Module 11: Admin for

HPUX 11.11 and 11.23 nPar

Servers
 Review - Hard Partitions “nPartitions”
COMPLEX
• A complex is the entire hardware entity, containing all cell boards, cpus, memory and io
which are physically connected together.
• Complexes may contain only one partition, or multiple partitions.
PARTITIONS
• Although physically connected, resources within a complex may be logically divided into
partitions. Each partition will run its own, discrete copy of the operating system.
• Hard partitions v.s. virtual partitions.
– Now referred to as “nPartitions” hard partitions are created by defining hardware
isolated grouping of resources, “protection” domains, with hardware commands such
as “cc” and “parcreate”.
– Referred to as “vPars” virtual partitions are created from the operating system
environment, they are software based.
 nPartitions Overview - attributes

Local Partitions
• The local partition is the partition in which the OS is running that the user has logged into.
Remote Partition
• Remote partitions are all other partitions within a complex, excluding the partition that the
user is logged into.

Active Partitions
• Any partition that is either booted to BCH or OS.

Inactive Partitions
• Any partition either un-initialized or at BIB, (reset for recon fig).

Genesis Partition
- The first partition created on a complex, a single cell partition.
- Created using the MP> “cc” command. Addition partitions can only be created in HPUX.
 nPartitions Overview - components

Types of Cells
• Base cells
– All cells in a partition are base cells.
• Core cells
– One cell serves as the core cell in a partition, there can be alternates.
– Must be connected to a PCI domain with core I/O attached.
• Active Cells: Cells that have joined a partition, and are past BIB.
• Inactive Cells: cells that failed to join a partition or deconfigured for boot.
• Free Cells: not assigned to a partition.
Partition Numbers
• Are determined automatically when the partition is created.
• The lowest available number is used.
Hardware
• Each partition contains at least one cell board, PCI domain and core IO.
Resetting Partitions – rs and rr
System Status
HP-UX-Windows-Linux
BCH /EFI
Loading complex profile
BIB
Note: “rs” equivalent commands
- BCH = reboot
- EFI = reset
- SAC = restart
- HPUX = shutdown –r
Note: “rr” equivalent commands - Linux = shutdown –r
- BCH = reconfigreset
- EFI = resetreconfig GSP/MP:CM>rs
- HPUX = shutdown –R -H

PDC / System Firmware

GSP/MP:CM>rr
– self tests
nPartitions Overview - Boot Device Paths

Each hard partition has its own set of boot paths that point to devices that
can be used for booting HP-UX.
The three hard partition boot paths are:
• PRI -- The primary boot path.
– Use BCH, setboot -p PRI, or parmodify -p# -b PRI to set.
• HAA -- The “high-availability alternate” boot path. A mirror of the root volume.
setboot does not support this path.
– Use BCH or parmodify -p# -s HAA to set.
• ALT -- The alternate boot path. Typically this is for install or recovery media
(DAT or CD-ROM).
– Use BCH, setboot -a ALT, or parmodify -p# -t ALT to set.
nPartitions Overview - Boot Actions (Path Flags)

Each boot path (PRI, HAA, ALT) has a boot action that is set through its path flags.
• When a hard partition boots to BCH, the BCH interface performs the boot action for each of
the paths, if necessary, in this order: 1) PRI boot action, 2) HAA action, 3) ALT action
For the PRI Path Concideer:
0 -- Go to BCH (PF path 0 = setboot -b off -s off
1 -- Boot this path, if fail go to BCH = setboot -b on -s off
2 -- Booth this path, if fail try next path = setboot -b on -s on)
3 -- Skip this path = setboot -b off -s on)

• You can set path flags from the partition’s BCH interface or from HP-UX running on the
partition.
– BCH -- Configuration menu, PathFlags (PF) command.
– HP-UX -- The setboot command affects the local partition’s PRI boot actions only.
nPartitions Overview - Complex Profile

Cell Assignments
• The complex profile contains a list of cell assignments, with a listing of which cells are assigned to
which partitions.
• The complex profile can be viewed with the “cp” command from the MP> prompt, or with the
“parstatus” command from HPUX.

Golden Profile
- Copies of the complex profile are saved on both the MP and on the cell boards.

- If copies of the profile do not match, between cells and the MP, the “golden” copy is used to update all
entities.
- The golden copy will always be on the MP, unless the MP has been replaced or has just lost its copy.

- Cell boards may supply the golden copy back to a MP if each cell board in the complex has an identical
copy.
- If the MP does not contain a valid copy of the profile and the profile checksums don’t match on the
cells… its time to rebuild!!!
nPartitions Overview – Complex Profile (cont)

There are three discrete parts to the complex profile: group a, group b and group c.
• Group A contains the complex wide information.
• Group B contains reserved information for the OS
Caution: ICOD Structures are
• Group C contains the partition configuration data. erased by “cc”!

Each partition contains a similar copy of Group A and B, and its own discrete copy
of group C.

