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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a

vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / TAPE /

Network

Version 2.0 11/05/05

I. Introduction

This white paper provides an explanation of the supported methods on how Virtual Partitions (vPars) can be

created and booted. It also provides an explanation of sharing boot devices. This is not intended to

replace the existing customer viewable document titled “Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual

Partitions” on the http://docs.hp.com

website. This is intended to explain how you can use

DVD/CDROM/Tape to create virtual partitions, when you can do it, and why it isn’t supported under

certain conditions.

II. Technology and Notes

Throughout this document there will be reference to “vPars Environments” and “non-vPars Environments”.

The key distinction is whether the vPars Monitor is running or not. When the vPars Monitor is NOT running,

then you are in a standard non-vPars environment. When the vPars Monitor is running, then you are in a

vPars environment, even if there is only one virtual partition.

There will also be references to vpars and potential vpars. Remember, just because there is an OS and the

vPars software is installed, it is not an active vpar. With an OS and vPars software installed, it is a

potential vpar, meaning the boot disk has the capabilities (i.e. potential) of being booted as a vpar. A

potential vpar becomes an active vpar when the OS has been booted WHILE the vPars Monitor is running.

Without the vPars Monitor running, the boot disk is a standard HP-UX boot disk with the vPars software

installed but not running.

For brevity, a virtual partition may be typed here as “vpar” and virtual partitions as “vpars” (all lowercase

letters). The product and software bundle name may be typed as “vPars” (with the “P” capitialized as in

other outbound information).

A. CD or CDROM – refers to Compact Disc or Compact Disc – Read Only Memory

B. DVD – refers to Digital Video Disc

C. DAT or DDS – refers to Digital Audio Tape or Digital Data Storage (Tape Drives)

D. PDC – Processor Dependant Code (firmware)

E. HBA – Host Bus Adaptor

F. BCH – Boot Console Handler

Alan Hymes, Solution Architect, America’s Presales

Summary of content (6 pages)

PAGE 1
Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / TAPE / Network 1 Version 2.0 I. 11/05/05 Introduction This white paper provides an explanation of the supported methods on how Virtual Partitions (vPars) can be created and booted. It also provides an explanation of sharing boot devices. This is not intended to replace the existing customer viewable document titled “Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual Partitions” on the http://docs.hp.com website.
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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / Tape / Network III. Booting to Install (CD/DVD, tape, and network boot servers) The standard devices such as CD, DVD, TAPE, and Network are all supported for the creation of HP-UX boot disks and may be used to boot install media to begin the installation process for installing HP-UX and the vPars software bundle onto potential vpar boot disks. Remember that a vPars environment begins with standard HP-UX boot disks.
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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / Tape / Network b) Installing/Creating subsequent boot disks and/or potential vpars (1) Option1: Installing from outside of vPars (non-vPars environment) You can install additional boot disks and potential vpars outside of a vPars environment serially using the cold install method to create additional boot disks, each with the potential of being an active vpar.
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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / Tape / Network environment doesn’t have an OS yet if you’re using this option; therefore there are no drivers available. (iii) Kernel: You can not use the kernel from another vpar since neither the kernels nor the boot disks are shared among vpars. (b) Starting with A.03.03 and A.04.02 for PA-systems: You Can Install Subsequent Boot Disks using TAPE Drives from within a vPars Environment.
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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / Tape / Network a) Prior to A.03.03 and A.04.02, a vpar may be recovered from a tape image. However this must be done from the BCH or EFI. Recovering a vpar from a tape image can not be done while the system is up and running, similar to the cold install method. So if you have one or more vpars to recover, you must bring the system down, recover one vpar, bring the system down again, and recover another vpar, and so on.
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Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD / CDROM / Tape / Network vpar1# exportfs /cdrom vpar2# mount vpar1:/cdrom /cdrom C. Tape Drives For Tape Drives, you cannot mount them, but standard HP-UX shell commands may be used to remotely transfer data to a Tape drive from one vpar across the network to another vpar.