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Processor Terminology  Processing resources under vPars, both as input arguments and command outputs, are described as “CPUs.” For multi-core processors such as the PA-8800 and dual-core Intel Itanium processors, the term “CPU” is synonymous with “core.” The term “processor” refers to the hardware component that plugs into a processor socket. Therefore a single processor can have more than one core, and vPars commands will refer to the separate cores as distinct “CPUs,” each with its own hardware path.

Two vPars terms pre-date multi-core processors, so they are exceptions to this terminology:

For more information on dual-core processors, see “CPU: Dual-Core Processors”.

Hyperthreading  Hyperthreading is a new feature supported in HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31) environments on servers with the dual-core Intel Itanium processors. It provides for executing multiple threads on a single processor core; each thread is abstracted as a “logical CPU” (LCPU). In vPars A.05.xx, you can enable and disable hyperthreading with the vPars Monitor; however, in a mixed HP-UX 11i v2/v3 vPars environment, any virtual partitions running vPars A.04.xx/11.23 will not boot unless hyperthreading is disabled. For more information on hyperthreading, see “CPU: Hyperthreading ON/OFF (HT ON/OFF)” and “Setting Hyperthreading (HT ON/OFF) and cpuconfig Primer”.

CPUs are assigned to virtual partitions on a core basis, and not on a logical CPU (LCPU) basis.

asyncdsk driver  Many applications, such as databases, use the asyncdsk driver to lock down memory for I/O transfers. As of this writing, the asyncdsk driver does not support memory deletion. As a result, if the driver has locked down any float memory, then that portion of memory cannot be deleted from a virtual partition.

See the most recent version of the HP-UX Virtual Partitions Release Notes for more information.

PCI On-Line Addition and Replacement (OLAR)  Except for the functions stated below, OL* for PCI slots works the same on a vPars server as it does on a non-vPars server. Note that you can execute PCI OL* functions only on the PCI slots that the virtual partition owns.

PCI doorbells (the physical attention button on the system) are supported beginning with the HP-UX December 2003 HWE release and vPars A.03.01.

(PA-RISC only) In a vPars system, a reboot of the virtual partition does not power on a slot that was powered off prior to the reboot. If you wish to power on the slot, you need to do this manually after the reboot using the rad command: rad -i slot_id.

For information on the use of PCI Card OLAR features on HP-UX 11i v1 (11.11) see Configuring HP-UX For Peripherals: HP 9000 Computers at the HP Technical Documentation website:

http://docs.hp.com/en/oshpux11i.html#System%20Administration

For information on the use of PCI Card OLAR features on HP-UX 11i v2 (11.23) or HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31) see the Interface Card OL* Support Guide at the HP Technical Documentation website:

http://docs.hp.com/en/ha.html#System%20Administration

The PCI OL* error recovery features that are supported in 11.31 are also supported within a vPars environment. For complete information on PCI OL* error recovery, see the following documents available at the HP Technical Documentation website (http://docs.hp.com):

Support Tools  For information on the required version of the Support Tools package that can run on your vPars server, see the section on Online Diagnostics in the HP-UX Virtual Partitions Ordering and Configuration Guide.

Prior to STM version A.43.00 (December 2003), in a vPars environment if the LPMC (Low Priority Machine Check) Monitor (now known as CPU Monitor) of the Support Tools bundle deactivates a processor, it does not automatically replace the failing processor with an iCAP (formerly known as iCOD) processor. The processor replacement must be performed manually using theicod_modify command. For more information, see the Instant Capacity User’s Guide.

Beginning with STM version A.43.00, in a vPars environment, the LPMC monitor automatically replaces a failing processor with an iCAP processor if an iCAP processor is available.

	CAUTION: CPU Expert Tool is supported on vPars servers. However, using this on vPars servers may cause unpredictable results. For complete information on using the Support Tools with vPars, see the following Support Tools document: http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/diag/stm/stm_vpar.htm

CSTM’s CPU Info Tool  With STM version A.43.00, the CSTM's cpu info tool will show information about the bound CPUs assigned to that partition and unbound CPUs not assigned to any partition. For unbound CPUs assigned to other partitions, it shows N/A.

With STM version C.48.00 (HWE0505) and later, the CSTM's cpu info tool will show information about all the CPUs that are assigned to the current partition.

When using CSTM’s info command, information is shown only for the CPUs that are currently owned by the virtual partition from which the info command is run. For CPUs which are not assigned to the virtual partition, the information is displayed as N/A.

ODE Diagnostic and I/O Card Utilities (Integrity Only)  ODE diagnostics utilities, such as CEC, CPU, or MEM, do not operate in vPars mode. Also, the I/O card and diagnostic utilities, such as FCFUPDATE and IODIAG.efi, do not operate in vPars mode.

You must boot the nPartition into nPars mode to operate these utilities.

For more information on modes, see “Modes: Switching between nPars and vPars Modes (Integrity Only)”

Ignite-UX   

(PA-RISC only) The WINSTALL Boot Kernel Paths with Different Versions of Ignite-UX and the vparboot -I command  The examples in this document use the Ignite-UX bootable kernel WINSTALL path as:

Thus, if you are using HP-UX 11i v2 (11.23) on a PA-RISC server and

Ignite-UX Recovery and Expert Recovery  Beginning with vPars A.02.03, the creation of make_tape_recovery tapes is supported on vPars-enabled servers. However, there are limitations:

Ignite-UX Recovery via make_net_recovery requires additional steps as noted in “Network and Tape Recovery”.

