HP-UX 11i December 2001 Release Notes

Chapter 2
27
2 nPartition (Hard Partition) Systems
Introduction
new at
11i original release
Hewlett-Packard’s new nPartition (hard partition) servers provide highly configurable,
high-performance HP-UX system environments.
Currently, HP supports hard partitions on the following servers:
• HP Superdome 16-way (model 9000/800/SD16000)
• HP Superdome 32-way (model 9000/800/SD32000)
• HP Superdome 64-way (model 9000/800/SD64000)
• HP rp8400 server (model 9000/800/S16K-A)
The ability to create hard partitions allows you to configure a single nPartition server as
either one large system or as multiple smaller systems. Because hard partitions are
managed through software, you can reconfigure a server without physically modifying
the server’s hardware configuration.
As a result, an nPartition server can run multiple instances of the 11i operating system
on a single server. This capability is accomplished by defining multiple partitions within
an nPartition server.
Each partition definition establishes a subset of a server’s hardware resources that are
to be used as a system environment for booting a single instance of HP-UX.
All processors, memory, and I/O in a partition are available exclusively to the software
running in the partition. Thus, each partition runs a single instance of the Boot Console
Handler (BCH) interface and HP-UX.
You can reconfigure partitions to include more, fewer, and/or different hardware
resources, but this will require shutting down the operating system running in the
partition and resetting the partition as part of reconfiguring it.
For specific task-oriented information on using the original HP-UX 11i release on HP
Superdome servers, refer to Managing Superdome Complexes: A Guide for HP-UX
System Administrators, part number B2355-90702, available on the HP-UX 11i Instant
Information CD or on HP’s documentation web site (http://docs.hp.com).
For current details on using HP-UX 11i on all nPartition servers, refer to the HP System
Partitions Guide: Administration for nPartitions, part number B2355-90744.