HP-UX Virtual Partitions 6.0 Administrator Guide

NOTE: The vparhwmgmt command does not allow adjustment of the memory allocated to the
VSP.
The sum of the VSP and vPar core counts cannot exceed the number of cores on the system. Hence,
any adjustment you make to the VSP core count will affect the cores available to the vPars. While
adjusting the VSP core count, if you exceed the system core count, and if the vPars are already
configured, an error occurs. In such a situation, to satisfy the core count required for the VSP, you
must first adjust the core count of one or more vPars using the vparmodify command, then adjust
the VSP CPU core count using the vparhwmgmt command.
Before you start configuring vPars, ensure that the hardware and VSP environment are appropriate
for the vPars to be created. Consider the following checklist of tasks:
1. Install all necessary hardware.
Add any required mezzanine cards.
NOTE: It is not necessary to purchase and populate separate network and storage mezzanine
cards for each vPar, because shared I/O, such as vswitches and NPIV support sharing of the
hardware across multiple partitions.
Add DIMMS, as desired, to ensure that there is enough memory for both the VSP and the
vPars.
2. Verify the number of cores and memory available for vPars using the vparhwmgmt command.
Use vparhwmgmt -p cpu -l to display the allocation of CPU cores.
Use vparhwmgmt -p memory -l to display the allocation of memory.
3. Create one or more virtual switches using the vparnet command.
4. View or verify the inventory of CPU and I/O using the vparstatus -A command.
NOTE: You might have to repeat some of the steps several times until the proper configuration
is achieved. Some of the steps – such as changing the kernel tunables – may force a reboot of the
VSP.
Upon installation, tunables are set to the following values:
• ninode – 1024
• filecache_max – 134217728
• filecache_min – 134217728
• vxfs_bc_bufhwm – 64000 (64 MB)
IMPORTANT: If the system is brought down due to a faulty CPU core and the cores are
deconfigured, then the vPars might not boot during the subsequent boot of the VSP. This is possible
if the sum of the remaining cores is less than the sum of the cores allocated to the VSP and vPars
as displayed from the vparhwmgmt command. You can clear this condition by removing the cores
from the vPars or VSP to meet the configuration requirements.
For example, let us assume that the VSP is allocated 1 core and the vPars the remaining 7 cores,
and a core is deconfigured as it has a hardware issue. After you boot the VSP, none of the vPars
are bootable until the number of cores assigned to the vPars is reduced by the number of
deconfigured cores. So, you must reduce the CPU count of one of the vPars by one.
Configuring an NPIV HBA
Overview
NPIV allows you to create multiple VFC ports over one PFC on a host. Each of these virtual ports
must be created with a unique port WWN and node WWN.
16 Installing and configuring HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0