nPartition Administrator's Guide

Console Handler (BCH) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) code while all other processors
are idle until an operating system is booted.
On first-generation cell-based servers and HP sx1000 chipset-based servers, core I/O is provided
by a PCI card residing in an I/O chassis. On these servers, to be eligible as a core cell, a cell must
be assigned to the nPartition, it must be active, and it must be attached to an I/O chassis containing
functional core I/O.
On HP sx2000 chipset-based servers, core I/O is provided on each cell, so any cell assigned to an
nPartition can be a core cell.
Although an nPartition can have multiple core-capable cells, only one core I/O is actively used
in an nPartition: the core I/O belonging to the active core cell.
For details about setting and using the core cell choices (or "alternates") for an nPartition see
“Setting nPartition Core Cell Choices” (page 196). When none of the core cell choices can serve
as the active core cell, or if no core cell choices are specified, the nPartition attempts to select an
eligible cell using a default process.
Floating Cells
A floating cell in a partition does not participate in memory interleave. All of the cell’s memory
is used as CLM.
Active and Inactive Cells
Cells that are assigned to an nPartition and have booted to form an nPartition are active cells
whose resources (processors, memory, and any attached I/O) can be actively used by software
running in the nPartition.
Cells that are inactive either are not assigned to an nPartition, or they have not participated in
partition rendezvous to form an nPartition with any other cells assigned to the nPartition.
(Partition rendezvous is the point during the nPartition boot process when all available cells in
an nPartition join together to establish which cells are active for the current boot of the nPartition.)
For example, a cell is inactive when it is powered off, has booted with a "n" use-on-next-boot
value, or is assigned to an nPartition that has been reset to the shutdown for reconfig state.
The resources belonging to inactive cells are not actively used by an nPartition. For a cell and its
resources to be actively used the cell must boot and participate in partition rendezvous.
Cell Local Memory
On cell-based servers that are based on the HP sx1000 or sx2000 chipset, a portion of the memory
in each cell can be configured as cell local memory (CLM), which is non-interleaved memory
that can be quickly accessed by processors residing on the same cell as the memory.
CAUTION: Memory configured as cell local memory only can be used by operating systems
that support it.
Any memory configured as cell local memory is unusable when an nPartition runs an operating
system that does not support it.
The nPartition management tools enable you to configure CLM for each cell either as a percentage
of the total memory in the cell, or as an absolute number of gigabytes of memory.
For details about configuring CLM see Chapter 3 (page 61).
Cell Property Details
Each cell has various properties that determine how the cell can be used and managed.
To list the properties of cells in a server complex, you can use the parstatus -C command,
parstatus -V -c# command, or Partition Manager.
nPartition Properties 25