Technical data

nPartition System Overviews

Introduction

HP System Partitions Guide: Administration for nPartitions, rev 5.1

Introduction

Hewlett-Packard’s nPartition system capabilities enable you to conﬁgure

a single server complex as one large system or as multiple smaller

systems.

Each nPartition deﬁnition establishes a subset of the server hardware

resources that are used as an independent system environment. An

nPartition includes: one or more cells (containing processors and

memory) that are assigned to the nPartition as well as all I/O chassis

connected to those cells.

All processors, memory, and I/O in an nPartition are used exclusively by

software running in the nPartition. Thus, each nPartition runs its own

instance of the Boot Console Handler (BCH) interface and independently

boots and reboots instances of HP-UX 11i.

By deﬁning multiple nPartitions within an nPartition server, you

establish hardware partitioning that enables a single server complex to

run multiple instances of the HP-UX 11i operating system.

You also can establish virtual partitions within an nPartition on HP

Superdome servers. The HP Virtual Partitions software enables you to

further subdivide an nPartition’s active hardware resources by using

software partitioning to create one or more virtual partitions (vPars).

Each vPar can load/boot HP-UX 11i independently. Refer to the chapter

Virtual Partitions (vPars) Management on nPartitions on page 443 for

details.

The HP-UX 11i June 2002 release supports nPartitions on the following

servers:

• HP rp7410 server (model string: 9000/800/rp7410)

• HP rp8400 server (model string: 9000/800/S16K-A)

• HP Superdome 16-way (model string: 9000/800/SD16000)

• HP Superdome 32-way (model string: 9000/800/SD32000)

• HP Superdome 64-way (model string: 9000/800/SD64000)

For server hardware details see Supported HP Server Models on page 34.