Expert recovery works as documented in the Ignite-UX manual; however, you must account for the vPars differences described in “Expert Recovery”.

For more information on using tape devices, see also the Booting, Installing, Recovery, and Sharing in a vPars Environment from DVD/CDROM/TAPE/Network white paper available at:

http://docs.hp.com/en/vse.html#Virtual%20Partitions

Ignite-UX and other Curses Applications  On the virtual console, when using applications that use curses, such as the terminal versions of Ignite-UX and SAM, do not press Ctrl-A to toggle to the console display window of another virtual partition while you are still within the curses application. This is especially applicable when you are using vparboot -Iand the Ignite-UX application to install vPars. For more information on curses, see the curses_intro(3X) manpage.

As with most curses applications, if you get a garbled display, you can press Ctrl-L to refresh the display.

ServiceGuard  ServiceGuard is supported with vPars. However, because ServiceGuard is used to guard against hardware failures as well as software failures, its functionality will be reduced if a cluster includes multiple virtual partitions within the same server. Such configurations are not recommended. See the ServiceGuard documentation for more information on running ServiceGuard with vPars.

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 vPars 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 vPars Monitor prompt (MON>). If you change the real-time clock, you need to run the vPars Monitor command toddriftreset to reset the drifts relative to the real-time clock. For information on the vPars Monitor commands, see “vPars Monitor: Using vPars Monitor Commands”.

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 ”.

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 vPars partition database is read. (Note that the files in the LIF area are still read when the system or nPartition boots).

To simulate the effect of an AUTO file for a virtual partition, use the vPars commands so that the information is saved in the vPars partition database. For more information, see “The AUTO File on a Virtual Partition”.

shutdown and reboot commands  In a virtual partition, the shutdown and reboot commands shutdown and reboot a virtual partition and not the entire nPartition.

Also, if a virtual partition is not set for autoboot using the autoboot attribute (see the vparmodify(1M) manpage), the -r and -R options of the shutdown or reboot commands will only shut down the virtual partition; the virtual partition will not reboot. In other words, the virtual partition will halt when the autoboot attribute is not set. For more information, see the vparmodify(1M) manpage.

For the -R and -r options of the shutdown and reboot commands, the virtual partition will not reboot when there is a pending Reboot for Reconfiguration until all the virtual partitions within the nPartition have been shutdown and the vPars Monitor has been rebooted; note that -R sets a pending Reboot for Reconfiguration. Also, the requested reconfiguration will not take place until all the virtual partitions within the involved nPartition have been shutdown and the vPars Monitor has been rebooted.

For more information, see “Shutting Down or Rebooting a Virtual Partition” and “Shutting Down or Rebooting the nPartition (Or Rebooting the vPars Monitor)”.

ioscan output  On a PA-RISC system, the ioscan output for vcn and vcs drivers show a value of NO_HW in the S/W State column. On an Integrity server, these drivers do not appear in the ioscan output. This is normal.

intctl Command  The intctl command is an HP-UX tool that enables management of I/O interrupts among the active CPUs. It can be installed from the HP-UX Software Pack but should be used only by advanced administrators for performance tuning. If you are managing interrupts on vPars systems, see the section “Managing I/O Interrupts”.

kernel crash dump analyzer  You cannot use a kernel crash dump analyzer on vPars Monitor dumps because vPars Monitor dumps are structured differently than kernel dumps. For more information on vPars Monitor dumps, see “vPars Monitor Dump Analysis Tool”.

top and other applications that show CPU ID  The CPU ID displayed by the top command and other applications may not be indicative of the actual CPU index in standalone or nPars mode, nor of the actual hardware path. Within a virtual partition, top sees only the CPUs assigned to it. Possible top output is shown below; the CPU index is the left-most column.

Agile view of Mass Storage  The agile view of mass storage introduced in HP-UX 11i v3 (11.31) is supported with vPars.

Support for agile addressing vPars configurations and operations is provided starting with vPars A.05.03. In the vPars A.05.01 and vPars A.05.02 releases, only the legacy hardware path format is supported.

For information on the agile view of mass storage, including the new hardware paths, device special files, and legacy mode, see the white paper The Next Generation Mass Storage Stack in the Network and Systems Management section of http://docs.hp.com, under Storage Area Management.

vMedia Support  vPars A.05.03 and HP-UX support read-only use of optical media via an iLO 2 MP on HP Integrity servers based on the sx2000 chipset, including rx7640, rx8640, and HP Integrity Superdome servers.

To launch Ignite-UX via a vMedia DVD drive in vPars mode:

vPars A.04.05 or later on HP Integrity Platforms with SAS Disks  vPars A.04.05 with patch PHSS_37829, and vPars A.04.06, on HP Integrity platforms supports the use of SAS disks.

	NOTE: In certain situations when using vPars with SAS disks on HP Integrity platforms, the vparstatus -v and setboot commands may show different boot disk paths in vPars mode. This is normal, and is due to the disks being scanned in a different sequence at boot time.

You may see different boot disk paths for SAS disks reported by the vparstatus -v and setboot commands in vPars mode after booting into nPars mode and then booting back into vPars mode. For example:

vPars and Dynamic nPartition Operations  Dynamic nPartitions operations cannot be performed to an nPartition that is running Virtual Partitions. For more information on dynamic nPartitions, see the HP-UX 11i v3 Dynamic nPartitions white paper at: http://docs.hp.com/en/10907/dynamic_nPars_WP.pdf.