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

HP-UX Handbook – Rev 13.00 Page 7 (of 46)
Chapter 17 Virtual Partitions (vPars)
October 29, 2013
To create or modify a virtual partition see section vPars commands or the online manuals at
http://docs.hp.com.
Virtual Console
The console device should be assigned to the first vPar (PA-RISC). All vPars share the same
console device. Each virtual partition has its own virtual console. You can use Ctrl-A to cycle
between all running vPars.
For PA-RISC based servers:
1. Each vPar has its console I/O sent to its vcn (Virtual Console) driver. The vcn driver
then sends the console I/O to the monitor.
2. From the vPars monitor, the console I/O is sent to the vcs (virtual console slave)
driver of the partition that owns the hardware console port.
3. Finally, the vcs driver sends the console I/O to the physical hardware console. It is
this vcs driver that manages the console I/O to the actual hardware console port.
The size of the circular buffer for the console output is 8K.
When the partition that owns the hardware console port is not running, the vPars monitor takes
the management of the I/O to the hardware console port and access is still available to the virtual
console displays.
On Integrity, the console is virtualized by the firmware (no vcs driver).