Instant Capacity Software

What software product is required for Instant Capacity on Itanium-based servers running HP-UX 11i v2? The HP software bundle for the Instant Capacity versions B.07.x software, on Itanium-based servers running HP-UX 11i v1 or 11i v2, is HP product number B9073BA.

Can one HP enterprise server be under both a Pay per use (PPU) and Instant Capacity contract at the same time? No, the Pay per use and Instant Capacity software bundles are mutually exclusive. They can both be installed on the same HP enterprise server, but because the server can only be purchased using either PPU or Instant Capacity (but not both), the server can only be configured for the purchased pricing solution.

How can I get the Instant Capacity B.07.x software bundle? The Instant Capacity B.07.x software bundle B9073BA is installed at the factory for new systems; however, if you need to install the software it is available from the following:

See “Installing Instant Capacity Software” for details of installing the Instant Capacity B.07.x software bundle B9073BA.

One of my HP-UX applications has compatibility issues with the Instant Capacity software. How do I correct the problem? The application may have a problem when processors are activated or deactivated. Some applications size themselves at system startup based on the number of active processors and they don’t adjust for processor increases or decreases. See “Software Application Considerations” for details.

We would like to utilize temporary capacity on our Itanium-based server. What system configuration is necessary and how do we acquire Temporary Instant Capacity? See Chapter 5 “Temporary Instant Capacity for Unlicensed Processors” for details of temporary capacity. First, purchase Temporary Instant Capacity (TiCAP) from your HP sales representative, acquire and apply the TiCAP codeword, and then you can activate additional processors with temporary capacity. If you want asset reporting in order to view temporary capacity balances on the Utility Pricing Solutions portal, then make sure that e-mail is properly configured for the system you plan on using temporary capacity. All partitions in the system must be configured to send e-mail to HP. See “Diagnosing E-mail Configuration” for details.

How much history is retained in the Instant Capacity log files? The Instant Capacity log files retain up to 2 MB of Instant Capacity events. An Instant Capacity event occurs, and is written to the log files, when one of the following happen:

You can view all events in the Instant Capacity log files by viewing the file /var/adm/icod.log or/var/adm/icod.log.old.

How can I obtain codewords for unlicensed components if the Utility Pricing Solutions portal is down? If the Utility Pricing Solutions portal is down, contact the HP Response Center. The Response Center can create an emergency codeword via the Instant Capacity codeword backup tool. If you do not receive a timely response from the HP Response Center, contact the Instant Capacity administrator by sending an e-mail message to: icap_admin@hp.com. The administrator can also create an emergency codeword via the Instant Capacity codeword backup tool.

What licensing is required for the Instant Capacity software? For Instant Capacity versions B.07.x, if you desire to utilize additional components (processors, cell boards, or memory) then you must license them individually. See “License Requirement” for details.

The resulting configuration of my Instant Capacity system does not agree with what I ordered from HP. How did this configuration change occur? The Instant Capacity software is able to control the granularity of processor activation/deactivation to the single processor level. The Instant Capacity ordering and manufacturing rules often do not allow such fine granularity.

The Instant Capacity ordering rules dictate the quantity of licensed and unlicensed processors in the cell boards. Because the Instant Capacity software distributes the licensed and unlicensed processors (for a given partition) in a manner that optimizes loads across all cells, the end configuration may be different than the original order — but the number of licensed and unlicensed processors is the same (that is, they match what was ordered).

For example, if you order a rx8620 server with two cell boards, in which cell board #1 contains 4 active processors and cell board #2 contains 2 active processors and 2 unlicensed processors (total of 6 active and 2 inactive processors), at run time, the Instant Capacity software balances the distribution of active processors across the cell boards so that each cell has 3 active processors and 1 unlicensed, inactive processor.

How does Instant Capacity interact/coexist with partitions running software other than HP-UX? Instant Capacity is only supported on HP-UX. If other partitions of an Instant Capacity system are running another operating system, then the Instant Capacity software assumes that all the system components in the non-HP-UX partitions are active licensed components. When checking for the correct number of inactive unlicensed components, only the HP-UX partitions will be examined.

What e-mail is sent by the Instant Capacity software? The following table lists the e-mail messages sent to the system from the Instant Capacity software:

If asset reporting is configured, and the system has e-mail connectivity to HP, these messages are sent to HP: