Global Instant Capacity

Global Instant Capacity, or GiCAP, provides HP customers with the flexibility to move usage rights (RTUs) for Instant Capacity components within a group of servers. It also provides “pooled” temporary capacity across the group. This provides more cost-effective high availability including Disaster Recovery capabilities, more adaptable load balancing, and more efficient and easier use of temporary capacity.

Global Instant Capacity is built on the concept of a server group, or GiCAP Group. This is a list of servers that are allowed to share iCAP usage rights. In addition, at least one HP-UX system running iCAP must be designated as the Global Instant Capacity Group Manager. The Group Manager hosts the GiCAP software that maintains a database of information about the group and about group resources (usage rights and temporary capacity). A GiCAP group is managed using the command icapmanage on the Group Manager system.

While GiCAP is part of Instant Capacity and is installed at the same time as iCAP, it is not enabled during installation. In order to create groups and share resources across groups, you must purchase GiCAP Sharing Rights, acquire the GiCAP codeword from the HP Utility Pricing Solutions portal (http://www.hp.com/go/icap/portal), and apply the associated codeword to the Group Manager system. Application of the Sharing Rights codeword to the Group Manager system enables the addition of members with Instant Capacity components to groups. In addition, you must acquire grouping rules from the portal and apply those rules to the Group Manager system. GiCAP Sharing Rights and grouping rules are described in Chapter 7. All GiCAP group members must run Instant Capacity version 8.x or later. Group Manager systems must run Instant Capacity version 8.01.01 or later.

Instant Capacity allows deactivations of cores on non-Instant Capacity systems (those without any Instant Capacity components), allowing such systems to participate in a GiCAP group and loan usage rights to Instant Capacity systems. A GiCAP group consists of servers that are allowed to be grouped together according to a set of grouping rules defined by HP. These grouping rules must be acquired from the iCAP portal and applied to the Group Manager system before groups can be created. See “Global Instant Capacity Grouping Rules” for more information.

The Group Manager must be running iCAP version 8.02.01 or later, and all known hosts on the complex containing a failed group member must be running iCAP version 8.02 or later, in order to enable full Disaster Recovery features.