topic Re: Vpars on rx8640 in Operating System - HP-UX

Vpars on rx8640

DA2072 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:27:56 GMT

I've got rx8640 with 32gb of RAM and 16 way processors with 10 network and fiber connections.

Planning to Vpar this one giant server into 5 vpars. Question is when I start the installation of the hpux on this box, do I have one main server that keeps track of the virtual partition databases for each vpar. If there is a hardware failure say with the giant server itself, how does it affect all the vpars that are built.

Re: Vpars on rx8640

Tim Nelson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:42:15 GMT

There is a common vpar manager kernel that is booted to monitor / control all vpars. Instead of booting /stand/vmunix you boot /stand/vpmon. The vpmon is access and kept in sync from all vpars.

Yes. If hardware failure, all vpars using that hardware will fail. If on FC card fails then only the vpar using that FC will be effected. But you will still need to replace the card albeit can be done online very carfully.

There is always comonalities. One biggest issue we had was VRM failures. Even though we drew the vpar lines where the npar lines would go ( between cells ) a VRM outage took down the entire physical server.

Re: Vpars on rx8640

Torsten. — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:26:06 GMT

To continue Tim's post:

Is this a giant server? Hm? It's a pretty one.

Anyway, if a nPar is crashing for a very serious reason, all related vPars will have a problem.

The vPars config will be synchronized between all running vPars - so don't worry.

For really important applications you will decide to configure a ServiceGuard cluster on at least 2 boxes.

The only way to prevent hardware failures will be affecting your application is to deploy them at least on a 2-node cluster.
Please have this in mind ...

Re: Vpars on rx8640

DA2072 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:26:00 GMT

I would have to built the giant server with HP-UX first with the patches and the vpar software and then built the vpars. Is that correct?

If it is correct, can I use the system lan port to configure this box and assign it an ip. Then use the other lan interfaces for the Vpars?

Re: Vpars on rx8640

melvyn burnard — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 13:27:30 GMT

You have to build the main server first as an nPar, and add in the vPar software.
You then have to create an Ignite depot, and using vpar commands you create your vpars and then install them from the Ignite image.
If you build the nPar such that it uses the built in LAN as it's main network port, the pother cards can be configured into your vPars as you require.
I suggest you read the vPars manuals available at:
http://docs.hp.com/en/oshpux11iv2.html#Virtual%20Partitions