HP rp7440 nPartition Administrator's Guide, Second Edition - Page 33

discovery, and discovery of interconnecting fabric (connections between the cell and other cells, I/O, and system crossbars). c. After the firmware completes cell self-tests and discovery, it reports the cell hardware configuration to the service processor (GSP or MP), informs the service processor it is "waiting at BIB", and then waits for the cell BIB flag to be cleared. 2. nPartition Boot Phase of the nPartition Boot Process The nPartition boot phase occurs when an nPartition is booted, after its cells have completed self tests. During this phase "nPartition rendezvous" occurs, however not all cells assigned to an nPartition are required to participate in rendezvous. A minimum of one core-capable cell that has completed its cell boot phase is required before the nPartition boot phase can begin. By default, all cells assigned to the nPartition that have a "y" use-on-next-boot value are expected to participate in rendezvous, and the service processor will wait for up to ten minutes for all such cells to reach the "waiting at BIB" state. Cells that have a "n" use-on-next-boot value do not participate in rendezvous and remain waiting at BIB. The main steps that occur during the nPartition boot phase are: a. The service processor provides a copy of the relevant Complex Profile data to the cells assigned to the nPartition. This data includes a copy of the Stable Complex Configuration Data and a copy of the Partition Configuration Data for the nPartition. For details see "Complex Profile" (page 36). b. The service processor releases BIB for all cells assigned to the nPartition that have a "y" use-on-next-boot value and complete the cell boot phase in time. The service processor does not release BIB for any cell with a "n" use-on-next-boot value, or for any cell that did not complete the cell boot phase within ten minutes of the first cell to do so. Once BIB is release for a cell, the cell is considered to be active. c. nPartition rendezvous begins, with the system firmware on each active cell using its copy of complex profile data to contact other active cells in the nPartition. d. The active cells in the nPartition negotiate to select a core cell. e. The chosen core cell manages the rest of the nPartition boot process. A processor on the core cell runs the nPartition system boot environment (BCH on HP 9000 servers, EFI on HP Integrity servers). The core cell hands off control to an operating system loader when the OS boot process is initiated. You can view progress during the cell and nPartition boot phases by observing the Virtual Front Panel for an nPartition, which is available from the service processor (MP or GSP) Main menu. Common nPartition Boot Commands and Tasks The following summary briefly describes the main nPartition boot commands and tasks. For more summaries and details see Table 5-1 (page 96). • Service processor (MP or GSP) support for managing nPartition booting includes the following commands, which are available from the service processor Command menu. - RS - Reset an nPartition. On HP Integrity servers you should reset an nPartition only after all self tests and partition rendezvous have completed. - RR - Reset and perform a shutdown for reconfig of an nPartition. On HP Integrity servers you should reset an nPartition only after all self tests and partition rendezvous have completed. - BO - Boot the cells assigned to an nPartition past the "waiting at BIB" state and thus begin the nPartition boot phase. Overview of Managing nPartitions 33