HP Instant Capacity (iCAP) manual Cell Board Activation Requiring Additional Core Usage Rights

Instant Capacity Cell Board and Considerations of Core Usage Rights

At least one core usage right must be available for an Instant Capacity cell board you want to activate. Each active cell board must have at least 1 active core. However, you do not necessarily need to acquire additional core usage rights. No additional core usage rights are required unless the requirement for a minimum of 1 core per active cell board cannot otherwise be met. If the number of active cores in an nPartition equals (or exceeds) the number of cell usage rights, then you do not need to purchase additional core usage rights.

NOTE: The following examples assume that the number of intended active cores for the nPartition remains constant before and after cell board activation.

For example, consider an nPartition with 1 active cell board with all 4 cores active, and 1 inactive cell board with 4 inactive cores. The number of intended active cores for the nPartition is 4. No additional core usage rights are available. Activation of the inactive cell board on the complex results in 2 active cores per cell board after reboot. That is, the Instant Capacity software distributes the available core usage rights across the 2 active cell boards in the partition. The requirement that at least 1 core is active on each cell board is satisfied, so purchase of additional core usage rights is not necessary. You can choose to activate additional cores in the partition. If you do so, you should purchase core usage rights at the same time as the cell usage rights. In this instance, it is not required.

Table 6-1 Cell Board Activation Not Requiring Additional Core Usage Rights

State	Active Cell Board	Inactive Cell Board	Notes
	Cores	Cores
Before Cell Board	4 active	4 inactive	No additional core usage rights are available on
Activation			the complex.
After Cell Board	2 active, 2 inactive	2 active, 2 inactive	No additional core usage rights are required
Activation			because the number of core usage rights is greater
			than the number of active cell boards.

In a different scenario, activation of an additional cell usage right can cause the number of core usage rights to be below the minimum (1 active core per active cell board) and necessitate the acquisition of additional core usage rights. For example, consider an nPartition with 1 active cell board containing 1 active core and 3 inactive cores, and 1 inactive cell board with 4 inactive cores. The number of intended active cores is 1 and there are no available core usage rights on the complex. In this case, purchase of an additional cell usage right for the inactive cell board requires purchase of an additional core usage right in order to meet the minimum requirement of 1 core per active cell board.

Table 6-2 Cell Board Activation Requiring Additional Core Usage Rights

State	Active Cell Board	Inactive Cell Board	Notes
	Cores	Cores
Before Cell Board	1 active, 3 inactive	4 inactive	No core usage rights are available on the complex.
Activation
After Cell Board	1 active, 3 inactive	1 active, 3 inactive	One additional core usage right is acquired
Activation			because the number of core usage rights is less
			than the number of active cell boards.

96 Instant Capacity Cell Board