IBM AIX - VIO Made Easy - A Complete Overview!!

PowerVM: It allows to increase the utilization of servers. Power VM includes Logical partitioning, Micro Partitioning, Systems Virtualization, VIO, hypervisor and so on.

Simultaneous Multi Threading : SMT is an IBM microprocessor technology that allows 2 separate H/W instruction streams to run concurrently on the same physical processor.

Virtual Ethernet : VLAN allows secure connection between logical partitions without the need for a physical IO adapter or cabling. The ability to securely share Ethernet bandwidth across multiple partitions increases H/W utilization.

Virtual SCSI: VSCSI provides secure communication between the partitions and VIO server.The combination of VSCSI and VIO capabilities allows you to share storage adapter bandwidth and to subdivide single large disks into smaller segments. The adapters and disks can shared across multiple partitions, increase utilization.

VIO server : Physical resources allows you to share the group of partitions.The VIO server can use both virtualized storage and network adapters, making use of VSCSI and virtual Ethernet.

Redundant VIO server: AIX or linux partitions can be a client of one or more VIO servers at the same time. A good strategy to improve availability for sets of client partitions is to connect them to 2 VIO servers. The reason for redundancy is ability to upgrade latest technologies without affecting production workloads.

Micro Partitioning: Sharing the processing capacity from one or more logical partitions. The benefit of Micro Partitioning is that it allows significantly increased overall utilization . n of processor resources. A micro partition must have 0.1 processing units. Maximum no.of partitions on any system P server is 254.

Uncapped Mode : The processing capacity can exceed the entitled capacity when resources are available in the shared processor pool and the micro partition is eligible to run.

Capped Mode : The processing capacity can never exceed the entitled capacity.

Virtual Processors :A virtual processor is a representation of a physical processor that is presented to the operating system running in a micro partition.

If a micro partition is having 1.60 processing units , and 2 virtual processors. Each virtual processor will have 0.80 processing units.

Dedicated processors : Dedicated processors are whole processors that are assigned to dedicated LPARs . The minimum processor allocation for an LPAR is one.

IVM(Integrated virtualization manager): IVM is a h/w management solution that performs a subset of the HMC features for a single server, avoiding the need of a dedicated HMC server.

Live partition Mobility: Allows you to move running AIX or Linux partitions from one physical Power6 server to another without disturb.

VIO

Version for VIO 1.5

For VIO command line interface is IOSCLI

The environment for VIO is oem_setup_env

The command for configuration through smit is cfgassist

Initial login to the VIO server is padmin

Help for vio commands ex: help errlog

Hardware requirements for creating VIO :

1. Power 5 or 6
2. HMC
3. At least one storage adapter
4. If you want to share Physical disk then one big Physical disk
5. Ethernet adapter
6. At least 512 MB memory

Latest version for vio is 2.1 fixpack 23

Copying the virtual IO server DVD media to a NIM server:

Mount /cdrom

Cd /cdrom

Cp /cdrom/bosinst.data /nim/resources

Execute the smitty installios command

Using smitty installios you can install the VIO S/w.

Topas –cecdisp flag shows the detailed disk statistics

Viostat –extdisk flag shows detailed disk statistics.

Wklmgr and wkldagent for handling workload manager. They can be used to record performance data and that can be viewed by wkldout.

Chtcpip command for changing tcpip parameters

Viosecure command for handling the secure settings

Mksp : to create a storage pool

Chsp: Adds or removes physical volumes from the storage pool

Lssp: lists information about storage pool

Mkbdsp: Attaches storage from storage pool to virtual SCSI adapter

Rmbdsp: removes storage from virtual scsi adapter and return it to storage pool

Default storage pool is rootvg

Creation of VIO server using HMC version 7 :

Select the managed system -> Configuration -> Create Logical Partition -> VIO server

Enter the partition name and ID.

Check the mover service box if the VIO server partition to be created will be supporting partition mobility.

Give a partition profile name ex:default

Processors : You can assign entire processors to your partition for dedicated use, or you can assign partial processors units from the shared processor pool. Select shared.

Specify the minimum, desired and maximum processing units.

Specify minimum, desired and maximum virtual processors. And select the uncapped weight is 191

The system will try to allocate the desired values

The partition will not start if the managed system cannot provide the minimum amount of processing units.

