HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator Guide (includes A.05.07) (5900-1229, September 2010)

7 CPU, Memory, and I/O Resources (A.04.xx)
Managing Hardware Resources
• I/O Allocation (Adding or Deleting I/O Resources)
• Memory Allocation (Firmware Configuration and Adding or Deleting Memory Resources)
• CPU Allocation (Adding or Deleting CPU Resources)
• Using iCAP (formerly known as iCOD) with vPars
• CPU Monitor (deallocation and deconfiguration)
NOTE: Some examples in this chapter may use a non-nPartitionable system where there is no
cell in the hardware path. If using an nPartitionable system you must include the cell in the
hardware path; for details see “Planning, Installing, and Using vPars with an nPartitionable
Server” (page 49).
I/O: Concepts
Acronyms
LBA Local Bus Adapter
SBA System Bus Adapter
System, Cells, SBA, LBA, Devices and Relationships
On a server, an I/O device communicates to the system through the LBA and SBA. The path
looks like Figure 7-1.
Figure 7-1 System to I/O Device Relationship
Syste m
Syste m Bus
Adapte r
Local Bus
Adapte r
IO Devic e
This corresponds to the ioscan hardware path output for an I/O device of sba/lba/ ...
/device.
A LBA actually owns all the devices attached to it. In the example below, all the I/O devices
attached to LBA 0 are owned by LBA 0, and the hardware paths of those I/O devices begin with
0/0 (sba/lba). (Cells are discussed later and would change the hardware path to cell_ID/sba/lba.)
Figure 7-2 LBA Owns Multiple I/O Devices
LBA 0Syste m SBA 0
IO Device s
It is at the LBA level where vPars assigns I/O. In the example below, this means that LBA 0 can
be assigned to at most one virtual partition. If LBA 0 is assigned to vparN, it is implied that all
I/O devices attached to LBA 0 are assigned to vparN.
Figure 7-3 vPars Allocates I/O at the LBA Level
Syste m SBA 0
a LBA
assignabl e
to a vpar
0/0
LBA 0
IO Device s
A SBA has multiple LBAs attached to it; it is a hierarchical relationship. Nevertheless, assignments
in vPars remain at the LBA level, and each LBA can be assigned to a different virtual partition.
I/O: Concepts 217