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Partition Manager Help

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  Actions  |  Modify nPartition   

Modify nPartition

»Table of Contents
»Index
»Assistance
»Overview
»Features & Capabilities
»About Partitioning
»Starting & Stopping
»Complex Scope
»Partition Scope
»Cell Scope
»I/O Chassis Scope
»Actions
»Set Complex Name
»Analyze Complex Health
»Clear All LEDs
»Show Complex Details
»Create nPartition
»Assign Cell(s)
»Delete nPartition
Modify nPartition
»Finish
»Unassign Cell(s)
»Power On/Off Cell
»Turn On/Off Cell LED
»Power On/Off Chassis
»Turn On/Off Chassis LED
»I/O Slot Actions
»Show Log File
»Status Indicators
»Messages
»Release Notes
»About Partition Manager
»Glossary
»Using Help
» Overview
» General Tab
» Add/Remove Cells Tab
» Set Cell Options Tab
» Configure Memory Tab
» Messages

Overview

To modify the properties of an existing nPartition, select an nPartition and choose nPartitionModify 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.

No changes will actually be made to the nPartition until you have completed the Modify nPartition: Finish page.

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
» Add/Remove Cells Tab
» Set Cell Options Tab
» Configure Memory Tab
» Messages

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:

  • alphabetics (a-z, A-Z);

  • numerics (0-9);

  • underscore (_);

  • hyphen (-);

  • period (.);

  • and the space character.

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.

Not all combinations of cells will result in a recommended configuration. Refer to the configuration guide for more information.

Figure 1 shows a typical cabinet with some cells selected.

Figure 1 Cabinet with Selected Cells

Cabinet with Selected Cells

1 Cell 0 is dimmed and cannot be selected, because it is assigned to a different nPartition.
2 Cell 2 was already assigned to this nPartition and is still selected to be assigned to this nPartition.
3 Cell 4 was assigned to this nPartition, but has been unselected, and will be removed from the nPartition.
4 Cell 7 was a free cell, but is now selected to be assigned to this nPartition.

Depending on your server model, cells may be displayed slightly differently than they are shown in Figure 1.

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

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.

Connected To

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.

Can Be Core Cell

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.

Cell Type

Always set to Base. Other cell types may be introduced in future releases.

Use On Next Boot

Set this field to “No” to prevent the cell being made active the next time that the nPartition is booted.

Default: Yes.

Failure Usage

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.

Core Cell Choice

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.

 

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.

Cell local memory is only supported on nPartitions running HP-UX 11i v2 (B.11.23), SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, or Microsoft® Windows®. If an nPartition is booted under an operating system that does not support CLM, any memory allocated as CLM will be unusable.

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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).

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.



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.

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.



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.

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.



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.

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.



There is a discontinuity in the core cell choices. All specified core cell choices must be in consecutive order before continuing.

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.


 

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.

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.

minimum interleave =
    1.5 GB
  + 0.5 GB per 16 GB bootable memory
           (or fraction thereof)

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.



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:

...

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.



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.

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.