HP Superdome 2 Partitioning Administrator Guide (5900-2540, December 2012)

from all assigned I/O devices in the lowest numbered device bay (blade) and lowest numbered
I/O bay (IOX) for the partition. To reduce boot time, I/O devices from other bays are not connected.
This occurs before displaying the UEFI Front Page. For example, a partition (vPar) is created by
assigning processors and memory from blade1/1, and I/O is assigned from blades 1/2 and 1/3,
and I/O bays 5/1 and 5/2. For this partition, blade 1/2 is the lowest numbered device bay from
which the I/O is assigned to the partition, and I/O bay 5/1 is the lowest numbered I/O bay from
which the I/O is assigned to the partition. UEFI will load and connect drivers to I/O devices
assigned from blade 1/2 and I/O bay 5/1.
Figure 23 UEFI Front Page
From the UEFI Shell, the ‘search’ command is available to manually connect devices in a specific
I/O bay or even a specific I/O slot. Other device connection commands like ‘connect’ and
‘reconnect’ are also available from the UEFI Shell.
Considering that device connection policies are retained in the default settings (see Device
Connection Policies), in a second boot scenario (reset from UEFI or OS) with fast_init ON, I/O
devices are not connected before displaying the UEFI Front Page. Typically, automatic boot entry
execution is enabled which launches the boot options. When a boot option is launched, UEFI loads
and connects drivers for that device, reducing the boot time to the minimum. If the Device Manager,
Boot Maintenance Manager, or UEFI Shell is launched, UEFI loads and connects drivers for all
assigned I/O devices in the lowest numbered device bay and lowest numbered I/O bay for the
partition. Then it loads and connects drivers for all boot options (some of which might be in other
device or I/O bays in the partition).
If fast_init is ever turned OFF, all I/O devices are connected before displaying the UEFI Front Page.
Turning fast_init OFF is not recommended because this might result in a much slower boot time,
for the partitions with a significant amount of assigned I/O.
Device Connection Policies
On Superdome 2, a configurable device connection policy solution is available, which allows you
to modify the default UEFI I/O device connection scheme. When fast_init is ON, the ‘ioconfig’
command can be used to view and change the device connection policies. For more help on using
the ‘ioconfig’ command, run ‘help ioconfig’ from the UEFI Shell. There are two policies, minimal
and expanded.
56 Booting and resetting Partitions (nPartitions and vPars)