Virtual partitions are allocated a system resource percentage that is, by default, a dynamic (soft) limit. If other virtual partitions are not using their full allocation, then a busy virtual partition can consume more than it is allocated. In contrast, if the system resource percentage is fixed, the virtual partition cannot consume more than allocated, even if other virtual partitions do not use their full allocation. Use the Workload Designer portlet to specify whether a virtual partition allocation is dynamic or a fixed percent.
Workload priority is influenced by the virtual partition resource allocation and whether it is dynamic or fixed. Tactical requests running in a virtual partition with a low resource allocation may not perform as well as those in a virtual partition with a high resource allocation, particularly if the allocation percentage is fixed.