HP 9000 rp7410 nPartition Administrator's Guide, Second Edition - Page 24

• "Base Cells" • "Core Cells" • "Active and Inactive Cells" • "Cell Local Memory" • "Cell Property Details" • "Active and Inactive nPartition Boot States" Partition Numbers Each nPartition has its own unique partition number that the nPartition administration tools use for identifying the nPartition. When you create an nPartition, the tool you use assigns the nPartition the lowest available partition number. For example, the first nPartition always is partition number 0, and the second nPartition to be created is partition number 1. After you remove an nPartition, no cells are assigned to the nPartition. As a result, the nPartition tools can reuse the partition number when creating a new nPartition. For example, after you remove partition number 2, the next time you create a new nPartition the parcreate command or Partition Manager will assign cells to partition number 2 when creating a new nPartition, if all lower-numbered nPartitions (partition numbers 0 and 1) already are defined. Assigned and Unassigned Cells Each cell in a server complex either is assigned to one of the nPartitions in the complex, or it is unassigned and thus is not used by any of the nPartitions. If an I/O chassis is attached to an unassigned cell, then the chassis likewise is not assigned to an nPartition. Cells that are unassigned are considered to be available resources; they are free to be assigned to any of the existing nPartitions, or can be used to create new nPartitions. Base Cells On both HP 9000 servers and HP Integrity servers, all cells within an nPartition are base cells. The nPartitions administration tools automatically set the cell type to base cell, if you do not specify the cell type. Core Cells One cell in each nPartition must serve as the active core cell. The core cell controls the nPartition until an operating system has booted, and it provides console services and other boot and management abilities for the nPartition. The monarch processor on the core cell runs the Boot Console Handler (BCH) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) code while all other processors are idle until an operating system is booted. On first-generation cell-based servers and HP sx1000 chipset-based servers, core I/O is provided by a PCI card residing in an I/O chassis. On these servers, to be eligible as a core cell, a cell must be assigned to the nPartition, it must be active, and it must be attached to an I/O chassis containing functional core I/O. On HP sx2000 chipset-based servers, core I/O is provided on each cell, so any cell assigned to an nPartition can be a core cell. Although an nPartition can have multiple core-capable cells, only one core I/O is actively used in an nPartition: the core I/O belonging to the active core cell. For details about setting and using the core cell choices (or "alternates") for an nPartition see "Setting nPartition Core Cell Choices" (page 194). When none of the core cell choices can serve 24 Getting Started with nPartitions