HP-UX HB v13.00 Ch-17 - vPars

HP-UX Handbook – Rev 13.00 Page 5 (of 46)
Chapter 17 Virtual Partitions (vPars)
October 29, 2013
Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the Virtual Partitions (vPars) product. Virtual Partitions
(vPars) is not included with the HP-UX operating system. The detailed product information can
be found at http://docs.hp.com/:
 HP-UX Virtual Partitions Ordering and Configuration Guide
 Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual Partitions
 Read Before Installing HP-UX Virtual Partitions
 HP-UX Virtual Partitions Release Notes
 Whitepapers
Virtual Partitions Environment, vpmon and vpdb
Virtual Partitions (vPars) allows you to run multiple instances of HP-UX on the same node. The
instances of HP-UX are fully isolated from each other. Each partition is assigned its own subset
of hardware. Each virtual partition (vPar) may have a different patch level of the operating
system.
Virtual partitions use dedicated resources. When assigned to a vPar, a resource is exclusively
owned by it. I/O and memory are allocated to a booting kernel by the vPars monitor. All CPUs
not assigned to a vPar kernel reside in a CPU float pool; CPUs can be assigned temporarily to a
running vPar kernel from the pool.
vPars administration can be performed on any vPar on the same hard partition as the superuser’s
local vPar.
The major difference when running virtual partitions is the additional layer of low-level control
software called the vPars monitor (vpmon). It is stored in /stand on the boot device of every
virtual partition and it is loaded before starting a partition running HP-UX. The monitor enables
the system to run vPars. If the monitor is not started, the original kernel can be booted as well.
Then, only one instance of HP-UX can be run without the vPars monitor.
vpmon runs on the processor elected as nPar’s “monarch” early in the boot sequence. The
monarch is usually the first CPU – logical CPU 0; ioscan or vpmon’s scan command can help
identify the monarch.
The following picture shows the Monitor: