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

Planning Superdome Conﬁgurations

Building Blocks and Deﬁnitions

Appendix A292

What Is a Complex?

Terms:

• Active, inactive, unassigned cell: see “Active Cell” on page 309.

• Cell: see “What is a Cell?” on page 303.

• Core cell: see “Core Cell” on page 309.

• CPU cabinet; 32-way-capable system; 64-way-capable system:

see “What is a CPU Cabinet?” on page 299.

• Guardian Service Processor (GSP): see “What is the Guardian

Service Processor?” on page 296.

• iCOD: see “Instant Capacity on Demand (iCOD)” on page 307.

• Partition: see “What is a Partition?” on page 298.

• XBC: see “What is an XBC (Crossbar Controller)?” on page 312.

Full Glossary on page 287 .

A complex can be deﬁned as a single hardware conﬁguration that can

support more than one instance of an operating system (by means of

partitions).

• In hardware terms, a complex is the sum of all the hardware

resources in, and attached to, one or more CPU cabinets that are

cabled together.

• In software terms, it is the sum of all the partitions.

A maximum of two CPU cabinets (32-way-capable systems) can be

combined into a complex. This is done by cabling together the crossbars

(XBCs) from the two adjacent cabinets; this conﬁguration is called a

64-way-capable system.

The Complex Proﬁle

Information about the complex is stored in the complex proﬁle, which

is written by the commands used to conﬁgure thecomplex (and indirectly

by the Partition Manager (parmgr), which invokes those commands)

and maintained by the Guardian Service Processor (GSP).

The complex proﬁle is used by PDC (Processor Dependent Code), the

HP-UX kernel and the Partition Manager (parmgr), as well as by the

GSP. It consists of three parts: