InfoScale™ 9.0 Virtualization Guide - AIX

Last Published:
Product(s): InfoScale & Storage Foundation (9.0)
Platform: AIX
  1. Section I. Overview
    1. Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions in AIX PowerVM virtual environments
      1.  
        Overview of the InfoScale Virtualization Guide
      2.  
        About the AIX PowerVM virtualization technology
      3.  
        About InfoScale products support for the AIX PowerVM environment
      4.  
        About IBM LPARs with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV)
      5.  
        About Veritas Extension for Oracle Disk Manager
      6.  
        Virtualization use cases addressed by InfoScale
  2. Section II. Implementation
    1. Setting up Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions in AIX PowerVM virtual environments
      1. Supported configurations for Virtual I/O servers (VIOS) on AIX
        1.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the logical partition (LPAR)
        2.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS)
        3.  
          InfoScale products in the logical partition (LPAR)
        4.  
          Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability in the logical partition (LPAR)
        5.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS) and logical partition (LPAR)
        6.  
          Dynamic Multi-Pathing in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS) and InfoScale products in the logical partition (LPAR)
        7.  
          Cluster Server in the logical partition (LPAR)
        8.  
          Cluster Server in the management LPAR
        9.  
          Cluster Server in a cluster across logical partitions (LPARs) and physical machines
      2.  
        Support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) in IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) environments
      3.  
        About setting up logical partitions (LPARs) with InfoScale products
      4.  
        Configuring IBM PowerVM LPAR guest for disaster recovery
      5. Installing and configuring Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions in the logical partition (LPAR)
        1.  
          Impact of over-provisioning on Storage Foundation and High Availability
        2. About SmartIO in the AIX virtualized environment
          1.  
            Performing LPM in the SmartIO environment
      6.  
        Installing and configuring storage solutions in the Virtual I/O server (VIOS)
      7. Installing and configuring Cluster Server for logical partition and application availability
        1.  
          Recommendations for improved resiliency of InfoScale clusters in virtualized environments
        2.  
          How Cluster Server (VCS) manages logical partitions (LPARs)
      8.  
        Enabling Veritas Extension for ODM file access from WPAR with VxFS
  3. Section III. Use cases for AIX PowerVM virtual environments
    1. Application to spindle visibility
      1.  
        About application to spindle visibility using
      2.  
        About discovering LPAR and VIO in Arctera InfoScale Operations Manager
      3.  
        About LPAR storage correlation supported in Arctera InfoScale Operations Manager
      4.  
        Prerequisites for LPAR storage correlation support in Arctera InfoScale Operations Manager
    2. Simplified storage management in VIOS
      1.  
        About simplified management
      2.  
        About Dynamic Multi-Pathing in a Virtual I/O server
      3.  
        About the Volume Manager (VxVM) component in a Virtual I/O server
      4. Configuring Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) on Virtual I/O server
        1.  
          Migrating from other multi-pathing solutions to DMP on Virtual I/O server
        2.  
          Migrating from MPIO to DMP on a Virtual I/O server for a dual-VIOS configuration
        3.  
          Migrating from PowerPath to DMP on a Virtual I/O server for a dual-VIOS configuration
      5. Configuring Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) pseudo devices as virtual SCSI devices
        1.  
          Exporting Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) devices as virtual SCSI disks
        2.  
          Exporting a Logical Volume as a virtual SCSI disk
        3.  
          Exporting a file as a virtual SCSI disk
      6. Extended attributes in VIO client for a virtual SCSI disk
        1.  
          Configuration prerequisites for providing extended attributes on VIO client for virtual SCSI disk
        2.  
          Displaying extended attributes of virtual SCSI disks
      7.  
        Virtual IO client adapter settings for Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) in dual-VIOS configurations
      8.  
        Using DMP to provide multi-pathing for the root volume group (rootvg)
      9.  
