HP Instant Capacity Version 10.x User Guide (762794-001, March 2014)

beyond the number of available core usage rights for the complex, but only for a limited period
of time.
NOTE: Unless a system participates in a GiCAP group (see Chapter 7), usage rights are
complexwide (single node for OpenVMS) only. If components are moved from one complex to
another, the counts of allowable active and inactive components do not change for either complex.
In particular, the number of “expected inactive” components of each type does not change if
components are removed. This means that the removal of inactive components from a complex
can cause that complex to be out of compliance with the iCAP contract because there are fewer
visible inactive components than the complex-wide count of components without usage rights. The
complex might even become unusable if, for example, enough other cores must be made inactive
to meet compliance resulting in insufficient active cores to have at least one active core per
configured cell.
Cell boards and memory
iCAP offers you a way to have additional (inactive) cell-board capacity in your system for growing
business needs. When the need arises, these cell boards, which contain memory and cores, are
available for instant activation and use after reboot or cell online activation when additional
cell-board usage rights are purchased from HP and an RTU codeword is applied. As with cores,
the iCAP software enforces compliance by comparing the number of actual inactive cells with the
expected number of inactive cells (the number of cells without usage rights for the entire complex).
The cell-board, memory, and core usage rights are tracked separately. To activate an iCAP cell,
you must acquire sufficient cell usage rights, and sufficient memory usage rights to enable all the
memory attached to the cell. You cannot activate a cell board without activating all attached
memory, so when you purchase an RTU for a cell you need to purchase an RTU for the cell’s
memory. These are normally bundled together in a single purchase.
Depending on the need, you might want to activate one or more cores at the same time the cell
and memory are activated, so you might also need to acquire additional core usage rights. After
a cell board is activated, all of the cores on the cell board are available for activation if the complex
has enough available core usage rights or temporary capacity. Since usage rights for all types of
components can be conveyed with a single RTU codeword, it is particularly useful to anticipate
the core and memory needs when purchasing cell-board usage rights.
As with other components, the iCAP software enforces compliance for memory by comparing the
actual amount of inactive memory with the expected inactive memory.
IMPORTANT: You must have one active core for each active cell board.
GiCAP
GiCAP provides HP customers with the flexibility to move usage rights for iCAP components within
a group of servers. It also provides “pooled” temporary capacity across the group. This provides
more cost-effective high availability, including disaster recovery capabilities, more adaptable load
balancing, and more efficient and easier use of temporary capacity.
GiCAP is built on the concept of a server group, or GiCAP group. A GiCAP group is a list of
servers that are allowed to share iCAP usage rights. In addition, at least one HP-UX system running
iCAP must be designated as the GiCAP Group Manager. The Group Manager hosts the GiCAP
software that maintains a database of information about the group and about group resources
(usage rights and temporary capacity). A GiCAP group is managed using the command
icapmanage on the Group Manager system.
While GiCAP is part of iCAP and is installed at the same time as iCAP, it is not enabled during
installation. To create groups and share resources across groups, you must purchase GiCAP sharing
rights, acquire the GiCAP codeword from the HP Utility Pricing Solutions portal, and apply the
associated codeword to the Group Manager system. Application of the sharing rights codeword
GiCAP 25