Installing and Managing HP-UX Virtual Partitions (A.02.01)

How vPars Works
Partitioning Using vPars
Chapter 2 37
Each application can run on top of separate OS instances. Instead of a
single OS instance owning all the hardware, the vPars monitor manages
the virtual partitionsand their OS instances as well asthe assignment of
hardware resources to each virtual partition.
Figure 2-4 Software Stack for Server with 2 Virtual Partitions
vPars Monitor
For each hard partition, the vPars monitor manages the assignment of
hardware resources to virtual partitions, boots virtual partitions and
their kernels, and emulates certain firmware calls. By emulating these
specific calls, vPars creates the illusion to each HP-UX instance that it is
running on a standalone server, consisting of the hardware that has been
assigned to it.
Once a virtual partition is launched, the monitor transfers ownership of
the hardware to the virtual partition. At that point the monitor is not
involved in accessing I/O hardware, physical memory, or process to
processor cycles: the individual HP-UX instances have complete
ownership of their respective hardware resources. This allows each
partition to run at full speed.
Hardware / Firmware
Virtual Partition Monitor
HP-UX 11i
HP-UX 11i
Patch Level B
Application 1
Application 2