Back in April (2016), IBM announced that AIX DSO (Dynamic System Optimizer) would be supported on POWER8 systems. And, it looks like this support is now available with AIX 7.1 TL4 SP2.
“IBM AIX Dynamic System Optimizer now supports IBM POWER8® technology-based processors.”
On my AIX 7.1 TL4 SP1 partition, running on POWER8 (an S824), ASO/DSO fails to activate (hibernates permanently), and as expected the ASO log file states that the processor is not supported.
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # lsconf | grep -i power
Processor Type: PowerPC_POWER8
Processor Implementation Mode: POWER 8
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # oslevel -s
7100-04-01-1543
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # asoo -a
aso_active = 1
debug_level = -1
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # lslpp -l | grep bos.aso
bos.aso 7.1.4.0 COMMITTED Active System Optimizer
bos.aso 7.1.4.0 COMMITTED Active System Optimizer
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # tail -f aso_process.log
May 2 11:14:47 AIXcg aso:notice aso[5111972]: /var/run/aso locked with pid 5111972
May 2 11:14:47 AIXcg aso:notice aso[5111972]: [HIB] ASO disabled by tunable, hibernating
May 24 10:36:51 AIXcg aso:notice aso[4587660]: /var/run/aso locked with pid 4587660
May 24 10:36:51 AIXcg aso:notice aso[4587660]: [HIB] ASO disabled by tunable, hibernating
May 24 10:41:36 AIXcg aso:notice aso[4587660]: ASO enabled by tunable
May 24 10:41:36 AIXcg aso:notice aso[4587660]: Processor version not supported.
May 24 10:41:36 AIXcg aso:notice aso[4587660]: Processor version not supported.
After I updated the system to SP2, ASO starts (comes out of hibernation) and attempts to optimise the workload running on the partition.
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # oslevel -s
7100-04-02-1614
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # lslpp -l | grep bos.aso
bos.aso 7.1.4.1 COMMITTED Active System Optimizer
bos.aso 7.1.4.1 COMMITTED Active System Optimizer
root@AIXcg /var/log/aso # tail -f aso_process.log
May 24 11:42:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: /var/run/aso locked with pid 8454348
May 24 11:42:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] The system does not have enough memory to activate the large page promotion optimization
May 24 11:42:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: Optional dso.aso fileset is installed
May 24 11:42:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] Used entitlement per unfolded vCPU is below threshold (0% of a core).
May 24 11:42:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] Cache optilizations will hibernate until used entitlement is at least 30% of a core per unfolded vCPU
May 24 11:44:54 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] Resuming from hibernation.
May 24 11:45:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: Created MultiThread job with id 1
May 24 11:45:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: Adding pid 7536806 [paraworms] to MultiThread job 1
May 24 11:45:09 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [perf_info] ASO monitored workloads: total utilization 0.00; total load 32.38
May 24 11:45:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [SC][1] Considering for optimization (utilization=3.00, preferred=0; attaching StabilityMonitorBasic)
May 24 11:46:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [perf_info] ASO monitored workloads: total utilization 3.00; total load 50.86
May 24 11:47:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [perf_info] ASO monitored workloads: total utilization 2.63; total load 50.87
May 24 11:47:54 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [SC][1] Considering for optimization (utilization=3.29, preferred=0; attaching StabilityMonitorAdvanced)
May 24 11:48:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [perf_info] ASO monitored workloads: total utilization 2.64; total load 50.87
May 24 12:19:14 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [perf_info] ASO monitored workloads: total utilization 2.63; total load 50.86
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [JOB][1] Cleaning job due to exit or ineligibilty.
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [SC][1] Removing strategy StabilityMonitorAdvanced from job
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [SC][1] Removing strategy StabilityMonitorBasic from job
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [JOB][1] Removing pid 7536806 from job
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [JOB][1] Deleting empty job
May 24 12:19:19 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [JOB][1] Deleting job
May 24 12:19:44 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] Used entitlement per unfolded vCPU is below threshold (0% of a core).
May 24 12:19:44 AIXcg aso:notice aso[8454348]: [HIB] Cache optilizations will hibernate until used entitlement is at least 30% of a core per unfolded vCPU
May 24 12:19:44 AIXcg aso:info aso[8454348]: [JOB] Deleting Job Map
And yes, this is now also supported with AIX 7.2. TL0 SP2.
Planning for the IBM AIX Dynamic System Optimizer
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_71/com.ibm.aix.optimize/dso_planning.htm