Overview
To modify the properties of an existing nPartition, select
an nPartition and choose
nPartition Modify
from the actions menu. If you are in a partition scope, the displayed nPartition is
implicitly selected. If you are in a cell
scope or I/O chassis scope, the
nPartition containing the displayed cell or I/O
chassis is implicitly selected.
This action provides four tabs under which you can make changes. You can visit
the tabs in any order, review the settings under that tab, and change those
settings as desired. You do not have to visit each tab. You can revisit the same
tab as many times as you like.
When you are finished making changes to this nPartition, click the [OK]
button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to the Modify nPartition: Finish page, where you will
have a chance to review the new configuration before committing your changes.
If you decide not to make any changes to this nPartition, click the [Cancel]
button instead. You will return to the previous view, and no changes made under
these tabs will be applied.
The following sections describe each of the tabs in this dialog, and the messages
that may be displayed by Partition Manager.
General Tab Specify the nPartition Name
Use this tab to view the partition name assigned to this
nPartition, and change it if desired.
Each nPartition is identified by its partition number
(assigned by the server) and a partition name (assigned by the
administrator). Within a single server system, the partition number is a unique
identifier, but the partition name is not required to be. However, assigning
unique partition names will avoid confusion and reduce operator errors. It is
strongly recommended that you assign each nPartition a unique partition name.
Partition Manager requires that you assign a partition name, but it does not check the
name for uniqueness.
The partition name consists of an ASCII string made up of the
following characters:
While partition names can be up to 64 characters long, it is usually good practice
to use shorter names that will produce less cluttered displays in Partition Manager.
Add/Remove Cells Tab
Use this tab to view the cells that are currently assigned to this nPartition,
select cells to be added to the nPartition, and unselect cells to be removed from
the nPartition.
The cells that are currently assigned to the nPartition will be selected already.
Select any cells that you want to add to the nPartition by clicking the checkbox
attached to a free cell. This will place a check mark in
the cell's checkbox. You cannot select empty cell slots or cells that are
assigned to a different nPartition. If you select a cell that is connected to an
I/O chassis, the I/O chassis will also be included in the
nPartition.
If you came to this page by selecting free cells and invoking the
Assign Cell(s) action, then those free cells will
already be selected under this tab.
To remove cells from this nPartition, click the checkbox of a
selected cell. This will clear the check mark and unselect the cell. If you
change your mind, you can select the cell again.
If you unselect a cell that is connected to an I/O chassis,
the I/O chassis will also be removed from the nPartition.
If you came to this page by selecting cells in this nPartition and invoking the
Unassign Cell(s) action, then those cells will already
be unselected under this tab.
Figure 1 shows a typical cabinet with some cells selected.
View Details
You can click on the center of a cell icon to examine the cell details.
A new browser window will display the cell
properties view. This shows the same information
as the cell scope views.
Inside this new browser window, you can switch between the
General, CPUs and Memory, and I/O tabs, but you cannot navigate
outside the cell scope. Close the new browser window when you
have finished examining the cell properties.
You can click on the center of an I/O chassis icon to examine the I/O chassis details.
A new browser window will display the I/O chassis
properties view. This shows the same information
as the I/O chassis
scope views. Inside this new browser window, you can
switch between the General
and I/O tabs, but you
cannot navigate outside the I/O chassis scope. Close the new
browser window when you have finished examining the I/O chassis
properties.
Set Cell Options Tab
Use this tab to set optional attributes of the cells that are selected to be
assigned to this nPartition. The attributes of cells that are already assigned to
this nPartition have not been changed. Free cells being added to this nPartition
will have default attributes. These defaults may not provide optimal performance
for the mix of applications that will be used in this nPartition.
For more information about nPartition configuration requirements and
recommendations, refer to the configuration
guide.
Table 1 Cell Attributes
Hardware Location
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The physical location of the cell (cabinet and
cell slot). To examine the details of this cell, you can click on the
value in this field.
A new browser window will display the cell
properties view. This shows the same information
as the cell scope views.
Inside this new browser window, you can switch between the
General, CPUs and Memory, and I/O tabs, but you cannot navigate
outside the cell scope. Close the new browser window when you
have finished examining the cell properties.
