HP Instant Capacity for HP Integrity & HP 9000 Mid-range & Superdome Servers

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System and application software licenses
Some HP software products, such as HP-UX and HP Serviceguard, and many third-party software
products, such as Oracle® Database, are licensed based on the number of processors installed in the
system.
Most major software vendors are changing their licensing models to accommodate the current trend
toward dynamic changes in system resources. Many software vendors consider only activated
processors toward license prices, as long as users agree to upgrade their software licenses
accordingly if and when they activate more processors.
Contact your software vendors to determine the impact of installing and activating iCAP processors.
Warranty
The warranty on iCAP components is the same as the warranty on regularly purchased components
and starts when they are installed. After the warranty period expires, unactivated iCAP hardware is
covered by HP support services for any failure or problem that might occur before activation. After
iCAP components are activated, it is added to the system service contract as a standard component.
TiCAP includes system hardware and software support services while the iCAP processors are
temporarily activated.
Moving iCAP resources among servers
Unactivated iCAP physical components (iCAP processors, iCAP cell boards, and iCAP memory)
cannot be removed from the iCAP system in which they are installed. However, iCAP processors can
effectively be “moved” between partitions by moving the usage rights for those processors. This is
accomplished by deactivating processors in one partition and activating iCAP processors in another
partition.
This method cost-effectively balances application workload among partitions. Load balancing can be
done dynamically (see the ”Using HP-UX Workload Manager and HP Integrity Essentials Global
Workload Manager” section that follows) so system operation is not interrupted.
In addition, usage rights can be moved among servers in a GiCAP group by deactivating components
in one server and activating the equivalent iCAP components in other servers in the group.
Using HP-UX Workload Manager and HP Integrity Essentials Global
Workload Manager
The combination of iCAP, TiCAP, and GiCAP integrated with HP-UX Workload Manager (HP-UX
WLM) and HP Integrity Essentials Global Workload Manager (HP gWLM) is a powerful solution.
HP-UX WLM and HP gWLM reallocate idle resources between the partitions on the system and then
activate temporary capacity only when no idle processors are available.
Instant Capacity supports the ability to reallocate active processors among partitions while they are
running. HP-UX WLM and HP gWLM can be used to automate this process. HP-UX WLM and HP
gWLM monitor the load in each of the partitions and automatically deactivate idle processors in one
partition and activate iCAP processors in another if workloads in the other partition can use them.
Also, HP-UX WLM and HP gWLM can help take advantage of Instant Capacity through the
automation of TiCAP activation. HP-UX WLM and HP gWLM activate a processor core only if there is
a workload that needs it. They deactivate the processor core as soon as it becomes idle, thereby
minimizing the amount of time the cores are active. This functionality ensures the processors are active
for the minimum amount of time required to meet the needs of the specific workload, thereby saving
costs.