removing vPar and extending nPar....

[aique]

Hi,
I have a rp7420 running HP-UX with following Configuration.

1) nPar0 has one Cell with 4 CPUs, 16GB Memory, 8 I/O slots, one core I/O.
2) nPar1 has one Cell splitting into 2 vPars, each with 2 CPUs, 4GB Memory and 4 I/O slots, one core I/O.

Now i want to:

1. Delete one vPar (which have 2 CPUs and 4GB of RAM) from nPar1.
2. and add these 2 CPUs and 4GB of RAM into nPar0 (Cell0).

after this addition, nPar0 should look like this:

1.Number of Cells = 1 with 6 CPU's and 20GB Memory.
2.I/O Slots = 16
3.Core I/O = 1

Can anyone please tell me the steps to follow for this activity?

Thanks and regards,
Abdul Qayyum.

[Ninad_1]

Abdul,

Unfortunately it wont be possible to use IO slots from cell1 into nPar0 as nPar1 already owns the cell1 and still would be having one active vPar.
You could add the CPUs and memory into nPar0 after deleting one of the vPars from nPar1 and then from nPar1 configuration,bringing down nPar1 and adding physically the CPu and memory to nPar0. But for IO slots - sorry you cannot share the IO slots between the nPars.

Regards,
Ninad

[aique]

Thanks Ninad,

Well ignore the I/O slots :)
Just consider removal and addition of CPUs and RAM only.
Also can you please tell me step by step commands to do this job?

Thanks once again.
Abdul Qayyum

[Mridul Shrivastava]

As far as Npar is concerned it is not possible to share a cell board between Npar's.
In nutshell cell board can be part of one NPar at a given time.

[Ninad_1]

Hi,

Few things.
I am not an expert in partitioning.

1st thing - you need to check if the memory you will be using from nPar1 into nPar0 - is same DIMMs as currently used in nPar0 and how you will distribute the DIMMs - refer to your server's hardware manual to 1st determine if what you think is possible.
e.g.
if you are having 512MB DIMMs in nPar0 and 256 MB DIMMS in nPar1 then see how you need to distribute the DIMMS for the final configuration and whether its possible as per manuals.

If yes I suggest you read the manual for vPars (http://docs.hp.com/en/7042/T1335-90041.pdf) page 125 which shows stpes for removing vPar
and nPars (http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-1247/index.html) for more understanding.

And experts will guide you as well in this thread.

Regards,
Ninad

[Asif Sharif · Accepted solution]

Hi Abdul,

Suppose you have Vpar1 & Vpar2 and you want to remove Vpar2.

Please follow these steps.

1. Removing Vpar2
Vpar1>vparremove -p Vpar2
2. Shutdown Vpar1
Vpar2>shutdown -h -y 0
3. Shutdown Machine
4. Unplug cables and remove bezels
5. Remove 2 CPUs and 4GB memory from CELL1
6. Add 2 CPUs and 4GB memory into CELL0
7. Replace bezels and Plug cables
8. Power up machine and modify nPar0
9. Power recycle
10.Boot both nPars


Guru's if i am wrong please comment it.

Regards,
Asif Sharif

[Jannik]

Hi

The expert "Mridul" has spoken, it is not possible to share cellbourds over npars.
So you could remove one vpar with vparremove after a shutdown of the given vpar but you would not be able to use the cpus on the other npar.

The flexibility you are looking for you will only get if you reconfigure your complete machine into one npar with 2 vpars.

1. make ignite images of the to installations.
2. Use parremove if you want to remove par 1:
# parremove -p 1
ref to: http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-90692/parremove.1M.html
3. Use parmodify to reconfig the exsisting partitioning (this would add cell 2 to the existing npar 0:
# parmodify -p 0 -a 2:base:y:ri
Reboot with reconfig:
# shutdown -Ry 0

This is if vpar is allready a part of that partitioning. Else delete the other :-).

Use vparcreate to create the new vpar and then boot and install it.
PA-RISC platforms only
vparboot -p vp_name -I ignite_kernel

Itanium(R)-based platforms only
vparboot -p vp_name -I

Hope it helps I would recommend you to read some manuals before starting this.

Use only CM cc as the last resort.

