Bound and Unbound Processors:

When working with vPars, you can assign processors as either bound or unbound.

A processor assigned to a vPar to handle both normal processing as well as I/O interrupts is referred to as bound processor. Every vPar must be assigned at least one bound processor. A processor should be allocated to a vPar as a bound processor if the vPar runs applications which require both processor and I/O horsepower. A processor can be added online to a vPar as a bound processor; however, a bound processor cannot be removed online from a vPar.

An unbound processor, on the contrary, is either not assigned to a vPar, or assigned but does not handle the vPar’s I/O interrupts. A processor should be allocated to a vPar as an unbound processor if the application running in the vPar is processor-intensive but not I/O intensive. An unbound processor can be added to or removed from a vPar online.