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

D Memory Usage with vPars in nPartitions
This section discusses various usages of memory for vPars within nPartitions.
Within a vPars environment, memory is used not only by the HP-UX OS and applications, but
can also be used by the following:
• nPartition Firmware
• Firmware Partitions (fPars) on Integrity servers
• vPars Monitor
nPartition Firmware
When the nPartition boots, the firmware requires between 8 to 64 MB of each cell (therefore, using
CLM). The exact amount depends on the specific server and the firmware. PA firmware requires
approximately 8-16 MB of each cell, and Integrity firmware requires approximately 16-64 MB of
each cell. For exact amounts, see the firmware documentation for your hardware. This per-cell
firmware memory requirement is necessary for running the nPartition. It is not a consequence
of running vPars.
If our example system has 2 cells and the firmware requires 64 MB per cell, 128 MB (64 MB x 2
cells = 128) of the total cell local memory could be used by the nPartition firmware.
Firmware Partitions (fPars)
fPars is an interface/interpreter for the firmware on Integrity servers and vPars. fPars uses ILM
memory.
fPar0 requires 384 MB of memory for vPars A.05.01, and 256 MB of memory for vPars A.04.03;
fPar dump requires 128 MB. The vPars Monitor runs on fpar0; fPar dump is used for Monitor
panics.
Additionally, each virtual partition that is booted requires an fPar instance, which is an additional
32 MB per fpar instance.
If our example system running vPars A.05.01 has 2 virtual partitions, 576 MB (384 + 128 + (32 x
2) = 576) is used by fPars.
On a vPars A.04.03 system with 2 virtual partitions, 448 MB (256 + 128 + (32 x 2) = 448) is used
by fPars.
Note that the memory used by fPars is provided by the last virtual partition booted.
vPars Monitor
The vPars Monitor itself requires memory. On PA, the Monitor uses approximately 25 MB of
ILM. For Integrity, fPars loads the Monitor into fpar0 memory and does not take any more
memory than that already consumed for fpar0 as described above.
Example System
Assume our example system is:
• an Integrity server
• running vPars A.05.01
• where the firmware requires 64 MB of cell memory per cell
• with 2 cells
nPartition Firmware 309