Technical data

Overview
Introduction to nPartition System Features
HP System Partitions Guide: Administration for nPartitions—rp7410
EMSP—[e-mail]
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Introduction to nPartition System Features
Hewlett-Packard’s nPartition system capabilities enable you to configure
a single server complex as one large system or as multiple smaller
systems.
Each nPartition definition establishes a subset of the server hardware
resources that are used as a system environment for booting a single
instance of HP-UX. An nPartition includes: one or more cells (containing
processors and memory) that are assigned to the partition as well as all
I/O chassis connected to those cells.
All processors, memory, and I/O in an nPartition are used exclusively by
software running in the partition. Thus, each nPartition runs its own
instance of the Boot Console Handler (BCH) interface and HP-UX.
By defining multiple nPartitions within an nPartition server, you
establish hardware partitioning that enables a single server complex to
run multiple instances of the HP-UX 11i operating system.
The HP-UX 11i December 2001 release supports nPartitions on the
following servers:
• HP rp7410 server (model string: 9000/800/rp7410)
• HP rp8400 server (model string: 9000/800/S16K-A)
• HP Superdome 16-way (model string: 9000/800/SD16000)
• HP Superdome 32-way (model string: 9000/800/SD32000)
• HP Superdome 64-way (model string: 9000/800/SD64000)
You can reconfigure a server’s nPartition definitions without physically
modifying the server’s hardware configuration by using HP’s
software-based nPartition management tools.
You can reconfigure any nPartition to include more, fewer, and/or
different hardware resources. Doing this requires shutting down the
operating system running in the partition and resetting the nPartition to
reconfigure it; this reboot for reconfig operation is performed using the
shutdown -R HP-UX command (using the -R option, not -r).
HP Restricted / DRAFT
DRAFT NOV 2001