HP-UX Virtual Partitions 6.0 Release Notes

Other features
• Virtual partitions can act as Serviceguard nodes, allowing failover of Serviceguard packages
from one virtual partition to another node.
• Because each instance of HP-UX is isolated from all other instances, vPars provides application
and Operating System (OS) fault isolation. Software-related kernel panics
1
, resource exhaustion
failures, and reboots are done in isolation in one virtual partition. These do not affect any
other virtual partition.
vPars advantages
Increases server utilization and isolates OS and application faults
In certain environments, one entire server is dedicated to a single application. When demand for
that application is not at peak, such as during non-business hours, the server is underutilized. If
many servers are configured this way, you have many servers that are being underutilized. You
might want to consolidate servers and run multiple applications on one server to minimize investment
and operational costs; however, this leaves all applications vulnerable to problems if any one
application or its single OS has problems.
vPars provides a software-based solution that supports isolating an OS and its applications within
virtual partitions; thus, OS or application problems in one virtual partition do not affect the OS or
applications running in other partitions.
vPars also allows consolidation of underutilized servers onto a single server where applications
are not permitted to affect one another, such as an ISP running many small e-services application
servers.
Flexibility through multiple but independent OS instances
vPars offers flexibility by allowing different HP-UX instances and patch levels to run on a single
physical server.
Flexibility through dynamic processing cores
vPars enables you to reassign processing resources from one virtual partition to another without
rebooting.
Processor cores can be moved between two virtual partitions that have different resource utilization
peak times. For example, a transaction server used primarily during business hours can have a
portion of its cores reassigned overnight to a report server if there is enough memory available on
the report server vPar to support the additional cores. Such reassignments can be automated, for
example, via a cron job.
vPars assigns specific hardware resources to specific virtual partitions. Hence, a user on the
transaction server at night is not affected by the processing power consumption of a report server.
A virtual partition uses only the cores that you assign to it; cores are not time-sliced across virtual
partitions.
NOTE: CPUs can be transferred from one virtual partition to another while the vPars are active.
Memory assignments can be modified only while the virtual partition is down.
Supports BL8x0c i2 servers
vPars v6.0 provides the vPars functionality currently available on mid-range and high-end Integrity
cell-based servers on BL8x0c i2 servers. The shared I/O feature allows the high CPU core count
to I/O slot ratio of the BL8x0c i2 servers to be assigned to vPars in combinations that allow for
more efficient utilization of resources. A BL860c i2 with 8 cores can create 7 single core vPars or
a single 7 core vPar or any combination in between.
1. Unless the vPars software product itself panics.
8 HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 features and advantages