HP Superdome 2 Partitioning Administrator Guide (5900-2064, November 2011)

Minimal Hardware Configuration
Every bootable virtual partition must have at least:
• 1 CPU-core
On HP Integrity Superdome 2, by default, a vPar is created with zero CPU-cores. Such a vPar
cannot boot.
• System memory (sufficient for HP-UX and the applications in that partition)
• A boot disk (when using a mass storage unit, check your hardware manual to verify that it
can support a boot disk)
Although it is not required for booting a virtual partition, you can add a LAN card for networking.
NOTE: For your virtual partitions, use the number of CPUs, amount of memory, boot disk
configuration, and LAN cards as required for your OS and applications.
CPU-core
There are 3 major types of CPU assignments. They are Count, Resource Path and Socket Local
Processor (SLP). With SLP, specified cores are from a single socket. Use SLP for best performance,
by assigning CPU-cores and memory from the same sockets to a vPar.
NOTE:
Processor Terminology
Processing resources under vPars, both as input arguments and command outputs, are described
as “CPU-cores.” The term “processor” refers to the hardware component that plugs into a processor
socket. Therefore, a single processor can have more than one core, and vPars commands refer to
the CPU-core with its resource path.
Two vPars terms pre-date multi-core processors, so they are exceptions to this terminology:
• Boot processor: refers to the CPU-core on which the OS kernel of the virtual partition was
booted.
• Socket local processor (SLP): refers to a CPU-core in a specified socket on a specified blade.
CPU-core: Boot Processor Definitions
The Boot Processor is the CPU-core on which the OS kernel of the virtual partition was booted.
There is one boot processor per virtual partition.
NOTE: The term "CPU" will be used to signify "CPU-core" throughout the rest of the chapter.
CPU-core: Specifying Min and Max Limits
The syntax to specify min and max CPUs assigned to a virtual partition is:
-a, -m cpu:::[min]:[max]
where:
-a adds resources to a virtual partition.
-m modifies the existing resources in a virtual partition.
min is the minimum number of CPUs required to boot the virtual partition, and the minimum
number of CPUs that must remain assigned to the partition.
max is the maximum number of CPUs that can be assigned to the virtual partition.
80 Planning Your System for Virtual Partitions