HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator Guide (includes A.05.08) (5900-1312, March 2011)

• Ignite-UX and other Curses Applications
On the virtual console, when using applications that use curses, such as the terminal versions
of Ignite-UX and SAM, do not press Ctrl-A to toggle to the console display window of another
virtual partition while you are still within the curses application. This is especially applicable
when you are using vparboot -Iand the Ignite-UX application to install vPars. For more
information on curses, see the curses_intro(3X) manpage.
As with most curses applications, if you get a garbled display, you can press Ctrl-L to refresh
the display.
• ServiceGuard
ServiceGuard is supported with vPars. However, because ServiceGuard is used to guard
against hardware failures as well as software failures, its functionality will be reduced if a
cluster includes multiple virtual partitions within the same server. Such configurations are not
recommended. See the ServiceGuard documentation for more information on running
ServiceGuard with vPars.
• UPS (uninterruptible power supply) software
UPS hardware communicates with UPS software via the serial port. By default, a hard partition
has only one serial port. For a hard partition that runs vPars, the serial port can be owned by
at most one virtual partition. Therefore, on the hard partition, the UPS can communicate with
only the virtual partition that owns the serial port.
Alternately, the HP PowerTrust II-MR UPS product can be configured across virtual partitions
using network connections, providing all the virtual partitions reside on the same network.
• Processor Sets
(vPars A.03.xx and earlier) You cannot specify a hardware path for an unbound CPU.
Therefore, to avoid unintentionally removing unbound CPUs from a non-default pset, initially
create the partition that will be running Processor Sets using only bound CPUs. Then, when
you add or remove an unbound CPU, the unbound CPU will be added to or removed from
only the default pset.
• Glance and Openview Performance Agent (MeasureWare)
For correct reporting of processor utilization, you need to run Glance and MeasureWare
versions C.03.35. or higher.
• Real-time clock (RTC)
Fixed in A.03.03 and later, A.04.01 and later:
The vPars Monitor keeps track of the OS time for each virtual partition relative to the real-time
clock. The OS time is the time that is changed via the set_parms or date commands.
However, you can change the real-time clock at the BCH prompt or at the vPars Monitor
prompt (MON>). If you change the real-time clock, you need to run the vPars Monitor command
toddriftreset to reset the drifts relative to the real-time clock. For information on the vPars
Monitor commands, see “vPars Monitor: Using vPars Monitor Commands” (page 133).
Booting the machine into standalone mode from a boot disk which had its OS time ahead of
the RTC will advance the RTC. If the machine is then booted into a vPars environment, the OS
time of all the virtual partitions will be advanced. Administrators should ensure that the RTC
is adjusted accordingly before booting the machine from standalone mode into a vPars
environment and vice versa.
• SCSI Initiator ID
For vPars A.03.xx and earlier: the SCSI Initiator ID is the ID of the SCSI controller. Although
you can display and set SCSI parameters for the SCSI controller at the BCH prompt, you can
22 Introduction