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

NOTE: TiCAP cannot be used to activate inactive iCAP cell boards or memory. To activate cores
on an inactive cell board, you must first activate the cell board and its memory either by using
newly purchased cell and memory usage rights or by deactivating a cell board and memory
elsewhere in the server.
Your temporary capacity balance is decreased only when you are using more cores than normally
allowed by your available core usage rights. The charge against temporary capacity is not
associated with specific cores or partitions. That is, if you use temporary capacity to activate one
core in partition A, and then you deactivate any core in partition B, the complex stops using
temporary capacity.
The iCAP software uses the debiting of temporary capacity to track the noncompliance of a system,
as described in “iCAP compliance and enforcement” (page 27).
TiCAP can be added to an iCAP system by purchasing and applying a temporary capacity
codeword (available from the Utility Pricing Solutions portal) using the icapmodify -C command.
The icapstatus command provides information about the amount of temporary capacity time
remaining on the complex.
For more information about temporary capacity, see Chapter 5: “TiCAP” (page 52). For a discussion
of temporary capacity in a GiCAP group, see Chapter 7.
iCAP compliance and enforcement
The iCAP software primarily maintains complexwide information about the usage rights and
activation of system components. The software monitors the number of usage rights for the entire
complex for each type of component. (If you are using GiCAP, the software also maintains
groupwide information about usage rights. For more information about GiCAP, see Chapter 7.)
The iCAP software uses the debiting of temporary capacity as a compliance enforcement mechanism
on the following systems:
• A system where TiCAP has been applied (the TiCAP balance is nonzero)
• A GiCAP group member system (or a system which had previously been a GiCAP group
member and has a nonzero TiCAP balance)
• A system which has had a TiCAP debit within the past 24 hours
If temporary capacity is negative, it means the system has gone out of compliance. Also, if the
temporary capacity balance is negative and the number of active cores exceeds the number of
core usage rights for the complex, automatic deactivation of cores might occur at power-on (boot)
time, not at any partition reboot time.
The iCAP software authorizes activation of cores, cells, and memory if allowed by the system usage
rights. You cannot activate additional components if that action takes the system out of compliance.
For example, if your iCAP contract specifies that your server must contain 12 cores with usage
rights and 4 cores without usage rights, you can have up to 12 cores activated at any one time,
and 4 cores must be inactive at all times.
The iCAP software can determine the following compliance aspects:
• Whether a system is in compliance or out of compliance with the iCAP contract
• The number of additional cores that can be activated
• The number of additional cells and the quantity of memory that can be activated
iCAP compliance and enforcement 27