Specifications

142 IBM Power 770 and 780 Technical Overview and Introduction
An N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV) device is considered virtual and is compatible with
partition migration.
The hypervisor must support the Partition Mobility functionality (also called migration process)
available on POWER 6 and POWER 7 processor-based hypervisors. Firmware must be at
firmware level eFW3.2 or later. All POWER7 processor-based hypervisors support Live
Partition Mobility. Source and destination systems can have separate firmware levels, but
they must be compatible with each other.
A possibility is to migrate partitions back and forth between POWER6 and POWER7
processor-based servers. Partition Mobility leverages the POWER6 Compatibility Modes
that are provided by POWER7 processor-based servers. On the POWER7
processor-based server, the migrated partition is then executing in POWER6 or POWER6+
Compatibility Mode.
If you want to move an active logical partition from a POWER6 processor-based server to a
POWER7 processor-based server so that the logical partition can take advantage of the
additional capabilities available with the POWER7 processor, perform these steps:
1. Set the partition-preferred processor compatibility mode to the default mode. When you
activate the logical partition on the POWER6 processor-based server, it runs in the
POWER6 mode.
2. Move the logical partition to the POWER7 processor-based server. Both the current
and preferred modes remain unchanged for the logical partition until you restart the
logical partition.
3. Restart the logical partition on the POWER7 processor-based server. The hypervisor
evaluates the configuration. Because the preferred mode is set to default and the logical
partition now runs on a POWER7 processor-based server, the highest mode available is
the POWER7 mode. The hypervisor determines that the most fully featured mode that is
supported by the operating environment installed in the logical partition is the POWER7
mode and changes the current mode of the logical partition to the POWER7 mode.
Now the current processor compatibility mode of the logical partition is the POWER7 mode,
and the logical partition runs on the POWER7 processor-based server.
The Virtual I/O Server on the source system provides the access to the client resources and
must be identified as a mover service partition (MSP). The Virtual Asynchronous Services
Interface (VASI) device allows the mover service partition to communicate with the
hypervisor. It is created and managed automatically by the managed console and will be
configured on both the source and destination Virtual I/O Servers, which are designated as
the mover service partitions for the mobile partition, to participate in active mobility. Other
requirements include a similar time-of-day on each server, systems must not be running on
battery power, and shared storage (external hdisk with reserve_policy=no_reserve). In
addition, all logical partitions must be on the same open network with RMC established to the
managed console.
The managed console is used to configure, validate, and orchestrate. You use the managed
console to configure the Virtual I/O Server as an MSP and to configure the VASI device. An
managed console wizard validates your configuration and identifies issues that can cause the
Tip: The “Migration combinations of processor compatibility modes for active Partition
Mobility” web page offers presentations of the supported migrations:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/topic/p7hc3/iphc3pcmco
mbosact.htm