HP-UX Virtual Partitions Administrator's Guide (includes A.03.05 and A.04.05)

• UPS (uninterruptible power supply) software UPS hardware communicates with UPS
software via the serial port. By default, a hard partition has only one serial port. For a hard
partition that runs vPars, the serial port can be owned by at most one virtual partition.
Therefore, on the hard partition, the UPS can communicate with only the virtual partition
that owns the serial port.
Alternately, the HP PowerTrust II-MR UPS product can be configured across virtual partitions
using network connections, providing all the virtual partitions reside on the same network.
• Processor Sets (vPars A.03.xx and earlier) You cannot specify a hardware path for an
unbound CPU. Therefore, to avoid unintentionally removing unbound CPUs from a
non-default pset, initially create the partition that will be running Processor Sets using only
bound CPUs. Then, when you add or remove an unbound CPU, the unbound CPU will be
added to or removed from only the default pset.
• Glance and Openview Performance Agent (MeasureWare) For correct reporting of processor
utilization, you need to run Glance and MeasureWare versions C.03.35. or higher.
• Real-time clock (RTC) Fixed in A.03.03 and later, A.04.01 and later:
The monitor keeps track of the OS time for each virtual partition relative to the real-time
clock. The OS time is the time that is changed via the set_parms or date commands.
However, you can change the real-time clock at the BCH prompt or at the monitor prompt
(MON>). If you change the real-time clock, you need to run the monitor command
toddriftreset to reset the drifts relative to the real-time clock. For information on the
monitor commands, see “Monitor: Using Monitor Commands” (page 127).
Booting the machine into standalone mode from a boot disk which had its OS time ahead
of the RTC will advance the RTC. If the machine is then booted into a vPars environment,
the OS time of all the virtual partitions will be advanced. Administrators should ensure that
the RTC is adjusted accordingly before booting the machine from standalone mode into a
vPars environment and vice versa.
• SCSI Initiator ID For vPars A.03.xx and earlier: the SCSI Initiator ID is the ID of the SCSI
controller. Although you can display and set SCSI parameters for the SCSI controller at the
BCH prompt, you can also set these values on a vPars server from the HP-UX shell of a
virtual partition using the vPars command vparutil. For more information, see the
vparutil(1M) manpage.
For vPars A.04.xx and later: use the mptconfig command to view or set the SCSI parameters
for Ultra320 host bus adapters (HBAs). For information on the mptconfig command, see
the HP A7173A PCI-X Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Host Bus Adapter Support Guide. For
Ultra2/Ultra160 SCSI HBAs, the SCSI parameters can only be set from the BCH prompt (on
PA-RISC) or from the EFI Shell prompt using EFI applications (on Integrity). For information
on setting and confirming SCSI parameters for Ultra2/Ultra160 HBAs, see the HP A6828A
PCI Ultra160 SCSI Host Bus Adapter: Service and User Guide.
• System-wide stable storage and the setboot command On a non-vPars server, the
setboot command allows you to read from and write to the system-wide stable storage
of non-volatile memory. However, on a vPars server, the setboot command does not affect
stable storage. Instead, it only reads from and writes to the vPars partition database.
For more information see “Setboot and System-wide Stable Storage ” (page 153).
• mkboot and LIF files The mkboot command allows you to write to files in the LIF area
on both Integrity and PA-RISC servers; for example, the AUTO file. While on a vPars server,
mkboot can still be used to write to files in the LIF area. However, the LIF area is not read
during the boot of an OS on a virtual partition. Instead, only the information stored in the
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