HP-UX Reference (11i v1 05/09) - 5 Miscellaneous Topics (vol 9)

v
vparresources(5) vparresources(5)
NAME
vparresources - description of virtual partition resources and their requirements
DESCRIPTION
Hardware resources are the most important property of a virtual partition (vPar). These resources are
divided into three major categories:
• CPUs, or processors
• Memory
• I/O devices, such as disks, terminals, tapes and printers.
CPUs are further subdivided into bound and unbound processors. A bound processor is interrupt-enabled
and, at initial release, cannot be de-configured while the vPar is running. An unbound, or floating, proces-
sor cannot process interrupts, but can be de-configured from a running vPar, and assigned to another run-
ning vPar.
Each vPar OS assigns a processor number of zero for its boot processor irrespective of the processor’s
hardware path or what its processor number would have been if the OS had booted in the nPar. The boot
processor is the first processor to be activated when the vPar is booted, and is the one on which all boot
time activity takes place. It is assigned this responsibility by the vPar monitor.
Each vPar can configure a subset of total system hardware resources such that a given physical resource is
assigned to at most one vPar. This job is managed by two of the six virtual partition commands:
• vparcreate(1M), used when creating a new vPar. Resources can only be added.
• vparmodify(1M), used when modifying an existing vPar configuration. Resources can be added,
modified, or deleted.
Each command has specific resource syntax and semantic requirements. For example, some resource
changes can only be made if the target vPar is not running. Some syntax forms can be specified once.
Additionally, beginning in vPars version A.02.02, there are specific hardware path format rules to follow
that did not exist when using previous versions of vPars. All of these are described in the tables below.
The general form of a resource specification is up to five positional fields delimited by colons (":"). No whi-
tespace is allowed within any field.
Table I summarizes the three categories and all the allowable forms for each.
Table II specifies which forms are allowed for each of the three tasks (add, modify, or delete).
Table III is a detailed description of each syntax form and the conditions required for its use.
Table IV is a description of the hardware path format rules.
Table I. Resource Syntax Summary
Resource Form # times/command
CPU cpu:path Multiple
cpu::num Once
cpu:::[min][:[max]] Once
I/O io:path[:attr1[,attr2]] Multiple
Memory mem::size Once
mem:::base:range Multiple
The first field is always one of the (case-insensitive) strings cpu, io,or
mem.
The second field, when used, is a hardware path, for example,
10/12/6.
num, min, and max are all positive integers.
size and range are positive 64-bit integers in units of megabytes. base is an unsigned 64-bit integer in units
of bytes. The commands round each of them upward as required to 64 megabyte boundaries. size, range,
and base may each be specified in decimal or in hexadecimal. A hex specification should be preceded by 0x,
as in 0x8000000.
The attributes for the I/O specification are zero, one, or many of the following (case-insensitive) strings:
ALTBOOT, BOOT and TAPE. If more than one are specified, separate them with a comma.
Each of the attributes can be assigned to no more than one I/O device. If it is already assigned to a device,
a new assignment silently de-assigns it from its present device. However, one device can associate with
HP-UX 11i Version 1: September 2005 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company Section 5−−385