You cannot dynamically increase the amount of processing units to more than the maximum,

Assign the memory also min, desired and max.

The ratio between minimum and maximum amount of memory cannot be more than 1/64

IO selects the physical IO adapters for the partition. Required means the partition will not be able to start unless these are available in this partition. Desired means that the partition can start also without these adapters. A required adapter can not be moved in a dynamic LPAR operation.

VIO server partition requires a fiber channel adapter to attach SAN disks for the client partitions. It also requires an Ethernet adapter for shared Ethernet adapter bridging to external networks.

VIO requires minimum of 30GB of disk space.

Create Virtual Ethernet and SCSI adapters: increase the maximum no of virtual adapters to 100

The maximum no of adapters must not set more than 1024.

In actions -> select create -> Ethernet adapter give Adapter ID and VLAN id.

Select Access External Network Check Box to use this adapter as a gateway between internal and external network.

And also create SCSI adapter also.

VIO server S/W installation :

1. Place the CD/DVD in P5 Box
2. Activate the VIO server by clicking the activate. Select the default partition
3. Then check the Open terminal window or console section and click the advanced. And OK.
4. Under the boot mode drop down list select SMS.

After installation is complete login with padmin and press a(for s/w maintenance agreement terms)

License –accept for accepting the license.

Creating a shared Ethernet adapter

1. lsdev –virtual ( check the virtual Ethernet adapter)
2. lsdev –type adapter ( Check the physical Ethernet adapter)
3. you use the lsmap –all –net command to check the slot numbers of the virtual Ethernet adapter.
4. mkvdev –sea ent0 –vadapter ent2 –default ent2 –defaultid 1
5. lsmap –all –net
6. use the cfgassist or mktcpip command configure the tcp/ip or
7. mktcpip –hostname vio_server1 –inetaddr 9.3.5.196 –interface ent3 –netmask 255.255.244.0 –gateway 9.3.4.1

Defining virtual disks

Virtual disks can either be whole physical disks, logical volumes or files. The physical disks can be local or SAN disks.

Create the virtual disks

1. login to the padmin and run cfgdev command to rebuild the list of visible devices.
2. lsdev –virtual (make sure virtual scsi server adapters available ex:vhost0)
3. lsmap –all --> to check the slot numbers and vhost adapter numbers.
4. mkvg –f –vg rootvg_clients hdisk2 --> Creating rootvg_clients vg.
5. mklv –lv dbsrv_rvg rootvg_clients 10G

Creating virtual device mappings:

1. lsdev –vpd |grep vhost
2. mkvdev –vdev dbsrv_rvg -vadapter vhost2 –dev dbsrv_rvg
3. lsdev –virtual
4. lsmap –all

fget_config –Av command provided on the IBM DS4000 series for a listing of LUN names.

Virtual SCSI Optical devices:

A dvd or cd device can be virtualized and assigned to client partitions. Only one VIO client can access the device at a time.

Steps :

1. let the DVD drive assign to VIO server
2. Create a server SCSI adapter using the HMC.
3. Run the cfgdev command to get the new vhost adapter. Check using lsdev –virtual
4. Create the virtual device for the DVD drive.(mkvdev –vdev cd0 –vadapter vhost3 –dev vcd)
5. Create a client scsi adapter in each lpar using the HMC.
6. Run the cfgmgr

Moving the drive :

1. Find the vscsi adapter using lscfg |grep Cn(n is the slot number)
2. rmdev –Rl vscsin
3. run the cfgmgr in target LPAR

Through dsh command find which lpar is currently holding the drive.

Unconfiguring the dvd drive :

1. rmdev –dev vcd –ucfg
2. lsdev –slots
3. rmdev –dev pci5 –recursive –ucfg
4. cfgdev
5. lsdev –virtual

Mirroring the VIO rootvg:

1. chvg –factor 6 rootvg (rootvg can include upto 5 PVs with 6096 PPs)
2. extendvg –f rootvg hdisk2
3. lspv
4. mirrorios –f hdisk2
5. lsvg –lv rootvg
6. bootlist –mode –normal –ls

Creating Partitions :

1. Create new partition using HMC with AIX/linux
2. give partition ID and Partition name
3. Give proper memory settings(min/max/desired)
4. Skip the physical IO
5. give proper processing units (min/desired/max)
6. Create virtual ethernet adapter ( give adapter ID and VLAN id)
7. Create virtual SCSI adapter
8. In optional settings

• · Enable connection monitoring
• · Automatically start with managed system
• · Enable redundant error path reporting

9. bootmodes select normal

Advanced Virtualization:

Providing continuous availability of VIO servers : use multiple VIO servers for providing highly available virtual scsi and shared Ethernet services.

