a profile defines a configuration setup for a managed system or partition. the hmc allows you to create multiple profiles for each managed system or partition. you can then use the profiles you created to start a managed system or partition in a particular configuration.

    a partition does not actually own any resources until it is activated; resource specifications are stored within partition profiles. the same partition can operate using different resources at different times, depending on the profile you activate.

    when you activate a partition, you enable the system to create a partition using the set of resources in a profile created for that partition. for example, a logical partition profile might indicate to the managed system that its partition requires 3 processors, 2 gigabytes of memory, and i/o slots 6, 11, and 12 when activated.

    you can have more than one profile for a partition. however, you can only activate a partition with one profile at a time.

    when you create a partition profile, the hmc shows you all the resources available on your system. the hmc does not, however, verify if another partition profile is currently using a portion of these resources.

    for example, the hmc might show eight processors on your system, but does not notify you that other partitions are using six of them. you can create two partition profiles, each using a majority of system resources. if you attempt to activate both of these partitions at the same time, the second partition in the activation list fails.