HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator's Guide (includes A.05.02)

Chapter 9
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9 nPartition Operations
This section briefly covers nPartition operations when vPars are in an nPartition. For complete information
on nPartitions, see the nPartition document nPartition Administrator's Guide available at http://docs.hp.com.
Basic Conceptual Points on using vPars within nPartitions
• Only one vPars Monitor is booted per nPartition.
• Virtual partitions exist within an nPartition, but they cannot span across nPartitions.
• Each virtual partition within a given nPartition can be assigned a subset of only the hardware assigned
to the nPartition. Furthermore, only the active hardware assigned to the nPartition can be used by the
virtual partitions within the nPartition.
• nPartitions remain isolated from other nPartitions, regardless of whether vPars is installed. You can
have virtual partitions installed within an nPartition without affecting the other nPartitions.
• Note: unlike the rp7400/N4000, on a Superdome and other nPartition servers, the first element of the
hardware path of the ioscan output is the cell number.
For example, on the rp7400/N4000 the ioscan output shows:
0/0 ba Local PCI Bus Adapter (782)
However, on a Superdome, the first element of the hardware path is the cell number. So, if the cell
number is 4, the ioscan output shows:
4/0/0 ba Local PCI Bus Adapter (782)
nPartition Information
• The vPars database is entirely separate from the nPartition complex profile data. Therefore, a
change in the vPars partition database does not change any complex profile data. For an example on
changing information in both the vPars partition database and the nPartition complex profile, see “Using
Primary and Alternate Paths with nPartitions” on page 168.
• For a given nPartition, the Virtual Front Panel (VFP) displays an OS heartbeat whenever at least one
virtual partition within the nPartition is up.
• All vPars within an nPartition share the same console device. For a given nPartition, this is the
nPartition’s console. For more information on the console and console logs, see “Virtual Consoles” on
page 35 and “nPartition Logs” on page 37.
• If you make an nPartition change where a Reboot for Reconfiguration is required, all the virtual
partitions within the nPartition need to be shutdown and the Monitor rebooted in order for the
reconfiguration to take effect.