nPartition Administrator's Guide

5. To view the release notes, choose the Release Notes tab.
Read the Installation instructions section of the release notes and the features summary before
downloading and installing the software.
6. To download Partition Manager for Windows, choose download from the Web page.
nPartition Properties
This section describes the nPartition properties you work with when performing nPartition
administration tasks.
The following nPartitions details are covered here:
• “Partition Numbers”
• “Assigned and Unassigned Cells”
• “Base Cells”
• “Core Cells”
• “Floating Cells”
• “Active and Inactive Cells”
• “Cell Property Details”
• “Active and Inactive nPartition Boot States”
• “Cell Online Operation”
Partition Numbers
Each nPartition has its own unique partition number that the nPartition administration tools use
for identifying the nPartition.
When you create an nPartition, the tool you use assigns the nPartition the lowest available
partition number. For example, the first nPartition always is partition number 0, and the second
nPartition to be created is partition number 1.
After you remove an nPartition, no cells are assigned to the nPartition. As a result, the nPartition
tools can reuse the partition number when creating a new nPartition.
For example, after you remove partition number 2, the next time you create a new nPartition the
parcreate command or Partition Manager will assign cells to partition number 2 when creating
a new nPartition, if all lower-numbered nPartitions (partition numbers 0 and 1) already are
defined.
Assigned and Unassigned Cells
Each cell in a server complex either is assigned to one of the nPartitions in the complex, or it is
unassigned and thus is not used by any of the nPartitions. If an I/O chassis is attached to an
unassigned cell, then the chassis likewise is not assigned to an nPartition.
Cells that are unassigned are considered to be available resources; they are free to be assigned
to any of the existing nPartitions, or can be used to create new nPartitions.
Base Cells
On both HP 9000 servers and HP Integrity servers, all cells within an nPartition are base cells.
The nPartitions administration tools automatically set the cell type to base cell, if you do not
specify the cell type.
Core Cells
One cell in each nPartition must serve as the active core cell. The core cell controls the nPartition
until an operating system has booted, and it provides console services and other boot and
management abilities for the nPartition. The monarch processor on the core cell runs the Boot
24 Getting Started with nPartitions