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

Planning Superdome Configurations
Rules and Guidelines for Configuring a Complex
Appendix A342
Checklist for High Availability
In many cases, best practices for high availability are the same as those
for performance, though the underlying reasons are different.
This section summarizes the recommendations in “Recommendations for
Cabling Crossbar Controllers (XBCs)” on page 324, “Choosing Cells for
Partitions” on page 325 and “Partitions, Cells and I/O Chassis” on page
333. Explanations are in those sections.
❏ Each cell should have at least eight memory DIMMs (Dual Inline
Memory Modules), for a minimum of 4 GB RAM per cell at first
release.
Processors and
Memory
❏ Each cell should have at least two active processors.
Cell Placement ❏ If a partition comprises four cells or fewer, all the cells should be
connected to the same crossbar.
❏ Do not configure partitions such that two or more partitions share the
same crossbar link.
Distributing
Resources
❏ Each partition should consist of at least two cells.
❏ Each partition should contain at least two viable core cells.
❏ Each cell should have at least two active CPUs.
❏ As far as possible, keep all the I/O chassis for a single partition in a
single CPU cabinet.
❏ If you are using an I/O expansion cabinet, make sure each partition
has at least one cell attached to core I/O inside the CPU cabinet.
❏ Put a core I/O card and a boot card in every I/O chassis.
❏ Within a partition, spread redundant cards across I/O chassis such
that if one I/O chassis fails, you still have sufficient connections to I/O
devices to run the system.
❏ Attach any critical disk device to cards in more than one I/O chassis,
and hence to more than one cell.
❏ Attach more than one cell in each partition to the network.