Windows nPartition Guide v5.5

Core Cell The core cell is an active cell that is attached to an I/O
chassis with a functional core I/O. Each nPartition must
have one core cell. Although an nPartition can have
multiple core-capable cells (any assigned cell that has an
I/O chassis with core I/O), only one core I/O is actively
used in an nPartition.
System firmware selects the core cell in the early stages of
the nPartition boot process. When none of the core cell
choices can serve as the active core cell, the nPartition
attempts to select an eligible cell.
The core I/O in the I/O chassis connected to the core cell
provides console access for the nPartition through the
management processor. The monarch processor in the core
cell runs the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) while all
other processors are idle until an operating system is
booted.
Cell Local Memory (CLM) CLM is a portion of the memory in a cell that can be
accessed quickly by processors residing on the same cell.
You can configure CLM for each cell either as a percentage
of the total memory in the cell or as an absolute number
of gigabytes.
For nPartitions running Microsoft Windows, HP
recommends assigning 100% CLM for each cell in the
nPartition. However, for other operating systems, the
appropriate CLM assignment will likely differ, depending
on the nPartition configuration and workloads running.
Cell Property Details Cells in an nPartition have properties that determine how
the cells can be used and managed.
Active and Inactive nPartition Boot
States
Each nPartition has a boot state of either active or inactive.
The boot state indicates whether the nPartition has booted
so that it can be interactively accessed through its console
(active nPartitions).
An active nPartition has at least one core-capable cell that
is active (not in a boot-is-blocked state). When an nPartition
is active, one or more of the cells assigned to the nPartition
have completed partition rendezvous, and the system boot
interface (EFI) is loaded and appears through the nPartition
console. An operating system can be loaded and run from
the system boot interface on an active nPartition.
An inactive nPartition is considered to be in the shutdown
for reconfig state because all cells assigned to the nPartition
either remain at a boot-is-blocked state or are powered off.
Cell and nPartition boot process
The nPartition boot process on HP Integrity servers involves two phases:
Cell boot phase
The cell boot phase occurs when cells are powered on or reset. The main activities that occur
during the cell boot phase are power-on-self-test activities. During this phase, each cell operates
independent of other cells in the complex. Cells do not necessarily proceed through this phase
at the same pace, because each cell might have different hardware to test and discover, or cells
14 Introduction