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)

Boot device management on NPIV presented devices

N_Port ID Virtualization(NPIV) is a Fibre Channel industry standard technology that provides the capability to assign a physical Fibre Channel adapter multiple unique world wide port names (WWPNs). NPIV enables the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) to provision entire dedicated logical ports to client LPAR's rather than individual LUNs. A physical Fibre Channel HBA in VIOS can be shared across multiple guest operating systems in a virtual environment.

Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) supports the NPIV presented devices for the rootvg, within the requirements outlined in the vendor support matrix.

Requirements for boot device management on NPIV-presented devices

Requirements for boot device management on NPIV-presented devices:

  • Any computer with Power 6, Power 7, Power 8, or Power 9 architecture.

  • SAN Switch & FC Adapters should be NPIV capable.

  • At least one 8 GB PCI Express Dual Port FC Adapter in VIOS.

  • VIOC Minimum OS-level:

    • AIX 7.2 TL4, TL5

    • AIX 7.3 TL0, TL1

  • VIO Server Version 2.1 with Fix Pack 20.1 or later

  • HMC 7.3.4 or later up to 9

Using Dynamic Multi-Pathing (DMP) on rootvg for boot device management

All the LUNs presented through NPIV for a client LPAR have the characteristics of a dedicated HBA. Therefore the procedure for using DMP on rootvg devices from NPIV presented devices is similar to using DMP on rootvg devices from physical HBA. Use of DMP on rootvg is supported through vxdmproot native command.

To use DMP on rootvg for boot device management

Using NPIV for data volumes

The behavior of data volumes presented through NPIV devices is similar to those presented through physical HBA. All SCSI device inquiry operations work and SCSI-3 persistent reservation functionality is also supported, enabling the use of SCSI-3 I/O Fencing if the underlying storage supports.

To use NPIV for data volumes

  • No special handling is required for data volumes.
Boot Devices on vSCSI, NPIV for data volumes

A hybrid solution is supported where the AIX rootvg is placed on vSCSI devices presented through a VIO pair with application data volumes presented through NPIV. This solution is often chosen to facilitate NPIV troubleshooting as well as presenting a consistent NIM installation profile.