HP Instant Capacity User's Guide for versions 8.x > Chapter 8 Troubleshooting

Handling Compliance Exceptions

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A complex can get out of compliance with the Instant Capacity contract if any of the following occurs:

  • More cells are active than expected (not enough inactive cells)

  • More memory is active than expected (not enough inactive memory)

  • More cores are active than expected (not enough inactive cores)

  • There is a negative temporary capacity balance

  • (GiCAP) Not enough sharing rights

  • (GiCAP) Hardware added which is incompatible with the group

NOTE: Your system may be out of compliance due to having different Instant Capacity software products installed. For example, if a partition has the old product B9073AA installed (Instant Capacity versions B.03.x through B.05.x) and another partition in the same system has the new product B9073BA installed (Instant Capacity version B.06.00 or greater), the B9073BA software assumes that all components in partitions that have B9073AA installed are active. See “Upgrading to Instant Capacity versions B.06.x or later (HP-UX)” for details of correcting this non-compliant state.

The Instant Capacity software sends an exception report (via e-mail) if one of the above exception conditions occurs. Exception information is also written to the system log file. In some cases, compliance is enforced by deactivating cores at boot time. See also “Temporary Instant Capacity Expiration and Compliance Enforcement” and virtual partition “Boot Time Compliance” for more details about enforcement.

The following page contains an example of the e-mail exception report for having more cores active than expected:

Example 8-1 Exception Report for More Cores Active than Expected

To: root@par1.yourorg.com
Subject: Instant Capacity Exception Report

This message is being sent to inform you that your Instant Capacity
complex (containing the partition par1) is in an exception state based on
the following detected exceptions:

      More cores active than expected


This complex is out of compliance with the Instant Capacity contract.
The listed exceptions must be corrected as soon as possible.

'More cores active than expected' means that the number of active cores
across the complex exceeds the number of core usage rights. For details of
core usage, use the icapstatus command. This exception state may be
corrected by: deactivating cores until the number of inactive cores
matches the global number of cores without usage rights, as reported by
icapstatus. Alternately, additional core usage rights can be purchased
for permanent activation, or temporary capacity (TiCAP) can be purchased
and applied to the complex.


NOTE: When a system is in an exception state, many system management
      operations are likely to fail. These include, but are not limited to:
      the ability to activate cores, the ability to manage hard
      partitions (nPars), the ability to manage virtual partitions (vPars).

NOTE: One or more of the exceptions listed in this mail may be due to
      assumptions made because of an inability to get complete information
      (see icapstatus output for details).
      In some cases, exception states arise when partitions are not shut
      down properly, or have been loaded without Instabt Capacity software.
      To eliminate these possibilities, do the following:
      1) always use the "shutdown" command when shutting down a partition.
      2) boot any partitions that may have been shutdown improperly.
      3) ensure that all cells in the system are powered on.
      4) ensure that Instant Capacity software is properly loaded and
         configured on all partitions.


NOTE: An exception related to cells, memory, or cores may occur if a
      cell containing inactive components is removed from the complex
      (e.g. for repairs or upgrades). Because Instant Capacity compliance
      requires that the number of inactive components on the complex must
      match the number of components without usage rights, you may need
      to adjust the number of inactive components on the complex if a cell
      containing inactive components is removed.

See the Instant Capacity User's Guide at /usr/share/doc/icapUserGuide.pdf
for more information.

As mentioned above, you can also get an exception report for other exception conditions. Here are the other conditions and examples of the appropriate exception report content:

Example 8-2 Content of Exception Report for More Cells Active than Expected

      More cells active than expected

'More cells active than expected' means that the number of active cells
across the complex exceeds the number of cell usage rights. To find out
how many inactive cells are expected on the complex, run icapstatus and look
at the global number of cells without usage rights. This exception may be
corrected by using parmodify to set the use_on_next_boot flag for an
assigned cell to "n", followed by a partition reboot. Alternately, cells
may be turned off after a partition reboot, unassigned from partitions,
or additional cell usage rights may be purchased for permanent activation.

Example 8-3 Content of Exception Report for More Memory Active than Expected

      More memory active than expected

'More memory active than expected' means that the amount of active memory
across the complex exceeds the available memory usage rights. To find out
how much inactive memory is expected on the complex, run icapstatus and look
at the global amount of memory without usage rights. Typically, this
exception occurs when a newly added cell without usage rights is activated,
but it may also occur when a cell with a small amount of memory
is deactivated and replaced with a cell with a greater amount of memory.
To correct this exception, one or more cells will have to be deactivated in
order to deactivate the appropriate amount of memory. This can be done by
using parmodify to set the use_on_next_boot flag for an assigned cell to "n",
followed by a partition reboot. Alternately, cells may be turned off after a
partition reboot, unassigned from partitions, or the appropriate amount of
memory usage rights may be purchased for permanent activation.

Example 8-4 Content of Exception Report for Negative Temporary Capacity Balance

      Negative temporary capacity balance

'Negative temporary capacity balance' means that the authorized temporary
capacity(TiCAP) balance on the system has been depleted and continued use of
core(s) without usage rights has caused additional (unauthorized) temporary
capacity to be consumed. To correct this exception, first correct any
'More cores active than expected' exception so that the temporary capacity
balance does not continue to grow more negative. Then, purchase additional
temporary capacity and apply the temporary capacity codeword to the complex.
Alternately, purchase additional usage rights to match the number of core(s)
consuming temporary capacity and apply the Right to Use (RTU) codewords to
the complex.