Acive Memory Sharing (AMS)

Acive Memory Sharing (AMS) is an IBM PowerVM advanced memory virtualization technology that provides system memory virtualization capabilities to IBM Power Systems, allowing multiple logical partitions (LPARs) to share a common pool of physical memory on a single server, helping to increase memory utilization and drive down system costs.

AMS is a way to improve overall memory utilization of the system that is very similar to the way that Shared Processor LPARs (SPLPAR) improve processor utilization.

In order to use the Active Memory Sharing feature of IBM PowerVM, the following are the minimum requirements:

• An IBM Power System server based on the POWER6 processor
• Enterprise PowerVM activation
• Firmware level 340_075
• HMC version 7.3.4 service pack 2 (V7R3.4.0M2) for HMC managed systems
• Virtual I/O Server Version 2.1.0.1-FP21 for both HMC and IVM managed systems
• AIX 6.1 TL 3
• Novell SuSE SLES11

References:

• IBM PowerVM Active Memory Sharing : An Overview
• IBM Redpaper: PowerVM Virtualization Active Memory Sharing

AMS Video Presentations by Nigel Griffiths:

• AMS_RegularPaging.wmv
• AMS_Concepts.wmv
• AMS_Setup2.wmv
• AMS_Monitor2.wmv