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Connected To
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The I/O chassis, if any, to which this cell is
attached. To examine the details of this I/O chassis, you can click on
the value in this field.
A new browser window will display the I/O chassis
properties view. This shows the same information
as the I/O chassis
scope views. Inside this new browser window, you can
switch between the General
and I/O tabs, but you
cannot navigate outside the I/O chassis scope. Close the new
browser window when you have finished examining the I/O chassis
properties.
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Can Be Core Cell
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Whether the cell has the properties required to be a core
cell (Yes or
No). If the value is No,
then no core cell choice value can be
specified for this cell.
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Cell Type
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Always set to Base.
Other cell types may be introduced in future releases.
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Use On Next Boot
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Set this field to “No” to
prevent the cell being made active the next time that the
nPartition is booted.
Default: Yes. |
Failure Usage
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Specifies how the cell will be used after a hardware failure.
This is always set to Base.
Other failure usage types may be introduced in future releases.
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Core Cell Choice
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Specifies the preferred order in which cells should be tried as the
core cell.
Each nPartition has one
cell that system firmware
selects as the core cell when the nPartition is booted.
On servers based on the HP sx2000 chipset, core I/O is provided on each cell, so every cell is a
viable core cell. On all other nPartition servers, a cell is a viable
core cell only if it is attached to an I/O chassis
with core I/O.
If this nPartition contains more than one cell that is capable of being
the core cell, you can use this field to specify the order in which
candidate cells should be tried. You do not have to specify any core
cell choices. If no choices are specified (i.e. this field is set to
None for each candidate cell), then a core cell
will be chosen automatically.
You can specify up to four choices (1st,
2nd, 3rd, and
4th). You do not have to specify all four
choices, but you may not leave any gaps in the choices that you make.
For example, you can specify only a 1st choice,
or only a 1st and 2nd
choice, but you cannot specify only a 2nd and
4th choice.
When the nPartition is booted, system firmware will try to select the
first choice as the core cell. If that cell is ineligible to be the
core cell (for example, if its Use On Next Boot
flag is set to No, or a hardware error has
occurred), then the second choice will be tried, and so on. If a core
cell has not been selected after all of the specified choices have been
tried, then system firmware will try other cells in the nPartition. Note
that a cell can still be selected as the core cell, even if it does not
have a Core Cell Choice value.
Default:
When creating a new nPartition, the first four cells that can be core
cells are assigned Core Cell Choice values
1st through
4th, by order of cell slot number.
When modifying an existing nPartition, this field defaults to
None for newly added cells.
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Configure Memory Tab
Use this tab to specify how the memory in the nPartition's cells should be allocated between
interleaved memory and cell local memory (CLM).
This tab also enables you to specify whether
Hyper-Threading
is enabled for the nPartition, if its cells have processors that support Hyper-Threading.
The Available Memory table shows the total
memory and bootable memory in the nPartition.
Table 2 Available Memory Total Memory from Base Cells (GB) |
The total amount of memory configured on all of the
cells
in the nPartition.
| Available Memory on Next Boot (GB) |
The total amount of memory configured on all of the
cells
that are configured to boot in the nPartition
(the “Use On Next Boot” flag is
set to “Yes”).
| Min. Interleave Required by HP-UX (GB) | Only Displayed for PA-RISC nPartitions.
For an explanation of this value, refer to the HP-UX requires ... message
explained below.
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The Interleaved Memory Regions table shows how the
interleaved memory in the nPartition is configured. This
table will not be shown if Partition Manager is unable to obtain that information, and
a message will be displayed in its place. Memory interleave occurs when the
nPartition is booted, so no interleave information will be available if the
nPartition is inactive or has not booted, or if the server and operating system
configuration does not provide interleaved memory regions.
Interleaved memory consists of one or more regions across
the cells of the nPartition. An optimal interleave can be constructed when the
number of cells contributing to the interleave is a power of 2, and every cell
contributes the same power of 2 gigabytes of memory (including 0.5GB). In this
case, a single interleaved memory region will exist. In other situations,
multiple regions will be created. For example, if an nPartition has four cells,
two of which have 12 GB of memory and 2 of which have 8 GB of memory,
then two interleave regions will be created: one involving all four cells
contributing 8 GB each, and one with only two cells contributing 4 GB
each.
