Recommended Npartition Configurations - HP Rp7410 - Server - 0 MB RAM Administrator's Manual

• On HP Integrity servers, all cells assigned to an nPartition must have either mx2
dual-processor modules or single Itanium 2 processors.
Both HP mx2 dual-processor modules and single Itanium 2 processors can exist in the same
complex, but they cannot be mixed in the same nPartition.
• The same firmware revision must be present on all cells within an nPartition.
• At least one cell in every nPartition must be connected to an I/O chassis that has core I/O.
Only one core I/O is active per nPartition. If an nPartition has multiple cells that are connected
to I/O chassis with core I/O, only the core I/O connected to the active core cell is active.

Recommended nPartition Configurations

For best performance and availability, configure nPartitions to meet the following guidelines.
• On servers based on the HP sx1000 chipset or HP sx2000 chipset, the nPartition memory
configuration should meet the following guidelines:
— The number of cells participating in memory interleave should be a power of two, and
each cell participating in interleave should contribute the same amount of memory.
— The total amount of memory being interleaved should be a power of two number of
GBytes.
• When configuring cell local memory, ensure that the amount of interleaved memory meets
the guidelines given here. (All memory not specified as being cell local will be interleaved.)
Also ensure that any nPartition that has cell local memory configured runs only operating
systems that support cell local memory.
Cell local memory can be configured on servers based on the HP sx1000 chipset or HP sx2000
chipset.
CAUTION:
that support it.
Any memory configured as cell local memory is unusable when an nPartition runs an
operating system that does not support it.
• The I/O chassis containing the active core I/O also should have an operating system (OS)
boot disk and method of installing or recovering the OS (such as a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
drive, network connection to an install server, or tape drive). This applies to first-generation
cell-based servers and HP sx1000-based servers; it allows the nPartition to boot or recover
the OS, even if only the core cell for the nPartition is functioning. On HP sx2000-based
servers, every cell has core I/O.
• Assign multiple core-capable cells to each nPartition.
This allows the nPartition to boot at least to the system boot environment (either BCH or
EFI) if a core-capable cell fails to boot. On HP sx2000-based servers, every cell has core I/O.
(Disregard this recommendation if you are configuring multiple nPartitions in a cell-based
server that has only two core-capable cells.)
• The memory configuration of all cells in an nPartition should be identical to achieve best
performance.
Each cell in an nPartition should have:
— the same number of DIMMs
— the same capacity (size) and the same locations (population) of DIMMs
This avoids cell interconnect (crossbar) "hot spots" by distributing memory evenly across
all of the cells in the nPartition.
Memory configured as cell local memory only can be used by operating systems
Recommended nPartition Configurations 63