Planning Npartitions; Recommended Hp Superdome 2 Npartition Configurations; Hp Superdome 2 Partitioning Choices - HP Integrity Superdome 2 16-socket Administrator's Manual

4 Planning nPartitions

This chapter describes how to plan nPartition configurations. It also describes the nPartition
configuration requirements and recommendations. This chapter discusses the following topics:
"Recommended HP Superdome 2 nPartition configurations" (page 31)
"HP Superdome 2 Partitioning choices" (page 31)
"Sample procedure for creating nPartitions" (page 35)

Recommended HP Superdome 2 nPartition configurations

Configuration Guidelines for HP Superdome 2 nPartitions
The following are guidelines to determine the blades to assign to the nPartitions you create on the
HP Superdome servers:
Define nPartitions in order of size.
Assign blades to the nPartition that has the largest CPU count. Select blades for the next largest
nPartition, and so on, and finally choose blades for the nPartition with the least number of
CPUs last. This provides appropriate blade assignments for larger nPartitions (those with more
CPUs). Smaller nPartitions with fewer CPUs are more easily accommodated in the remaining
available blades.
For any nPartition requiring 4 or fewer blades, choose either all even numbered or all odd
numbered slots from the same enclosure.

HP Superdome 2 Partitioning choices

An HP Superdome 2 complex can be partitioned into different combinations of partitions. Similarly,
blades and I/O bays can be assigned to any nPartition. The recommended configurations enable
you to partition the HP Superdome 2 system into the maximum number of recommended, useful,
and allowed nPartitions. The Superdome 2 - 16s can have 1 to 8 blades in the complex and support
nPartitions 1 to 8 blades in size. The Superdome 2 - 8s can have 1 to 8 blades in the complex
and support nPartitions 1 to 4 blades in size. The Superdome 2 - 32s can have 1 to 16 blades in
the complex and support nPartitions 1 to 16 blades in size.
The midplane of the enclosure is routed so that there is more bandwidth across odd slots and even
slots versus mixed. Therefore, a four-blade partition will have a better performance when all four
blades are in odd (1, 3, 5, 7) or even (2, 4, 6, 8) slots rather than mixed (1, 2, 3, 4). This has
been reflected in the partitioning recommendations below.
These are the configurations as they will be shipped from the factory. Other configurations are
supported, but extensive testing is not done on them, they may not have the best performance, or
they may not allow as much flexibility for future upgrades. For example, it is legal for a 2 blade
partition to be populated in slots 1 and 2 versus 1 and 3. The partitions must be designed with
care to keep the spanning of enclosures to a minimum.
Recommended HP Superdome 2 nPartition configurations 31