HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 Release Notes HP-UX 11i v3 (September 2011 Update and Later) on HP Integrity Server Blade HP Part Number: 5900-1904 Published: January 2012 Edition: 2.
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Contents 1 Introduction...............................................................................................4 Overview................................................................................................................................4 HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 – the new virtual partitions management model....................................4 2 How does vPars v6.0 differ from its earlier versions.........................................
1 Introduction HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 (vPars v6.0) is the new generation of HP-UX Virtual Partitions product family. This new version expands vPars functionality to the Integrity blade servers. vPars v6.0 provides workload flexibility through the ability to add and remove CPUs from a running virtual partition. Virtualized I/O in vPars v6.
2 How does vPars v6.0 differ from its earlier versions To improve management of virtual partitions, in vPars v6.0 the management of virtual partitions is converged under an overall management framework founded on the HP Integrity Virtual Machines (Integrity VM) management software. The new framework expands the functionality of vPars to Integrity blades. This section briefly describes some of the major differences.
EFI – access via console In vPars v6.0, you can access the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) of any virtual partition from its own console. You can modify the EFI environment of a virtual partition from within the EFI shell. Moreover, this EFI supports the creation of direct boot profiles (dbprofiles) allowing the deployment of HP-UX via an Ignite server. CPU and memory – locality aware assignment In vPars v6.
3 HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 features and advantages The management of virtual partitions is now converged under an overall framework, which you can access from the VSP. vPars v6.0 features Installation • Ignite-UX support for installing HP-UX on vPars User interface • HP SMH GUI tool HP Integrity Virtual Server Manager for virtual partition configuration and management • CLI (vPars v6.
Other features • Virtual partitions can act as Serviceguard nodes, allowing failover of Serviceguard packages from one virtual partition to another node. • Because each instance of HP-UX is isolated from all other instances, vPars provides application and Operating System (OS) fault isolation. Software-related kernel panics 1, resource exhaustion failures, and reboots are done in isolation in one virtual partition. These do not affect any other virtual partition.
Embedded LORA functionality The vPars v6.0 VSP comes with embedded Locally Optimized Reference Architecture (LORA) functionality that automatically assigns the best available resources (CPU and memory) to an activating vPar. The vPar commands are simplified to only accept a count for CPU and size for memory when assigning resources. Hyperthreading enabled for high overall performance Hyperthreading is a server-wide setting. vPars v6.0 sets hyperthreading to enabled.
4 Ordering and licensing HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 The HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 (vPars v6.0) product is sold on a Per Socket License basis. Therefore, you purchase the same quantity of this product as the number of processor sockets in your system that will be running vPars. If you later add additional processor sockets, you must also purchase the corresponding number of per-socket licenses of vPars v6.0. NOTE: Every active CPU socket requires its own vPars v6.0 license. Ordering vPars v6.
Firmware The latest available firmware for the blade server can be installed. Firmware bundle 2011.05 is the minimum requirement. I/O I/O cards vPars v6.0 supports the following I/O cards: • • LOMs (lan on motherboard) ◦ P410i Smart Array Controller ◦ Broadcom 57711e ◦ Intel 1G Mezzanine slots ◦ SA P700M/512 Controller ◦ 4 port 1000BT ◦ 2 port 1000BT ◦ 10GbE HP BLc NC532m NIC Adapter ◦ 2 port 8Gb Qlogic ◦ 2 port 8Gb Emulex ◦ CNA NOTE: Only Qlogic cards support NPIV.
WLM version When using vPars, WLM, and iCAP on the same server, you will need the following minimum versions: • vPars v6.0 • WLM A.03.00 or later • iCAP B.06.01 or later for servers For detailed information on WLM compatibilities including required versions, see the WLM release notes available at http://www.hp.com/go/wlm. NOTE: The customers who need Oracle HAIP functionality must use Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.3 and get a patch from Oracle support for Bug 10114953.
5 Installing HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 Installation requirements You can create virtual partitions on the VSP after installing the HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 BB068AA bundle and VirtualBase from a distribution media. Table 3 (page 13) lists the software products required to be installed on the VSP and on the vPars.
