@Test
  public void testPersistentPartition() throws Exception {
    CacheCreation cache = new CacheCreation();
    RegionAttributesCreation attrs = new RegionAttributesCreation(cache);
    attrs.setDataPolicy(DataPolicy.PERSISTENT_PARTITION);

    cache.createRegion("parRoot", attrs);

    Region r = cache.getRegion("parRoot");
    assertEquals(DataPolicy.PERSISTENT_PARTITION, r.getAttributes().getDataPolicy());

    testXml(cache);

    Cache c = getCache();
    assertNotNull(c);

    Region region = c.getRegion("parRoot");
    assertNotNull(region);

    assertEquals(DataPolicy.PERSISTENT_PARTITION, region.getAttributes().getDataPolicy());
    // since CacheTestCase remoteTearDown does not destroy PartitionedRegion
    region.localDestroyRegion();
  }
Make sure you can create a persistent partitioned region from xml.
geode-core/src/distributedTest/java/org/apache/geode/cache30/CacheXml66DUnitTest.java