Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual Partitions (includes A.04.01)

How vPars and its Components Work
Virtual Consoles
Chapter 2
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It is not deterministic which virtual partition will be active with the physical console when
multiple virtual partitions are booted.
• Switchover Pause with Shutting Down
When the virtual partition that owns the hardware console port is shut down, there will be
a pause of console output (the system is not hung) as console IO management switches over
from the virtual partition to the vPars Monitor. Console output resumes automatically after
the pause. You will not lose any console output. During the switchover period, no console
input is accepted.
For rp7400/N4000 and rp5470/L3000 servers, the pause can be from ten to twenty seconds.
For Superdome and other nPartitionable servers, the switchover pause can be minutes,
depending on the amount of memory owned by the virtual partition that owns the
hardware console port.
• Switchover Pause during the Crash State
Whenever the virtual partition that owns the hardware console port is in the crash state,
the switchover pause will occur and remain as long as the virtual partition is in this crash
state. For more information on the crash state, see the vparstatus (1M) manpage and
“Commands: Displaying Monitor and Resource Information (vparstatus)” on page 111.
• GSPdiag1 device file
The GSPdiag1 device file (/dev/GSPdiag1) can only be accessed from the virtual partition
that contains the console hardware port.
• Terminal Emulation
To avoid display problems, be sure that the terminal setting of the GSP on the vPars server
matches the terminal or terminal emulator that you are using to access it. For details on
how to do this, see “Setting the GSP Terminal Type” on page 71.
• Ignored Keyboard Input (A.03.xx only)
There is one known case where the virtual console will ignore keyboard input (data sent to
the console continues to be displayed; only keyboard input is ignored). This occurs when the
virtual partition that owns the hardware console port is down and the CPU with the lowest
hardware path is not assigned to any virtual partition. When this CPU is migrated to a
running virtual partition, the console will not accept any keyboard input.
You can do either of the following to resolve the problem:
— From a running partition, reset the partition that owns the hardware console port by
executing vparreset -p target_partition -h, where target_partition is the
partition that owns the hardware console port.
— From a running partition, boot the partition that owns the hardware console port by
executing vparboot -p target_partition, where target_partition is the partition
that owns the hardware console port
If no other virtual partitions are accessible, you must reboot the server or nPartition in
order to regain console input.
• Toggling Past the Monitor Prompt (A.03.xx only)
When the monarch CPU of the server is not assigned to any partition, you will see the
Monitor prompt. Press Ctrl-A to cycle to the console window of the next partition.