BB068AA VirtualBase 3. 4. 5. 6. Allow HP-UX to boot. Configure the VSP. For information about what must be done, see “Configuring the Virtualization Services Platform (VSP)” (page 14) Create one or more virtual switches using the vparnet command. Create virtual partitions on the VSP after HP-UX boots. Use the vparcreate and vparmodify commands to create and modify vPars on the VSP. For information about configuring VSP, see the “Configuring the Virtualization Services Platform (VSP)” (page 14).
1. Install all necessary hardware. Add any required mezzanine cards. NOTE: It is not necessary to purchase and populate separate network and storage mezzanine cards for each vPar, because shared I/O, such as vswitches and NPIV support sharing of the hardware across multiple partitions. Add DIMMS, as desired, to ensure that there is enough memory for both the VSP and the vPars. 2. Verify the number of cores and memory available for vPars using the vparhwmgmt command.
IMPORTANT: If the system is brought down due to a faulty CPU core and the cores are deconfigured, the vPars might not boot during the subsequent boot of the VSP. This is possible if the sum of the remaining cores is less than the sum of the cores allocated to the VSP and vPars as displayed from the vparhwmgmt command. You can clear this condition by removing the cores from the vPars or VSP to meet the configuration requirements.
# vparmodify -p1 -m cpu::2 # vparboot -p1 (C) Copyright 2000 - 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. ... Daemonizing.... vparboot: Successful start initiation of vPar or VM 'hptem142' # In this example, let us assume that the VSP is allocated 1 core and the remaining 7 cores are allocated to vPars, and a CPU is deconfigured (which has 4 cores) due to a hardware issue. After you boot the VSP, only 3 CPU cores will be available. vPars with more than 3 CPUs will not be bootable.
6 Known behaviors and workarounds Table 5 (page 18) describes problems currently known to occur while using vPars v6.0. Table 5 Known behaviors in vPars v6.0 Problem Description / action When the requirements for satisfying Locality-Optimized Resource Alignment (LORA) configuration are not met, a message is displayed. Resources for a given vPar are chosen (as part of the vPar's boot up sequence) based on the resource availability and locality considerations.
Table 5 Known behaviors in vPars v6.0 (continued) Problem Description / action CPU OLD policy The vPars v6 product supports dynamic CPU addition and deletion. The selection criteria for CPU addition are performed from within the VSP based on LORA policies. The selection criteria for CPU deletion is performed from within the HP-UX instance that is target of the CPU deletion.
Table 5 Known behaviors in vPars v6.0 (continued) Problem Description / action is no longer needed, the additional core can be moved from the VSP pool to the vPar pool. NPIV LUNs not shown by default invocation of ioscan An ioscan issued from within a vPar does not display any LUNs behind the NPIV HBA unless the –N option is specified. The ioscan command without the –N option only displays devices that use the old style device file format.
Table 5 Known behaviors in vPars v6.0 (continued) Problem Description / action vPar hangs during reboot A vPar may hang indefinitely during boot without any indication of the cause (This is a very rare occurrence). If a vparstatus is issued, the vPar in question may show a state of ATTN which is a visual indication that the vPar is unresponsive. The ATTN state is only displayed for vPars that have been unresponsive for a period of time.
Table 5 Known behaviors in vPars v6.0 (continued) Problem Description / action Interrupt balancing daemon is disabled in vPars v6.0 Frequent interrupt migration on the vPar can lead to storage LUNs going offline. This can occur indirectly when dynamic CPU migration occurs on a frequent basis when the interrupt balancing daemon is enabled. What to do The interrupt balancing daemon is disabled by default. Do not enable the interrupt balancing daemon.
7 Support and other resources Contacting HP Before you contact HP Be sure to have the following information available before you contact HP: • Technical support registration number (if applicable) • Product serial number • Product model name and number • Product identification number • Applicable error message • Add-on boards or hardware • Third-party hardware or software • Operating system type and revision level HP contact information For the name of the nearest HP authorized reseller: •
Table 6 Related documentation Document Website HP-UX Virtual Partitions v6.0 Administrator Guide www.hp.com/go/hpux-vpars-docs HP-UX vPars 6.0 N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) (whitepaper) www.hp.com/go/hpux-vpars-docs • HP Integrity Virtual Server Manager User Guide http://www.hp.com/go/matrixoe/docs and http://www.hp.
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