Capacity on demand advancements on the IBM System z10

Abstract

Capacity on Demand (CoD), a key feature of the IBM System z® platform, allows customers to adjust their processing and memory capacity to their specific needs without having to shut down and restart the machine and with no interruption to the complete software stack running on it. The first System z CoD functions, introduced with the IBM S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server™ 9672 G5 in 1998, were concurrent upgrade on demand for permanent capacity and capacity back up for temporary capacity. Since then, the functionality has been continuously enhanced, but CoD still had a number of limitations that needed to be addressed to better meet customer requirements. The IBM System z10™ platform introduces a completely new architecture for CoD that provides more flexibility, granularity, and responsiveness. In addition, the System z10 platform provides an enhanced set of CoD application programming interfaces for use by systems management or automation software. This paper describes the new capabilities from both a business and a customer perspective as well as from a technical perspective. © Copyright 2009 by International Business Machines Corporation.