Technical data

An Overview of nPartition Boot and Reset
Overview of nPartition Boot Features
HP System Partitions Guide: Administration for nPartitions, rev 5.1 170
Overview of nPartition Boot Features
This section lists several boot issues particular to HP nPartition servers.
Each nPartition is booted, rebooted, shut down, and reset individually. In
many situations you can boot and reboot nPartitions using the same
basic procedures that are used on other HP servers.
The following list describes notable features related to booting,
rebooting, and power cycling nPartitions:
• Each nPartition can boot and reboot independently of other
nPartitions. Resetting one nPartition has no effect on the others.
• You can perform many reset and power cycling tasks remotely.
You can reset and control power from an nPartition server’s service
processor Command menu, from the BCH interface for an nPartition,
or from HP-UX running on an nPartition.
• In order to contribute resources to an nPartition, the cells (and I/O
chassis) assigned to the nPartition must be powered on and booted in
time to participate in partition rendezvous.
Otherwise, the cells will remain inactive (though still assigned to the
nPartition) and their processors, memory, and any I/O will not
available for use.
• Three boot path variables—PRI, HAA, and ALT—are supported for
each nPartition.
PRI typically is the primary HP-UX boot device, HAA typically is a
mirror of the root volume, and ALT is for install or recovery media
such as tape or DVD-ROM devices.
• You can specify a boot action for each boot path variable. The boot
action determines what action (for example: boot HP-UX) is taken
when the nPartition boots and reaches the BCH interface.
To set boot actions, use the BCH Configuration menu’s PathFlags
(PF) command. The setboot command can configure the PRI actions
only.
When an nPartition boots to BCH, it attempts to perform the PRI
path’s boot action. The HAA path and ALT path boot actions also can
be attempted, in that order, depending on the PRI settings.