Managing Superdome Complexes: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Booting and Resetting Superdome Partitions
Planning and Configuring Partition Boot Settings
Chapter 5236
The auto-start option specifies what occurs when any of a partition’s
components (processors or memory) fails self-test. By default,
AUTOSTART is OFF, causing the partition to stop at the BCH
interface following a self-test failure. If AUTOSTART is ON then the
partition proceeds with the normal boot behavior following a failure.
The normal partition boot behavior is for the partition to perform the
boot action for each boot path, as necessary, in the order of path
priorities (PRI first, then HAA, and finally ALT). The boot action
determines what action is performed for the path when booting: go to
the BCH interface, attempt to boot HP-UX from the path, or skip the
path.
After you have set a path’s boot action to “boot from this path”, the
the partition will automatically attempt to boot HP-UX from the path
the next time the partition boots and references the path.
You can stop the partition from automatically booting, and instead
access the BCH interface, by pressing any key within ten seconds.
The partition’s BCH menu is made available when all paths and boot
actions do not boot HP-UX, and whenever AUTOSTART is OFF and
one of the partition’s components fails self-test. In either case you can
manually boot HP-UX using the BCH interface’s menus.
• Core Cell—The core cell is the cell that “runs” the partition before
it boots HP-UX. A processor on the core cell serves as the monarch
processor that runs Boot Console Handler (BCH). Also, the core cell is
the one whose core I/O card is active for the partition.
You can designate one core cell and up to three core cell alternates,
which are used as the core cell if the designated primary core cell
fails.
Designating a different core cell does not alter the partition’s boot
behavior but can have high-availability implications (for example, if
Primary Boot Path: 0/0/1/0/0.8
Boot Actions: Boot from this path.
If unsuccessful, go to BCH.
Attempting to boot using the primary path.
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To discontinue, press any key within 10 seconds.