[Tim Hempstead_1]

As has been stated above by Mridul I do not think that this is possible.

A rp7420 appears to be able to be able to take two, 4 socket cell boards. Each of these cell boards can only belong to one nPar so if you free up CPU resources on one of the Cell boards you will not be able to use these resources in the other nPar.

You may be able to have the freed up memory removed from one Cell board and added to the other so that it is moved to the other nPar but only if the DIMMS are compatible with the existing memory and there are free slots available to take it.

The only way to get the CPUs to the environment running on nPar0 would be to convert the environment running in there to a vPar as well and then combine the resources of both nPars to just have a single 2 Cell Board nPar with multiple vPars.

This though may not be what you want to do as there may be a reason why you have the content of the two nPars seperated and this would involve quite a bit of planning to implement.

Tim

[Asif Sharif]

Hi Jannik & Tim,

I think Abdul is asking for this thing. what i assumed is,

he wants to remove one vPar from Npar1 and remove 2 CPU's & 4GB Memory from CELL1 and add this to CELL0 in Npar0 Physically.
after this addition in Npar0, It looks like this:

1.Number of Cell = 1 with 6 CPU's and 20GB Memory (npar0)
2.I/O Slots = 8
3.Core I/O = 1

1.Number of Cell = 1 with 2 CPU's and 4GB Memory (npar1)Has also one Vpar.
2.I/O Slots = 8
3.Core I/O = 1

Abdul am i right?

Regards,
Asif Sharif

[aique]

Yes Mr. Asif you've got my point :)

Guys please advice me now..

Thanks

[Mridul Shrivastava]

If you are moving it physically than no command needs to be executed provided icod is not installed. Since this is Npar only so while booting it will detect the new hardware.

[Jannik]

ok get it :-)

Use the command:
parstatus -c 0 -V
parstatus -c 1 -V
To see the memory configuration of your 2 cells (npars).

Then just use vparremove.
Close the server and move cpu's and memory (get teknical support from HP).

[Zinky]

Abdul,

Why don;t you just collapse the 2 nPars and just vPar your whole system? That way you can move CPUs dynamically (w/o downtime) and re-allocate/re-size memory without opening up the box?

This is our plan on our 8-Cellx64CPUx256GB SuperDome that currently are 5 nPars.

[Tim Hempstead_1]

My point is that according to the documentation on HP's site, (and the system i am currently SSH'ed into), a rp7420 can take two Cell boards, each of which can take four CPUs.

Hence if you have already got 4 CPUs on Cell board which is used by nPar0 you cannot physically move an additional 2 CPUs onto it as there are no remaining physical sockets to plug them into.

Tim

[Zinky]

Tim - I hear ya. The rp7420 supports 4 "CPU Sockets" on each core cell board. However each "CPU Socket" actually supports PA8800 or PA8900 dual core CPUs - with each "Core" treated as one whole CPU in vPars lingo...

So it is possible our friend has a dual cell rp7420 with each cell onlyhaving 2 x PA8800/8900 sockets - leaving 2 CPU-sockets free on each cell board.

Again, if budgets allow and you have a recurring need to re-allocate CPUs from system to system, get more vPar licenses and vPar your whole rp7420. COllapse the 2 nPars and simply vPar all the environments. This way you will not have to contend with physically moving CPUs around..

[Dave Wherry]

There are 4 CPU sockets per cell board. These can hold either single core or dual core processors. You can not mix them on the same cell board.
So Abdul, what do you have in this system? Single core or dual core?
For the most part, I agree with the suggestion to simplify the system. Do away with the nPars and just use vPars.

[aique]

Yes friends, these are dual core processors. I have 2 dual core processor on each cell board (nPar either). Now i want to move 1 dual core processor from 1 of 2 vPars to other Cell Board (nPar).
Can anybody tell me that how can i check wether which processor belongs to which vPar. So that i may not remove wrong processor from a vPar :)

Regards,

Abdul

[Mridul Shrivastava]

Hi,

Since you are removing one vpar and then moving that processor to another cell board. I would suggest you to execute ioscan -fnCprocessor and note down the hardware path of the processors and refer block diagram so you will come to know which cpu is assigned to which vpar.
So there won't be any confusion.

[aique]

Thanks everybody.