Top Ten Tips for Using Virtual Partitions

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Top Ten Tips for using Virtual Partitions

A white paper from HP

Alan E. Hymes

Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 3

#1 – Kernel Memory Allocation (HP9000 only) ....................................................................................... 3

Symptoms: Performance, Functionality ................................................................................................ 3

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 3

#2 – nPars and vPars Mode (Integrity only)............................................................................................. 3

Symptoms: Functionality.................................................................................................................... 3

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 4

#3 – Memory Granularity and Booting................................................................................................... 4

Symptoms: Functionality.................................................................................................................... 4

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 4

#4 – Memory Granularity and Performance............................................................................................ 5

Symptoms: Performance.................................................................................................................... 5

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 5

#5 – Number of vPars and Cells per nPar............................................................................................... 5

Symptoms: Supportability.................................................................................................................. 5

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 5

#6 – Mixing vPar and HP-UX release versions......................................................................................... 6

Symptoms: Supportability.................................................................................................................. 6

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 6

#7 – vPars and I/O Interrupt Processing................................................................................................. 6

Symptoms: Performance.................................................................................................................... 6

Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 7

#8 – Memory Overhead with vPars ....................................................................................................... 7

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
Top Ten Tips for using Virtual Partitions A white paper from HP Alan E. Hymes Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 3 #1 – Kernel Memory Allocation (HP9000 only) ....................................................................................... 3 Symptoms: Performance, Functionality ................................................................................................
PAGE 2
Symptoms: Performance, Functionality ................................................................................................ 7 Prevention and Suggestions............................................................................................................... 7 #9 – vPars and Securepath ................................................................................................................... 7 Symptoms: Performance, Supportability ......................................................
PAGE 3
Introduction HP-UX Virtual Partitions (vPars) has been available for about six years now. During this time most of the features and “rules” have not changed. However with more and more customers deploying vPars especially in a production environment there are implementation considerations. These are often overlooked when upgrading or expanding existing servers that are already running vPars.
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vPar’s usage, there are only two modes: • vPars - sets the next nPartition boot to boot into the vPars environment. This allows you to boot the vPars Monitor and therefore the virtual partitions in the next nPartition boot. You still need to boot the vPars Monitor and the virtual partitions, but this mode allows you to do this. • nPars - sets the next nPartition boot to boot into the standalone environment. In this mode, you cannot boot the vPars Monitor and therefore the virtual partitions.
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#4 – Memory Granularity and Performance Symptoms: Performance Coming up with a suitable granule size Prevention and Suggestions If your system (or nPartition) contains a large amount of memory (32 GB or more), you should consider the following when setting the granularity size: (a) VM performance: Virtual Memory subsystem in the OS cannot create pages bigger than the granule size. Run-time performance will be better on systems with higher page size.
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#6 – Mixing vPar and HP-UX release versions Symptoms: Supportability Each system (on supported non-cell based) and each nPar (on supported cell based) has only one vPar Monitor running which manages all of the vPars in that partition. And each vPar has its own isolated Operating System. Due to the architecture of vPars and specific operating system functionality, there is a supported vPar version to OS version relationship that must be followed.
PAGE 7
Prevention and Suggestions In vPars releases prior to A.04 the only way to increase the I/O interrupt processing is to add additional bound CPUs. This does require a reboot of the vPar that is changing. In vPars A.04 and A.05, all vPars start out able to handle I/O interrupt processing. However when CPUs are deleted online, interrupts are migrated out. But when CPUs are added online, interrupts are not automatically redistributed. With A.04 and A.
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• • • • • Install PHKL_33581 Install vPars vparcreate, install and boot individual partitions Make sure PHKL_33851 is installed on each partition Install Securepath in each partition This order is necessary to overcome a Securepath limitation. #10 – vPars and OLAR Symptoms: Functionality OLAR IS supported with vPars, just as it is on stand alone HP-UX systems.