The MP contains one copy of group A/B and individual copies of group C for each
partition in the complex.
• In addition, the MP manages all complex profile data and keeps all copies coherent
across the complex.
nPartitions Overview – Complex Profile Group A data

When modification are made to the data in group A, such as cell

assignments, the partition to which the changes are made must be
reset to BIB.
Contents of the Group A region of the Complex profile:
• Complex name
• Cell assignments
• Sequence ID, Checksum, and Revision - Used to track changes in this group, and to ensure that
the correct copy of the group is being used.
• Cell Assignments - Tells which partition a cell belongs to, and
• whether it is a base cell, a floating cell, or is on the free cell list.
• Complex Model Number
• Complex Model String Complex Serial Number
• Current Product Number/ Original Product Number
• Enterprise ID and Diagnostics License
• Memory Requirements - This includes the amount of non-interleaved memory per cell, global
interleaved memory range assignments, and the amount of private interleaved memory per
partition.
 nPartitions Overview – Complex Profile
nPartitions Overview – Complex Profile Group C data
Group C Data

Config Data (group C) that is unique to each partition:

• The partition’s name, number, and IP address

• The PRI, HAA, and ALT boot paths and boot actions
• The failure-usage policy for each cell in the partition
• The use-on-next-boot setting for each cell. This determines whether the cell is booted to
join (rendezvous) the rest of the cells
• The core cell preferences: the preferred core cell and alternate core cell settings
nPartitions Overview - Commands

Genesis Command – “CC” (MP> prompt)

• Creates a single one cell partition.
• All cell in a complex must be at BIB!
Parmgr – Partition Manager (HPUX)
• This is a Graphical User Interface, no TUI.
• Implements the Critical Resource Analyzer.
CLI – Command Line Interface (HPUX)
• Parcreate, Parremove, Parstatus, Parunlock, Fruled, Frupower
Misc - BCH and MP Partition related Commands
• BCH: cec, coc, pd, RECONFIGRESET
• MP: rr bo, cp, cc, rl, so
 Listing Hardware with HP-UX Commands

Parstatus Command
• Listing the local partition number: parstatus -w
• Listing cells, their configurations, status, and partition assignments: parstatus -C
• Detailed cell information: parstatus -V -c# (specify the cell number)
• Listing I/O chassis details: parstatus -I (uppercase “i”)
• Listing cabinets in the server complex: parstatus -B
• Detailed cabinet information: parstatus -V -b# (specify the cabinet number)

RAD Command - PCI

• Listing local partition active PCI slot info: rad –q
• Listing PCI Card information: rad -c
Configuration Commands - CLI

HP-UX 11i provides commands for configuring and managing

hard partitions and system complex hardware:
• parcreate Create a new partition; root permission is required.
• parmodify Modify an existing partition; root required.
• parremove Remove an existing partition; root required.
• parstatus Display partition information and hardware details for a
system complex.
• parunlock Unlock complex profile data (use this command with
caution); root permission is required.
• fruled Turn the amber service LEDs on or off for cells, cabinets, and
I/O chassis.
• frupower Turn power on or off for cells and I/O chassis; root
permission is required.
Example of CLI Partition Commands

# parcreate -c 0:base:y:ri
# parmodify -p1 -a 3:base:y:ri
# parmodify -p1 -d 3
# parmodify –p0 –m 4:base:n:ri
# parremove -F -p1
nPartition Administration -Terms

Local, Remote, and Target nPartitions

• The local nPartition is the nPartition where an action is performed.
– For example: the local nPartition could be the one where a parstatus
command runs, or where Partition Manager is running.
• A remote nPartition is any nPartition other than the local nPartition.
– A remote nPartition can be another nPartition in the same complex as the
local nPartition, or it can be in a remote complex.
• The target nPartition is the nPartition affected by a command or action.
– The target nPartition can be the same as the local nPartition.
• For example: when listing details about the same nPartition where the tool is
running.
– The target nPartition can be a remote nPartition in the local complex, such
as when adding a cell to another nPartition in the server.
Local and Remote Complexes
• The local complex is the complex where an action is performed.
• A remote complex is any complex other than the local complex.
nPartition Administration - CLM Example

Examples of Modifying Cell Attributes

Create an nPartition using cells 2 and 3:
• Assign 50% cell local memory to both cells 2 and 3.
parcreate -c2:base:y:ri:50% -c3:base:y:ri:50%

Modify cell 6 to be inactive (not used) the next time the nPartition is booted:
parmodify -p2 -m6::n::0GB
• Cell 6 is assigned to nPartition 2 (-p2) and now has a “n” use-on-next-boot
setting and no CLM.
• The type and failure-usage are the defaults because they were not explicitly
specified..
nPartition Administration
Example: CLM Configurations
To modify the cell local memory (CLM) value for a cell assigned to an
nPartition:
parmodify -p0 -m0/1::::4GB
• This modifies cell 0/1 (cabinet 0, cell 1) to have a requested CLM amount of 4
GBytes. This cell already was assigned to nPartition 0 (-p0). The new CLM
value is used the next time nPartition 0 boots.
To create a new nPartition:
parcreate -P MyNpar -L 50% -c1/0::: -c1/1::: -c1/2::::100% -c1/3::::100%

• This creates a new nPartition with four cells (1/0–1/3). The cells 1/0 and 1/1 are
assigned a 50% CLM value (the default CLM specified by -L) and cells 1/2 and
1/3 are assigned 100% CLM.