We have SuSe enterprise linux 9 running on 6 zVM partitions. We are running VM in an IFL - one cpu on a z900. One linux is the clone copy that is pushed out to clone the other partitions. One linux clone is running a mail relay that isn't very busy. Three linux are running apache, tomcat, ant, cvs, and java. These are not in production yet and are not doing much of anything other than running all the applications. One linux is supposed to be a Tivoli Gateway, but we continue to have problems with Tivoli and Enterprise Linux 9.
It appears a compile on any of the linux takes a very long time and compares to a Pentium III processor speed. Is this what we can expect running linux under zVM? We were anticipating we could eliminate 10 x86 servers at least. Even though we were given a deal on the IFL, if it cannot run 5-6 linux partitions, it does not make sense to add the overhead of maintaining zVM. One of the sys admins 'found a way to achieve the memory restrictions for a Linux guest and still allow Tomcat/java to run. There are a couple of kernel parameters that allow a process to malloc more memory than is phycisally on the machine, specifically /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory. We can use this and implement swapping to vdisk. By starting the guests with say 100 MB of RAM, we should be able to limit the amount of RAM used for file buffering. At the very least this should enable us to create smaller footprint guests in RAM terms. However, all that said, I'm still concerned we're trying to get Formula One performance out of a pinto. Are we going down the wrong path trying to run linux under zVM to eliminate all the x86 boxes we have? I would like to have feed back on what kind of performance we can expect to get out of a 1 cpu z/VM on the z900 IFL and how many linux can run there? Ila Z. Miller ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ Health Care Information Systems University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 319.356.0067 FAX: 319.356.3521 Notice: This e-mail (including attachments) is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521, is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error, then delete it. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390