HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator Guide (includes A.05.09) (5900-2188, March 2012)

D Memory Usage with vPars in nPartitions
This section discusses various usages of memory for vPars within nPartitions.
Within a vPars environment, memory is used not only by the HP-UX OS and applications, but can
also be used by the following:
• nPartition Firmware
• Firmware Partitions (fPars) on Integrity servers
• vPars Monitor
nPartition Firmware
When the nPartition boots, the firmware requires between 8 to 64 MB of each cell (therefore, using
CLM). The exact amount depends on the specific server and the firmware. PA firmware requires
approximately 8-16 MB of each cell, and Integrity firmware requires approximately 16-64 MB of
each cell. For exact amounts, see the firmware documentation for your hardware. This per-cell
firmware memory requirement is necessary for running the nPartition. It is not a consequence of
running vPars.
If our example system has 2 cells and the firmware requires 64 MB per cell, 128 MB (64 MB x 2
cells = 128) of the total cell local memory could be used by the nPartition firmware.
Firmware Partitions (fPars)
fPars is an interface/interpreter for the firmware on Integrity servers and vPars. fPars uses ILM
memory.
fPar0 requires 384 MB of memory for vPars A.05.01, and 256 MB of memory for vPars A.04.03;
fPar dump requires 128 MB. The vPars Monitor runs on fpar0; fPar dump is used for vPars Monitor
panics.
Additionally, each virtual partition that is booted requires an fPar instance, which is an additional
32 MB per fpar instance.
If our example system running vPars A.05.01 has 2 virtual partitions, 576 MB (384 + 128 + (32
x 2) = 576) is used by fPars.
On a vPars A.04.03 system with 2 virtual partitions, 448 MB (256 + 128 + (32 x 2) = 448) is
used by fPars.
Note that the memory used by fPars is provided by the last virtual partition booted.
vPars Monitor
The vPars Monitor itself requires memory. On PA, the vPars Monitor uses approximately 25 MB
of ILM. For Integrity, fPars loads the vPars Monitor into fpar0 memory and does not take any more
memory than that already consumed for fpar0 as described above.
Within a vPars environment, vPar Monitor requires 48 MB of memory on all PA machines. Also,
the memory equivalent to one granule size at 4 GB boundary is consumed by the nPartition firmware
and vPars Monitor on PA machines with chipsets of SX1000 and SX2000 that have at least 4 GB
of interleaved memory configured. The list of machines that are impacted include:
Hp SX2000 chipsets:
PA-RISC servers – HP rp7440, HP rp8440, HP 9000 Superdome (SD16B, SD32B, and SD64B
models)
HP SX1000 chipset:
PA-RISC servers – HP rp7420, HP rp8420, HP 9000 Superdome (SD16A, SD32A, and SD64A
models).
nPartition Firmware 281