Table 3 Interleaved Memory Regions Interleave Region |
The regions are numbered sequentially, starting with 0. The region
number has no specific significance.
| Cell Location |
Each cell that contributes to the region is listed here. Cells are
identified by their cabinet number and cell slot within the cabinet
(e.g. “cab0, cell2”).
You can click on any cell identifier to view the cell details. This
will take you to the cell scope general
view for that cell.
| Interleave Amount (GB) |
The amount of interleaved memory contributed by each cell in the region,
in gigabytes.
| Total Region Amount (GB) |
The total amount of memory in this interleave region, in gigabytes.
This is the sum of the memory contributed by each cell in the region.
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The memory configuration of cells that are already assigned to this nPartition has
not been changed. You may want to adjust this configuration to accommodate any
added or removed cells. Free cells being added to this nPartition will have
default memory settings. These defaults may not provide optimal performance for
the mix of applications that will be used in this nPartition. For more
information about nPartition configuration requirements and recommendations, refer
to the configuration guide.
The following fields are provided for configuring the memory in this nPartition.
Table 4 Cell Local Memory (CLM) Allocations Hardware Location |
The physical location of the cell (cabinet and
cell slot). To examine the details of this cell, you can click on the
value in this field.
A new browser window will display the cell
properties view. This shows the same information
as the cell scope views.
Inside this new browser window, you can switch between the
General, CPUs and Memory, and I/O tabs, but you cannot navigate
outside the cell scope. Close the new browser window when you
have finished examining the cell properties.
| Cell Type |
Always set to Base.
Other cell types may be introduced in future releases.
| Use On Next Boot |
When this field is set to “No”,
the cell will be inactive
the next time the nPartition is booted.
The memory on cells with this flag set to
“No”
will not be counted in the Available On Next Boot total
at the bottom of this table, or in the Available Memory on Next Boot
field in the Available Memory table
above.
| Total Memory OK (GB) |
The total amount of memory configured for use on the cell, in gigabytes.
| Actual CLM Usage (GB) |
The amount of cell memory, in gigabytes, that was allocated as CLM when
the nPartition was booted.
The actual CLM can differ from the requested CLM due to cell hardware
constraints and minimum interleaved memory requirements imposed by
system firmware.
This column is omitted if the nPartition is inactive.
| Requested CLM |
The amount of cell memory that should be requested as CLM. This value
can be entered in one of two ways.
Fraction:
Select a fraction of the total amount of memory available. The
drop-down list is in increments of
“1/4 (25%)” for cells with less
than 4 GB capacity, or “1/8 (12.5%)”
for cells with 4 GB capacity or more.
Fixed:
Enter the actual amount of memory to be used as CLM. The value that
you specify will be rounded to the nearest 0.5 GB. If you enter
an amount greater than the total amount of memory available, it will
be rounded down to the total amount available.
| Requested Interleave (GB) |
The amount of cell memory that was requested as interleaved memory, in
gigabytes. This is the Total Memory OK minus the
Requested CLM.
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Enable Hyper-Threading.
To enable Hyper-Threading for an nPartition
whose processors support it, select the Enable Hyper-Threading check box.
This check box is displayed only for nPartitions with
processors whose
cores support multiple
parallel execution streams (such as dual-core Intel® Itanium® 2 processors).
Enabled means that Hyper-Threading will be
active on the next reboot of the nPartition.
Active means that each processor core in
the nPartition is simultaneously running multiple threads.
Messages
One of the following messages may be displayed when you switch tabs or click the
[OK] button.
There are no cells assigned to the nPartition. Every nPartition must have
at least one viable core cell (i.e., a cell that is attached to an I/O
chassis that contains a core I/O card). If the intention is to delete an
nPartition then use the Delete nPartition task (the Modify nPartition task
cannot be used to delete an nPartition).
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Each nPartition must include at least one cell.
Click the [OK] button to return to the
Add/Remove Cells tab.
