HMC V8 R8.7.0 is a major release that introduced support for HMC running on the the Power Platform and enabled previously missing UI functions via the Enhanced UI. As we have done with the past couple of HMC releases, we strive to continuously improve the responsiveness of Enhanced GUI and HMC 870 is no different. As part of the performance work we do every release, we not only look at the UI, but also across the different layers like Rest API & back-end to fine tune and optimize to provide a user experience that matches the modern feel of the new UI.
Test Configuration & Methodology
The following setup was used to take the measurement.
- The measurements done for an HMC (Model: 7042-CR8 with 16GB Memory) managing 1000 LPARs (out of which 768 were from real managed systems and remaining from emulated environment), configured across 25 managed systems - one E870 (with 760 logical partitions and 8 VIOSes) and remaining emulator instances. HMC had active RMC connections for 419 partitions.
- The results are an average of multiple measurements with minimum of 3 executions (in some cases more attempts were made).
- Measured results were captured with a controlled environment. i.e., keeping HMC usage restricted to single user and no other operations performed on the managed systems and LPARs while measuring (to avoid asynchronous events invalidating the cache).
- The results might vary based on the configuration and operations being performed on your HMC, but the relative improvements should still hold.
- NOTE: During very first login after HMC restart/update/install, there will be a delay launching the Welcome Page; this is due to the fact that the HMC doesn’t have the inventory cached following restart.
Areas of Improvement in 870
System level SR-IOV vNIC Diagram
This panel has been modified to show only end-to-end topology for vNIC (Virtual NIC) adapters. Network details for client network adapters, which can be viewed from System level Virtual Network Topology Diagram, were removed from this panel . Also SEAs backed by SR-IOV logical port are now shown in the Virtual Network diagram. This helped in significantly improving the performance on this panel.
Partition level Virtual Storage Diagram
This panel displays end-to-end topology of storage, for a partition. This panel shows adapter name, client name, associated backing devices along with disk names for SCSI and FC adapters. The REST API, being used by GUI panel, was optimized to get the required information in a faster way.
With the optimized API, this panel now loads in a few seconds.
Note : Performance Improvements will be more visible if there are more logical units and there are other partitions with virtual storage adapter, apart from this partition.
Partition level Virtual Storage Panel
The landing panel shows SCSI adapters, backed by all type of backing devices - Physical Volume, SSP, and Logical Volume. It displays storage details for a partition by displaying client device name, disk name, logical volumes with their associated tiers and SSP. It also displays client device name, associated VIOS, server location code and WWPN pair for FC Adapters, in a different tab. Fetching all that information in an optimized way resulted in these performance improvements.
Performance Improvement are there not only for launch page but also for FC Operations like add and remove. Performance will be more noticeable for a system with higher configuration like more disks or more FC adapters on a server.
Partition Properties Panel
The loading of this panel shows improvements if server is vNIC capable or has vNIC adapters.
vNIC (Virtual NIC) Operations
Multiple changes were made to improve the flow for VNIC operations. Adding a VNIC to a partition and launching of “Virtual NICs” are faster now.
Summary
Since our test environment is not all encompassing your feedback, based on your unique configurations, has been invaluable in helping us identify bottlenecks and drive the above performance improvements in HMC V8 R8.7.0. We look forward to your future feedback.
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