Method, system and computer program product for optimizing allocation of resources on partitions of a data processing system

The inventive method includes creating a first virtual central processing unit (CPU) and a second virtual CPU, where at least one of the set of the first virtual CPU and the second virtual CPU spans across a first physical processing unit and a second physical processing unit. One or more resources from the first and second virtual CPUs are allocated to a first partition and a second partition. Whether one or more processes running on the first partition can utilize additional resources is determined. One or more resources from the first virtual CPU and resources from the second virtual CPU are reallocated to the first partition, where at least one of the resources was previously allocated to the second partition.