        Boot device management on NPIV presented devices
    3. Virtual machine (logical partition) availability
      1.  
        About virtual machine (logical partition) availability
      2.  
        VCS in the management LPAR
      3. Setting up management LPAR
        1.  
          Configuring password-less SSH communication between VCS nodes and HMC
      4. Setting up managed LPARs
        1.  
          Creating an LPAR profile
        2.  
          Bundled agents for managing the LPAR
        3.  
          Configuring VCS service groups to manage the LPAR
      5.  
        Managing logical partition (LPAR) failure scenarios
    4. Simplified management and high availability for IBM Workload Partitions
      1.  
        About IBM Workload Partitions
      2.  
        About using IBM Workload Partitions (WPARs) with InfoScale products
      3. Implementing InfoScale support for WPARs
        1.  
          Using a VxFS file system within a single system WPAR
        2.  
          WPAR with root (/) partition as VxFS
        3.  
          Using VxFS as a shared file system
      4. How Cluster Server (VCS) works with Workload Patitions (WPARs)
        1.  
          About the ContainerInfo attribute
        2.  
          About the ContainerOpts attribute
        3.  
          About the WPAR agent
      5. Configuring VCS in WPARs
        1. Prerequisites for configuring VCS in WPARs
          1.  
            About using custom agents in WPARs
        2.  
          Deciding on the WPAR root location
        3.  
          Creating a WPAR root on local disk
        4.  
          Creating WPAR root on shared storage using NFS
        5. Installing the application
          1. Configuring the service group for the application
            1.  
              Modifying the service group configuration
            2.  
              About configuring failovers
        6.  
          Verifying the WPAR configuration
        7.  
          Maintenance tasks
        8.  
          Troubleshooting information
      6.  
        Configuring AIX WPARs for disaster recovery using VCS
    5. High availability and live migration
      1.  
        About Live Partition Mobility (LPM)
      2.  
        About the partition migration process and simplified management
      3.  
        About Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions support for Live Partition Mobility
      4.  
        Providing high availability with live migration in a Cluster Server environment
      5.  
        Providing logical partition (LPAR) failover with live migration
      6. Limitations and unsupported LPAR features
        1.  
          Live partition mobility of management LPARs
        2.  
          Live partition mobility of managed LPARs
    6. Multi-tier business service support
      1.  
        About Virtual Business Services
      2.  
        Sample virtual business service configuration
    7. Server consolidation
      1.  
        About IBM LPARs with virtual SCSI devices
      2. Using Storage Foundation in the logical partition (LPAR) with virtual SCSI devices
        1.  
          Using Storage Foundation with virtual SCSI devices
        2.  
          Setting up DMP for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        3.  
          About disabling DMP for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        4.  
          Preparing to install or upgrade Storage Foundation with DMP disabled for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR)
        5.  
          Disabling DMP multi-pathing for vSCSI devices in the logical partition (LPAR) after installation or upgrade
        6.  
          Adding and removing DMP support for vSCSI devices for an array
        7. How DMP handles I/O for vSCSI devices
          1.  
            Setting the vSCSI I/O policy
      3.  
        Using VCS with virtual SCSI devices
      4.  
        About server consolidation
      5. About IBM Virtual Ethernet
        1.  
          Shared Ethernet Adapter (SEA)
    8. Physical to virtual migration (P2V)
      1.  
        About migration from Physical to VIO environment
      2.  
        Migrating from Physical to VIO environment
  4. Section IV. Reference
    1. Appendix A. How to isolate system problems
      1.  
        About VxFS trace events
      2.  
        Tracing file read-write event
      3.  
        Tracing Inode cache event
      4.  
        Tracing Low Memory event
    2. Appendix B. Provisioning data LUNs
      1.  
        Provisioning data LUNs in a mixed VxVM and LVM environment
    3. Appendix C. Where to find more information
      1.  
        InfoScale documentation
      2.  
        Additional documentation for AIX virtualization
      3.  
        Service and support
      4.  
        About Services and Operations Readiness Tools (SORT)

