Implement high-availability solutions with HP Instant Capacity - easily and effectively
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The application startup time is slightly longer when compared to use of a typical Serviceguard package control script
that does not invoke TiCAP commands because of the overhead in sensing the status of the active system and activating
the inactive cores on the failover or failback system.
HP Global Workload Manager considerations
The TiCAP solution can also be automated using the HP Global Workload Manager (gWLM) product. With gWLM, the steps
are the same as the preceding section, except for the Serviceguard scripts. Instead of using the scripts to activate TiCAP,
you define gWLM policies to activate TiCAP whenever a Serviceguard package is present on a system. These gWLM
policies are known as conditional policies.
For more information on gWLM, see hp.com/go/hpux-wlm-docs.
HP GiCAP
GiCAP is an iCAP capability provided in iCAP version 10.05 or later along with HP Integrity Superdome 2 complex
firmware bundle version 2.51.102 or later on the OA. GiCAP extends and enhances the other types of iCAP by enabling
you to define a group of servers that can share iCAP resources such as core usage rights and temporary capacity. GiCAP
enables you to:
• Transfer core usage rights from a failed partition on one server to one or more partitions with inactive components on
other servers in the group
• Balance the load across servers in the group, by moving usage rights from a server with extra unused capacity to
another server that needs additional capacity
• Share optional TiCAP among all servers in the group, providing better flexibility and cost benefits
Every GiCAP group must be managed using software on an HP-UX system designated as the GiCAP Group Manager. The
GiCAP Group Manager can run on any HP-UX vPar, nPar, or stand-alone server running HP-UX 11i v3 or later. However, it
cannot run in a virtual machine. HP recommends that the Group Manager be on a server separate from the member
systems of the group; however this is not mandatory. In addition, you must install an HP-defined grouping rules file
indicating which server types can be grouped together that is available for downloaded from the
HP Utility Pricing Solutions portal.
Starting with iCAP version 10.05 or later and HP Integrity Superdome 2 complex firmware bundle version 2.51.102 or
later, you may also optionally define a standby Group Manager system that can be used to take over management of the
group if the active Group Manager should fail. Details about standby Group Managers are provided in “Recovery from a
failure involving the Group Manager” subsection.
As a GiCAP group can have members and Group Manager(s) located in different data centers, you can more easily
maintain business continuity in the event of a data center failure.
You must have iCAP software and hardware installed to take advantage of GiCAP. There is an additional purchase
required to share resources in a GiCAP group: one GiCAP sharing right is required for each iCAP core (each core without a
usage right) in the group.
For more information on creating GiCAP groups, see the HP Instant Capacity user’s guide located at:
hp.com/go/hp-icap-docs
Figure 6 shows a GiCAP group with two members and an active Group Manager named ap1. There is no standby
Group Manager. It has 24 inactive cores without usage rights across the group (8 on Server 1 and 16 on Server 2).
24 sharing rights are purchased for this group. Usage rights for processor cores can be shared in the group. The number
of sharing rights needed is based on the total number of cores without usage rights across all servers in the group.