Technical data

Introduction to nPartitions
Properties of Cells
HP System Partitions Guide: Administration for nPartitions—rp7410
EMSP—[e-mail]
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Core Cells One cell in each nPartition must serve as the active core cell. The core
cell is a cell that is connected to an I/O chassis that has core I/O
attached.
The core cell controls the partition until HP-UX has booted and provides
access to the nPartition’s console. The core cell’s core I/O is used and a
processor on the core cell runs the Boot Console Handler (BCH) code
while all other processors are idle until HP-UX is booted.
Although a partition can have multiple core-capable cells (any cell
that has an I/O chassis and core I/O attached), only one core I/O is
actively used in a partition (the one belonging to the active core cell).
To be eligible as a core cell, a cell must be assigned to the partition, it
must be active, and it must be attached to an I/O chassis containing
functional core I/O.
By default—on HP Superdome and HP rp8400 servers—the lowest
numbered eligible cell in a partition is selected as the core cell.
By default on HP rp7410 servers only, cell 1 is selected as the core cell if
it is eligible.
You can define up to four core cell choices for a partition. The core cell
choices are cells that you prefer to be selected as the partition’s core cell.
If your first core cell alternate cannot serve as the core cell then the
partition attempts to select any remaining core cell choices, trying them
in the order that you specified.
When none of the core cell choices can serve as the active core cell, the
partition then attempts to select an eligible cell starting with the lowest
numbered active cell.
Active and
Inactive Cells
Cells that are assigned to an nPartition and have booted to form a
partition are active cells whose resources (processors, memory, and any
attached I/O) can be actively used by software running in the partition.
Cells that are inactive either are not assigned to an nPartition, or they
have not participated in partition rendezvous to form a partition with
any other cells assigned to the partition. (Partition rendezvous is the
point during the partition boot process when all available cells in an
nPartition join together to establish which cells are active for the current
boot of the partition.)
For example, a cell can be inactive when it is powered off, has booted
with a “n” use-on-next-boot value, or is assigned to a partition that has
been reset to a ready for reconfig state.
HP Restricted / DRAFT
DRAFT NOV 2001