IVM supports a single VIO server.

Virtual scsi redundancy can be achieved by using MPIO and LVM mirroring at client partition and VIO server level.

Continuous availability for VIO

• Shared Ethernet adapter failover
• Network interface backup in the client
• MPIO in the client with SAN
• LVM Mirroring

Virtual Scsi Redundancy:

Virtual scsi redundancy can be achieved using MPIO and LVM mirroring.

Client is using MPIO to access a SAN disk, and LVM mirroring to access 2 scsi disks.

MPIO: MPIO for highly available virtual scsi configuration. The disks on the storage are assigned to both virtual IO servers. The MPIO for virtual scsi devices only supports failover mode.

Configuring MPIO:

• Create 2 virtual IO server partitions
• Install both VIO servers
• Change fc_err_recov( to fast_fail and dyntrk(AIX tolerate cabling changes) to yes. ( chdev –dev fscsi0 –attr fc_err_recov=fast_fail dyntrk=yes –perm
• Reboot the VIO servers
• Create the client partitions. Add virtual Ethernet adapters
• Use the fget_config(fget_config –vA) command to get the LUN to hdisk mappings.
• Use the lsdev –dev hdisk –vpd command to retrieve the information.
• The reserve_policy for each disk must be set to no_reserve.(chdev –dev hdisk2 –attr reserve_policy=no_reserve)
• Map the hdisks to vhost adapters.( mkvdev –vdev hdisk2 –vadapter vhost0 –dev app_server)
• Install the client partitions.
• Configure the client partitions
• Testing MPIO

Configure the client partitions:

• Check the MPIO configuration (lspv, lsdev –Cc disk)
• Run lspath
• Enable the health check mode (chdev –l hdisk0 –a hcheck_interval=50 –P
• Enable the vscsi client adapter path timeout ( chdev –l vscsi0 –a vscsi_path_to=30 –P)
• Changing the priority of a path( chpath –l hdisk0 –p vscsi0 –a priority=2)

Testing MPIO:

• Lspath
• Shutdown VIO2
• Lspath
• Start the vio2
• Lspath

LVM Mirroring: This is for setting up highly available virtual scsi configuration. The client partitions are configured with 2 virtual scsi adapters. Each of these virtual scsi adapters is connected to a different VIO server and provides one disk to the client partition.

Configuring LVM Mirroring:

• Create 2 virtual IO partitions, select one Ethernet adapter and one storage adapter
• Install both VIO servers
• Configure the virtual scsi adapters on both servers
• Create client partitions. Each client partition needs to be configured with 2 virtual scsi adapters.
• Add one or two virtual Ethernet adapters
• Create the volume group and logical volumes on VIO1 and VIO2
• A logical volume from the rootvg_clients VG should be mapped to each of the 4 vhost devices.( mkvdev –vdev nimsrv_rvg –vadapter vhost0 –dev vnimsrv_rvg)
• Lsmap –all
• When you bring up the client partitions you should have hdisk0 and hdisk1. Mirror the rootvg.
• Lspv
• Lsdev –Cc disk
• Extendvg rootvg hdisk1
• Mirrorvg –m rootvg hdisk1
• Test LVM mirroring

Testing LVM mirroring:

• Lsvg –l rootvg
• Shutdown VIO2
• Lspv hdisk1 (check the pvstate, stale partitions)
• Reactivate VIO and varyonvg rootvg
• Lspv hdisk1
• Lsvg –l rootvg

Shared Ethernet adapter: It can be used to connect a physical network to a virtual Ethernet network. Several client partitions to share one physical adapter.

