Patent ID: 8074225

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a plurality of logical partitions defined on the apparatus; a partition manager residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the partition manager managing the plurality of logical partitions, the partition manager comprising: (A) a minimum resource specification for each of the plurality of logical partitions that specifies minimum resources that must be available for a logical partition corresponding to the minimum resource specification to function correctly; (B) a capacity manager that manages at least one temporary resource on demand for a specified resource-time for at least one of the plurality of logical partitions, the capacity manager comprising: a minimum resource enforcement mechanism that reads a minimum resource specification for each of the plurality of logical partitions, each minimum resource specification specifying minimum resources that must be available for a corresponding logical partition to function correctly, the minimum resource enforcement mechanism determining a total of resources that are permanently enabled in the computer system, and in response to a request by one of the plurality of logical partitions requesting to increase a minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition, the minimum resource enforcement mechanism determining whether the requested increase in the minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition will cause a sum of all minimum resource specifications for all of the plurality of logical partitions to exceed the total of resources that are permanently enabled in the computer system, and if the requested increase in the minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition will cause a sum of all minimum resource specifications for all logical partitions to exceed the total of resources that are permanently enabled in the computer system, the minimum resource enforcement mechanism denying the requested increase in the minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition, and if the requested increase in the minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition will not cause the sum of all minimum resource specifications for all logical partitions to exceed the total of resources that are permanently enabled in the computer system, the minimum resource enforcement mechanism permitting the requested increase in the minimum resource specification corresponding to the one logical partition; and (C) a resource allocator that enables the at least one temporary resource, and recovers the at least one temporary resource when the specified resource-time has expired.