Intel Itanium 2 and PA-RISC nPartition Mixing - HP Superdome Hybrid Servers

As Table 1-3 lists, PDC 20.8 and PDC 21.2 do not contain the required enhancements for mixing

in any scenario, so both of these PDC versions must be upgraded to PDC 22.1 to enable mixing

when running only HP-UX 11i v2 on PA-RISC nPartitions. PDC 22.1 is also the minimum firmware

required to support PA-8900. There are no known issues with system management tools other

than the uname -i issue for WLM and gWLM (for details, see “WLM and gWLM Limitation in

All Mixing Scenarios” (page 6)).

Mixing Scenario 2: Superdome with Only HP-UX 11i v1 on PA-RISC nPartitions

Table 1-4 lists the minimum firmware required to enable full functionality of system management

tools on Superdome hybrid servers where all PA-RISC nPartitions are running HP-UX 11i v1.

For critical details about updating firmware, see “HP Recommends All Firmware Components

Be Updated to the Specified Revision” (page 5).

Table 1-4 Firmware Requirements for Only HP-UX 11i v1 on PA-RISC nPartitions

Minimum Required FirmwareProcessor

PDC 22.3 (SMS rel_6.0)PA-8800

PA-8900

IPF 3.66 (SMS rel_6.0) is the minimum requirement for

HP-UX, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SuSE Linux Enterprise

Server, and Windows Server 2003

IPF 3.88 (SMS rel_6.1) is the minimum requirement for

OpenVMS I64

Intel Itanium 2 single-core processor with 9 MB cache

(A1 stepping and A2 stepping)

The PDC 22.1 and IPF 2.50/2.52 firmware does not properly report cell information to the

management software stack on PA-RISC nPartitions running HP-UX 11i v1. This causes the

PA-RISC management stack to report errors for Intel Itanium 2 cells. These firmware issues are

fixed in PDC 22.3 and IPF 3.66.

In addition to the firmware requirements in Table 1-4, the nPartition Provider (the “NPar” bundle)

must be updated to version B.11.11.01.04 or later in the PA-RISC nPartitions running HP-UX 11i

v1. This version is released with the HP-UX 11i v1 September 2005 Release. The version of the

nPartition Provider that shipped with HP-UX 11i v1 December 2004 Release does not properly

handle the Intel Itanium 2 single-core processor with 9 MB cache.

If these firmware and nPartition Provider upgrades are not possible, be aware of the following

known limitations and workarounds.

Limitation with Partition Manager on HP-UX 11i v1 December 2004 Release with PDC 22.1 and

IPF 2.50/2.52

Partition Manager Version 2.0 for HP-UX 11i v1 first shipped with HP-UX 11i v1 December 2004

Release. This release of Partition Manager generates error messages when trying to access Intel

Itanium 2 cells and display information about them when using PDC 22.1 and IPF 2.50/2.52.

However, upgrades to firmware and the nPartition Provider mentioned previously makes this

version of Partition Manager fully functional and capable of managing Intel Itanium 2 nPartitions.

If the upgrades are not possible, desirable, or practical, the alternatives that follow can be used

instead of Partition Manager on the nPartition running HP-UX 11i v1 December 2004 Release.

Alternatives to Running Partition Manager on HP-UX 11i v1 December 2004 Release with Firmware

PDC 22.1 and IPF 2.50/2.52