The purpose of this scenario is to demonstrate the
power and flexibility provided by Virtual Partitions. The scenario
begins with an overview that outlines the steps that are generally
required when deploying vPars. It then describes the environment in
which Virtual Partitions will be deployed. Proper planning of the
virtual partition configuration greatly eases the implementation;
therefore, a few tips and suggestions are provided to facilitate the
planning process. Next, the sequence of creating and booting the
initial virtual partition is described. After the first virtual
partition is running, the second vPar is created and booted from an
Ignite-UX server. With two vPars running HP-UX, a shell script is
written to illustrate the dynamic capabilities of vPars. Finally, the
shell script is added as a scheduled task using the cron tool, which
results in the dynamic reconfiguration of the system based on the
timing of workload utilization peaks.
It
should be noted that portions of command output shown throughout this
example have been modified for formatting purposes and to provide
additional clarity.
Example Scenario Overview
This
example scenario consists of the following steps. These steps are
covered in detail throughout the example scenario. There are many
possible ways to deploy vPars, and the intent of this example is to
illustrate just one of them.
1. | Determine the Virtual Partition Environment
This step encompasses choosing where vPars will be installed,
determining how many vPars will be deployed, and deciding the initial
configuration of the vPars. In this example, two vPars will be deployed
on an nPartition with four CPUs.
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2. | Plan for Virtual Partitions
This step involves capturing the hardware configuration of the system
where vPars will be deployed. Most important aspect of this phase is
capturing the output of ioscan for I/O configuration purposes.
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3. | Install Virtual Partition Software
This step consists of installing the Virtual Partitions software on the
instance of HP-UX where the first vPar will be created. In this
example, HP-UX is already running on the nPartition where the first
vPars will be booted so the installation of the Virtual Partitions
software is performed in the same way traditional HP-UX software
bundles are installed.
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4. | Create the First vPar
After installing the vPar software, the first vPar can be created. The
vPar command-line interface is used to create Virtual Partitions.
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5. | Boot the Virtual Partition Monitor
After creating the first vPar, it must be booted. In order to boot a
vPar, the virtual partition monitor must be loaded. The vPar monitor is
loaded by shutting down the operating system running in the server and
then booting the vPar monitor from the firmware interface in much the
same way the HP-UX kernel is loaded.
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6. | Load the First Virtual Partition
Having loaded the virtual partition monitor, a text-based interface is
available for performing various vPar tasks, such as loading vPars.
Loading a vPar starts the HP-UX boot process as it would traditionally
be performed from the firmware interface.
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7. | Create the Second Virtual Partition
The next step is to create the second vPar. This step involves using
the vPar command-line interface from within the first vPar to create
the second vPar.
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8. | Boot the Second Virtual Partition
Booting the second vPar is a bit simpler than booting the first one
because the vPar monitor is already running. As a result, a command can
be issued from the first vPar to boot the second vPar. In fact, as is
shown in this example, the second vPar can be directed to boot directly
from an Ignite-UX server.
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9. | Configure vPars to Automatically Boot
After creating and booting both vPars, there are steps that must be
performed in order for all of the vPars to be booted automatically.
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10. | Automate the CPU migration
The final step in this scenario involves an elementary example of how
CPUs can be automatically migrated from on vPar to another. |