On servers based on the HP sx2000 chipset, core I/O is provided on each cell, so every cell is a
viable core cell. On all other nPartition servers, a cell is a viable
core cell only if it is attached to an I/O chassis
with core I/O.
See the core cell glossary definition for more information.
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There are no viable core cells assigned to the nPartition (i.e., there
is no cell that contains a core I/O card). Every nPartition must have
at least one viable core cell, otherwise the nPartition cannot boot.
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Each nPartition must include at least one cell that can be selected at boot
time as the core cell. None of the cells that you
have selected meet the requirements to be the core cell.
Click the [OK] button to return to the
Add/Remove Cells tab.
On servers based on the HP sx2000 chipset, core I/O is provided on each cell, so every cell is a
viable core cell. On all other nPartition servers, a cell is a viable
core cell only if it is attached to an I/O chassis
with core I/O.
See the core cell glossary definition for more information.
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There must be at least one viable core cell (i.e., a cell that is attached
to an I/O chassis that contains a core I/O card) that has the Use On Next
Boot flag set to "Yes". Otherwise, the nPartition cannot be booted.
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Each nPartition must include at least one cell that can be selected at boot
time as the core cell. None of the viable core cells
selected for this nPartition will be active the next time that the
nPartition is booted.
On servers based on the HP sx2000 chipset, core I/O is provided on each cell, so every cell is a
viable core cell. On all other nPartition servers, a cell is a viable
core cell only if it is attached to an I/O chassis
with core I/O.
Click the [OK] button to return to the
Set Cell Options tab. You must set the Use On
Next Boot flag of at least one of the viable core cells to
“Yes”. See the core cell glossary definition for more
information.
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All of the core cell choices are set to "None". System firmware will
select the core cell (at nPartition boot time) based on its default
algorithm. Click [OK] to continue.
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You do not have to specify any core cell choices. Click [OK] to
continue on, and a core cell will be selected automatically when the
nPartition is booted. If you want to specify core cell choices, click
[Cancel] instead.
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There is a discontinuity in the core cell choices. All specified core
cell choices must be in consecutive order before continuing.
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You do not have to specify all four core cell choices, but you may not leave
any gaps in the choices that you make. For example, you can specify only a
1st choice, or only a
1st and
2nd choice, but you cannot specify only a
2nd and
4th choice.
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HP-UX requires at least ... GB of
interleaved memory to boot in a PA-RISC nPartition with
... GB of total memory. Reduce
the amount of CLM configured on cells in this
partition to increase the amount of interleaved memory.
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HP-UX cannot boot on a PA-RISC nPartition without a minimum amount of
interleaved memory. The minimum required is based on the total memory installed
on the cells that are configured to boot in the nPartition.
As an example, an nPartition consisting of a single cell with
2.0 GB of memory cannot have any cell local memory configured.
Any nPartition with 16 GB or less of total bootable memory will
require 2.0 GB of interleaved memory in order to boot HP-UX.
You will not be able to boot HP-UX on this nPartition as configured.
You will have to increase the amount of interleaved memory to
the minimum required (or higher) by reducing the amount of CLM.
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The amount of interleaved memory, along with the number of base cells in
this nPartition, will not yield an optimal interleaved memory
configuration. The rules for an optimal interleaved memory configuration
are:
...
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The performance of memory interleave on this nPartition can be improved by
following the rules displayed in the message. Depending on the
configuration of your server and the number of desired nPartitions, it may
not be possible to provide each nPartition with an optimal interleave. For
more information, refer to the configuration
guide.
Click [OK] to keep this memory configuration and continue on.
Click [Cancel] to return to the Configure
Memory tab and change the memory configuration.
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System firmware requires this nPartition have at least 0.5 GB of
interleaved memory. If you continue, system firmware will adjust the
actual memory configuration to reserve the required minimum amount of
interleaved memory when the nPartition is booted.
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Click [OK] to continue. The memory configuration that you specified
will be changed when the nPartition is booted, in order to provide the
minimum amount of interleaved memory required by system
firmware. This may not result in an optimal memory
configuration for the mix of applications that will be used in this
nPartition. For more information, refer to the configuration guide.
Click [Cancel] to return to the Configure
Memory tab and change the memory configuration.
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