 or higher versions. There are three kinds of WPARs: System WPARs; Application WPARs; and Versioned WPARs.

System WPAR[edit]

A system WPAR behaves as a complete installation of AIX.

Application WPAR[edit]

Application WPARs are lightweight environments used for isolating and executing a single application process.

Versioned WPAR[edit]

A WPAR which contains an instance of either AIX 5.2 or AIX 5.3. Versioned WPARs are only supported in AIX 7.1 and later LPARs.

Mobility[edit]

WPAR mobility is an extension to WPARs that enables the movement of a running workload from one physical machine to another. This capability applies to both System and Application WPARs. To ensure continued access to the same files before and after mobility, the filesystems of a mobile WPAR must be stored in a disk or NFS mounted. These storage options should be shared and accessible from all the machines where the WPAR is being moved to.

This feature can be beneficial in various scenarios, including:

  • During hardware upgrades or other planned outages.
  • To transfer the load of the running application to another machine.

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