Shared Ethernet Redundancy: This is for temporary failure of communication with external networks. Approaches to achieve continuous availability:

• Shared Ethernet adapter failover
• Network interface backup

Shared Ethernet adapter failover: It offers Ethernet redundancy. In a SEA failover configuration 2 VIO servers have the bridging functionality of the SEA. They use a control channel to determine which of them is supplying the Ethernet service to the client. The client partition gets one virtual Ethernet adapter bridged by 2 VIO servers.

Requirements for configuring SEA failover:

• One SEA on one VIOs acts as the primary adapter and the second SEA on the second VIOs acts as a backup adapter.
• Each SEA must have at least one virtual Ethernet adapter with the “access external network flag(trunk flag) checked. This enables the SEA to provide bridging functionality between the 2 VIO servers.
• This adapter on both the SEA’s has the same pvid
• Priority value defines which of the 2 SEA’s will be the primary and which is the secondary. An adapter with priority 1 will have the highest priority.

Procedure for configuring SEA failover:

• Configure a virtual Ethernet adapter via DLPAR. (ent2)
• Select the VIO-->Click task button-->choose DLPAR-->virtual adapters
• Click actions-->Create-->Ethernet adapter
• Enter Slot number for the virtual Ethernet adapter into adapter ID
• Enter the Port virtual Lan ID(PVID). The PVID allows the virtual Ethernet adapter to communicate with other virtual Ethernet adapters that have the same PVID.
• Select IEEE 802.1
• Check the box “access external network”
• Give the virtual adapter a low trunk priority
• Click OK.

• Create another virtual adapter to be used as a control channel on VIOS1.( give another VLAN ID, do not check the box “access external network” (ent3)
• Create SEA on VIO1 with failover attribute. ( mkvdev –sea ent0 –vadapter ent2 –default ent2 –defaultid 1 –attr ha_mode=auto ctl_chan=ent3. Ex: ent4
• Create VLAN Ethernet adapter on the SEA to communicate to the external VLAN tagged network ( mkvdev –vlan ent4 –tagid 222) Ex:ent5
• Assign an IP address to SEA VLAN adapter on VIOS1. using mktcpip
• Same steps to VIO2 also. ( give the higher trunk priority:2)

Client LPAR Procedure:

• Create client LPAR same as above.

Network interface backup : NIB can be used to provide redundant access to external networks when 2 VIO servers used.

Configuring NIB:

• Create 2 VIO server partitions
• Install both VIO servers
• Configure each VIO server with one virtual Ethernet adapter. Each VIO server needs to be a different VLAN.
• Define SEA with the correct VLAN ID
• Add virtual Scsi adapters
• Create client partitions
• Define the ether channel using smitty etherchannel

Configuring multiple shared processor pools:

Configuration --> Shared processor pool management --> Select the pool name

VIOs Security:

Enable basic firewall settings: viosecure –firewall on

view all open ports on firewall configuration: viosecure –firewall view

To view current security settings: viosecure –view nonint

Change system security settings to default: viosecure –level default

List all failed logins : lsfailedlogin

Dump the global command log: lsgcl

Backup:

Create a mksysb file of the system on a nfs mount: backupios –file /mnt/vios.mksysb –mksysb

Create a backup of all structures of VGs and/or storage pools: savevgstruct vdiskvg ( data will be stored to /home/ios/vgbackups)

List all backups made with savevgstruct: restorevgstruct –ls

Backup the system to a NFS mounted file system: backupios –file /mnt

Performance Monitoring:

Retrieve statistics for ent0: entstat –all ent0

Reset the statistics for ent0: entstat –reset ent0

View disk statistics: viostat 2

Show summary for the system in stats: viostat –sys 2

Show disk stats by adapter: viostat –adapter 2

Turn on disk performance counters: chdev –dev sys0 –attr iostat=true

Topas –cecdisp

Link aggregation on the VIO server:

Link aggregation means you can give one IP address to two network cards and connect to two different switches for redundancy purpose. One network card will be active on one time.

Devices --> communication --> Etherchannel/IEEE 802.3 ad Link Aggregation --> Add an etherchannel / Link aggregation

Select ent0 and mode 8023ad

Select backup adapter as redundancy ex: ent1

Automatically virtual adapter will be created named ent2.

Then put IP address : smitty tcpip --> Minimum configuration and startup --> select ent2 --> Put IP address