HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator's Guide (includes A.03.05 and A.04.05)

You can create, modify, and view the database contents using vPars commands at the Unix shell
level. See “Monitor and Shell Commands” (page 117). Because the format of the database is
proprietary, you must use only vPars commands to create, modify, and view the database.
Whenever you execute a vPars command from the Unix shell of a partition, the change is made
first to the Monitor’s master copy. Then, the operating system from which you executed the
command updates its local copy from the master copy. Every five seconds, the operating system
of each running partition automatically updates its local copy from the master copy. This
synchronization ensures that the virtual partitions and changes to the partition database are
preserved when the entire hard partition is rebooted.
NOTE: The Monitor can only synchronize to the database files of running virtual partitions. If
you reboot the hard partition, you should boot the Monitor from the boot disk of a virtual partition
that was running during your most recent partition configuration change.
Boot Sequence
This section describes the boot differences in a vPars system relative to a non-vPars system.
For information on the HP-UX boot process, ISL, SSL, EFI, and vmunix, see the HP-UX System
Administrator's Guide: Routine Management Tasks available at http://docs.hp.com and see also the
following manpages:
• boot(1M)
• efi(4)
• hpux(1M)
• hpux.efi(1M)
• isl(1M)
• pdc(1M)
• setboot(1M)
NOTE: This section describes a manual boot sequence to help explain how vPars impacts the
boot process, but you can continue to use an autoboot sequence to boot all partitions. See
“Autoboot” (page 159).
Boot Sequence: Quick Reference
On a server without vPars, a simplified boot sequence is as follows.
IntegrityPA-RISC
(Extensible Firmware Interface)1. EFI(Initial System Loader)1. ISL
(HP-UX boot loader)2. hpux.efi(secondary system loader)2. hpux
3. /stand/vmunix(kernel)3. /stand/vmunix
Adding vPars adds the Monitor layer, so now hpux(for Integrity, hpux.efi) loads the Monitor.
Then the Monitor boots the kernels of the virtual partitions. The boot sequence becomes the
following.
(firmware)
1. ISL or EFI
2. hpux or hpux.efi
(vPars Monitor and partition database)3. /stand/vpmon
(kernels of the virtual partitions)4. /stand/vmunix
32 How vPars and its Components Work