Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual Partitions (A.01.01)

Introduction
What Is vPars?
Chapter 112
A virtual partition is a software partition of a computer or hard partition
where each virtual partition contains an instance of HP-UX. Though a
hard partition can contain multiple virtual partitions, the inverse is not
true. A virtual partition cannot span a hard partition boundary.
Product Features
• A single L3000 or N-class computer can be divided into multiple
virtual partitions.
• Each virtual partition runs its own instance of HP-UX. Thus,
different applications or multiple instances of the same application
can run indifferent partitions onthe same computer at the same time
without conflicts.
• Each virtual partition is assigned its own resources (CPU, memory,
and I/O), so there are no resource conflicts between virtual partitions.
• Virtual partitions can be on different operating system releases and
patch levels.
• Virtual partitions can be individually reconfigured and rebooted (for
patches and other changes that require a reboot).
• Users on one partition cannot access files or file systems on other
partitions (unless the file systems are NFS-mounted or access is
otherwise given through networking). Further, users configured on
one partition does not imply a presence on any other partition.
• Software-related kernel panics
1
, resource exhaustion failures, and
subsequent reboots in one virtual partition do not affect any other
virtual partition.
• CPUs can be added to or removed from a virtual partition without
rebooting.
1. Except if the vPars software product itself panics.