if you are doing capacity planning for models offering processor on demand, plan ahead for any potentially disruptive actions that might inhibit your using fully the capacity of the activated processors. some actions you may want to take prior to activating any processor on demand features are as follows:

    1 perform any i/o updates, such as adding adapters necessary to increase system capacity

    2 perform memory upgrades

    3 prepare lpar partitions

    by planning ahead, you can accommodate the growth of existing workloads, as well as handle new workloads without requiring a server outage. other components of a server such as memory and i/o affect performance and overall throughput of workloads. by planning ahead and taking into account the complete server configuration, you can help ensure that you get the full benefit of processor on demand activations.

    if you have questions about capacity-planning topics not covered here, contact your sales representative for assistance.

    processor on demand ordering

    permanent processor-on-demand capacity can be activated in either of the following scenarios. the description of each of the following scenarios highlights if and when it is necessary to send vital product data (vpd) to ibm.

    1 new system order (new footprint): an order can contain a number of processor on demand activation features. the manufacturing facility fills orders directly at the plant of manufacture, before the server is delivered to the customer.

    2 ordering activation features for an installed server: after you have determined that you want to permanently activate some or all of your standby processors, contact your business partner or sales representative to place an order.

    when the order record and the vpd are both available to the manufacturing facility, a processor on demand activation code unique to your server is generated. the activation code is mailed to you and posted at a public web site for quick access:

    http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/pseries/cuod/index.html

    as part of the order process, vpd collected from the installed server is combined with information from the actual order records for processor on demand activation features. this combined information is used to generate a processor on demand activation code specifically for your server, enabling the activation of the desired number of standby processors. allow some time for the order processing and posting of the processor on demand activation code to take place. then use the code to activate the processor on demand features directly on your server.

    processor on demand activation features will not be fulfilled until you submit the vpd through the electronic service agent or manually to the following web site:

    http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/pseries/cuod/index.html

    when you enter a processor on demand activation code, standby processors will immediately become activated for use. after their status changes from standby to active, the processors can be dynamically moved to the partition where they are needed.

    electronic service agent and processor on demand

    when electronic service agent is used to electronically report vpd on a regular basis, you can eliminate potential delays in the order process for processor on demand activation features (no manual reporting of vpd is necessary prior to the fulfillment of a feature upgrade order). to best utilize electronic service agent and to be prepared to activate processor on demand features conveniently, make sure that electronic service agent and related communications requirements are up and running. if this is done before the processor on demand activation features are ordered, the vpd for the system will already be up to date, and the manual process of updating the vpd is not needed.

    after electronic service agent is installed, follow the procedures under “activating process for processor on demand” to enable the system to collect and transfer the required vpd for processor on demand.

    if a processor on demand activation feature is ordered and then canceled, an action by the service representative is required to cancel the order. after the activation code is posted on the web or mailed, the order for processor on demand activation features is considered fulfilled, and the downstream billing process is started.

    dynamic processor sparing

    in environments with cuod, dynamic processor sparing allows inactive processors to act as “dynamic spares”. an inactive processor is transparently activated if a failing processor reaches a predetermined error threshold, thus helping to maintain performance and improve system availability. starting with aix 5l v5.2, this capability is offered on pseries servers with cuod to help minimize the impact to server performance caused by a failed processor. this will happen dynamically and automatically when using dlpar and the failing processor is detected prior to failure. if not detected prior to failure or not using dlpar, a reboot of the system will bring onboard an alternate processor from the inactive spares. the user can then re-establish required performance levels without waiting for parts to arrive on-site. dynamic processor sparing does not require the purchase of an activation code, it only requires the system have inactive cuod processors available.