About setting up logical partitions (LPARs) with InfoScale products

Before setting up your virtual environment, verify that your planned configuration will meet the system requirements, licensing and other considerations for installation with Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) Solutions products.

  • Licensing: Storage Foundation or Storage Foundation Cluster File System High Availability in an LPAR may be licensed either by licensing the entire server (for an unlimited number of LPARs) or licensing the maximum number of processors cores assigned to that LPAR.

  • IBM Power virtualization requirements: See IBM documentation.

  • InfoScale product requirements: See Table: InfoScale product requirements

  • Release Notes: Each InfoScale product Release Notes contains last minute news and important details for each product, including updates to system requirements and supported software. Review the Release Notes for the latest information before you start installing the product.

    The product documentation is available on the Web at the following location:

    https://sort.veritas.com/documents

Table: IBM Power Virtualization system requirements

IBM Power Virtualization requirement

Description

Supported architecture

Power PC

Minimum system requirements

No specific requirements. See the Release Notes for your product.

Recommended system requirements

  • 6GB plus the required disk space recommended by the guest operating system per guest. For most operating systems more than 6GB of disk space is recommended

  • One processor core or hyper-thread for each virtualized CPU and one for the host

  • 2GB of RAM plus additional RAM for LPARs

IBM documentation for more information

See the IBM documentation.

Table: InfoScale product requirements

InfoScale product requirement

Description

Hardware

Full virtualization-enabled CPU

Refer to the hardware compatibility list (HCL) applicable to your InfoScale version and platform.

Software

  • Dynamic Multi-pathing 9.0

    Used for storage visibility on logical partitions (LPARs) and VIOS

  • Storage Foundation 9.0

    Used for storage management on LPARs and VIOS

  • Storage Foundation HA 9.0

    Storage Foundation and High Availability 9.0

    Used for storage management and clustering on LPARs and VIOS

  • Cluster Server 9.0

    Used for applications and managed LPARs monitoring and failover

Supported OS version in LPAR

Refer to the InfoScale Release Notes.

Supported OS management LPAR

Refer to the InfoScale Release Notes.

Storage

  • Shared storage for holding the LPAR image. (virtual machine failover)

  • Shared storage for holding the application data. (application failover)

Networking

  • Configure the LPAR for communication over the public network

  • Setup virtual interfaces for private communication.

Documentation: see the product release notes for the most current system requirements, limitations, and known issues:

Installation, patching, and configuration requirements:

Arctera strongly recommends that you use InfoScale products with the latest patches. No other configuration is required. Refer to the following website for the latest patches for Storage Foundation 9.0 on AIX:

https://sort.veritas.com/checklist/install/

To use VCS to manage LPARs as virtual machines, the following requirements must be met.

Table: VCS system requirements for the LPAR-supported configurations

VCS requirement

Description

VCS version

7.3.1 or later

Supported OS version in LPARs

AIX 7.2 TL4, TL5

AIX 7.3 TL0, TL1

Supported VIOS version

2.1.3.10-FP-23 and above

Supported HMC version

7.2.0.0, 8.1, 9.1

Best practice: all the physical servers that are part of a cluster are managed by the same HMC.

Supported hardware

Power 7, 8, 9, 10

Table: N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) requirements

NPIV requirement

Description

NPIV support

Included with PowerVM Express, Standard, and Enterprise Edition and supports AIX 7.2 and AIX 7.3.

VIO requirements

NPIV requires a minimum of Power6 systems, VIOS 2.1, and 8GB HBA adapters. NPIV also requires NPIV aware switches. The end storage devices need not be NPIV aware.

Hardware requirements

NPIV requires extended functionality on the HBA. Currently IBM sells this as an 8GB HBA, part number XXXXX. The SAN Switch ports must also support NPIV as well, Brocade and Cisco make products that provide this functionality.

Information for NPIV and how to configure an IBM VIO environment

See IBM documentation.

Installation, patching, and configuration requirements for NPIV support:

  • No patches are needed at the time of release. No other configuration is required.

  • Using 9.0 products with the latest patches when they become available is strongly recommended.

  • For current information on patches, see:

    https://sort.veritas.com/checklist/install/

You can use Cluster Server (VCS) in a IBM PowerVM virtualization environment to provide mission-critical clustering and failover capabilities.

See About IBM LPARs with N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV).

See Boot device management on NPIV presented devices.

See Additional documentation for AIX virtualization.