HP Integrity Superdome SX1000 Installation (Smart Setup) Guide, Windows Server - Page 88
Cell and nPartition Boot Phases, Cell Boot Phase
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Cell Local Memory (CLM) Cell Property Details Active and Inactive nPartition Boot States I/O chassis with core I/O), only one core I/O is actively used in an nPartition. System firmware selects the core cell in the early stages of the nPartition boot process. When none of the core cell choices can serve as the active core cell, the nPartition attempts to select an eligible cell. The core I/O in the I/O chassis connected to the core cell provides console access for the nPartition through the management processor. The monarch processor in the core cell runs the EFI while all other processors are idle until an OS is booted. CLM is a portion of the memory in a cell that can be accessed quickly by processors residing on the same cell. You can configure CLM for each cell as a percentage of the total memory in the cell or as an absolute number of gigabytes. For nPartitions running Microsoft Windows, HP recommends assigning 100% CLM for each cell in the nPartition. However, for other operating systems the CLM assignment will likely differ, depending on the nPartition configuration and workloads running. Cells in an nPartition have properties that determine how the cells can be used and managed. Each nPartition has a boot state of active or inactive. The boot state indicates whether the nPartition has booted so that it can be interactively accessed through its console (active nPartitions). An active nPartition has at least one core-capable cell that is active (not in a boot-is-blocked state). When an nPartition is active, cells assigned to the nPartition have completed partition rendezvous, and the system boot interface (EFI) is loaded and appears through the nPartition console. An OS can be loaded and run from the system boot interface on an active nPartition. An inactive nPartition is considered to be in a shutdown for reconfig state because all cells assigned to the nPartition remain at a boot-is-blocked state or are powered off. Cell and nPartition Boot Phases The nPartition boot process on HP Integrity servers involves two phases: the cell boot phase and the nPartition boot phase. Cell Boot Phase The cell boot phase occurs when cells are powered on or reset. The main activities that occur during the cell boot phase are power-on-self-test activities. During this phase, each cell operates independently of other cells in the complex. Cells do not necessarily proceed through this phase at the same pace, because each cell might have different hardware to test and discover, or cells might be reset or powered on at different times. The main steps that occur during the cell boot phase are as follows: 1. A cell is powered on or reset, and the cell boot-is-blocked (BIB) flag is set. BIB is a hardware flag on the cell board. When BIB is set, the cell is considered to be inactive. 2. Firmware on the cell performs self-tests and discovery operations on the hardware components of the cell. Operations at this point include processor self-tests, memory tests, 88 nPartitioning