Activating Processors

The iCOD command icod_modify provides the ability to increase processing capacity instantly by activating licensed processors in iCOD systems. At any time, any number of inactive (licensed) processors can be activated, in accordance with complex-wide compliance.

	NOTE: The iCOD software cannot activate a processor that is marked for deconfiguration.

Activating iCOD Processors in iCOD Systems

After an iCOD processor is licensed, it is immediately available for activation. iCOD provides two types of activation:

Instant activation of processors occurs when the icod_modify command is used with either the -a or -s option, and the -D option is not specified.

Deferred activation of processors occurs when the icod_modify command is used with both the -D option and either the -a or -s option specified. With the deferred option (-D), processor activation occurs after a reboot of the partition. The scheduled timing of the reboot (and the processor activation) can take place at a planned time. For example, if you activate processors in deferred activation mode and schedule a partition reboot to occur on the first day of the next month, the processors are activated at that time

To activate one or more inactive processors, use the icod_modify command as root. See the manpage icod_modify(1M) for details.

	IMPORTANT: Always use the shutdown command when shutting down or rebooting an iCOD partition. See the manpage shutdown(1M) for information on the shutdown command.

iCOD Activation Example Session

The following example shows you how to activate an inactive licensed processor. At the beginning of this activation session, there are a total of 4 processors in the partition; 2 processors are activated and 2 are inactive licensed processors. In this example, 1 additional processor is activated, leaving the partition with 3 active processors (and 1 inactive processor):

Example 4-3 Activating a Licensed Processor

/usr/sbin/icod_modify -a 1 “Add CPU for new FY: Bill P.”

3 processors are now active, and 3 processors are specified to be active after the next reboot.

Points of interest in the above activation example are:

• The processor activation is instant (that is, a reboot is not required).

• The double-quoted text serves as an audit trail of why the activation was done and who performed it. This information is optional and is written to the iCOD log file (var/adm/icod.log) if provided.

	NOTE: To defer the activation (until the next reboot) add the -D option to the command. See the manpage icod_modify(1M) for details.

The icod_modify command allows you to activate additional processors with the -a option, or set the total number of active processors with the -s option. For example, the icod_modify command/option -a 2 activates two additional processors in a partition. The icod_modify command/option -s 2 sets the total number of active processors in a partition to 2.

See “Software Application Considerations” for details of software application implications when activating additional processors.