HP Integrity VM Accelerated Virtual I/O Overview

AVIO implements a larger queue depth compared to VIO. Queue depth can be tuned for
AVIO devices in the guest as it is done for a native host to improve performance.
• HP-UX 11iv2 and 11iv3 Guest and Host Support - AVIO now supports both HP-UX
11iv2 and 11iv3 Guests and Hosts (see AVIO restrictions below).
• AVIO Storage backing store support. AVIO Storage now supports all disk backing
stores (i.e. virtual disks, logical volumes, and files). AVIO Storage supports virtual DVDs
backed by physical DVDs, files and directories (see AVIO restrictions below).
A key feature of AVIO file backing store support is that writes to a file backing store are
immediately committed to the disk. This provides additional protection against host crashes
between the time writes have been committed from the guest and the data being flushed from
the buffer caches in host.
AVIO limits:
Number of guest adapters(both networking and storage) 63
LUNs per guest 128
Number of file backing stores including VIO and AVIO 30
AVIO HBA max io size 1 MB
AVIO has the following restrictions:
• Networking backing store is limited to 1GbE
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, 10GbE, and APA (with supported link types)
in both Integrity VM 3.5 and 4.0.
• All AVIO guest and Integrity VM combinations are supported, except HP-UX 11iv2 AVIO
Storage Guests with Integrity VM 4.0.
• Storage backing store is limited to virtual disk, logical volumes
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, and physical DVD in Integrity
VM Version 3.5.
• Tapes, burners, and changers are not yet supported with AVIO Storage on Integrity VM
Version 3.5 and 4.0.
• Integrity VM 4.0 does not support HP StorageWorks Active-Passive disk arrays. If you are
using the EVA (Enterprise Virtual Array) Active-Passive disk arrays, you must upgrade the
firmware to an appropriate Active-Active disk array version.
• EMC Powerpath support: It is recommended that users migrate to using native multi-pathing
on HP-UX 11iv3. EMC Powerpath continues to be supported using legacy device names.
• Secure Path is not supported on Integrity VM 4.0. Refer to the whitepaper ” Migrating from
HP StorageWorks Secure Path for Active-Active Disk Arrays to Native Multipathing in HP-UX
11i v3” whitepaper available on http://docs.hp.com for further details.
Introduction to the AVIO Storage and Networking Solutions
AVIO Products
The AVIO Storage and Networking solutions are delivered as part of the HP-UX 11i v2 December
2007 Foundation OE and 11iv3 September 2008 Base OE and are each composed of 2 individual
products. One to be installed one the guest and the other to be installed on the host. See Table 1
Latest AVIO HP-UX 11iv2 and 11iv3 versions below.
Table 1 Latest AVIO HP-UX 11iv2 and 11iv3 versions
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The A4929A and A4926 1GbE adapters are not supported by AVIO LAN. For a complete list of supported I/O adapters (both storage and
networking) see the HP Integrity Virtual Machines Installation, Configuration, and Administration A.03.50 manual.
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Lvdisk support with AVIO requires HostAVIOStor version B.11.23.0712.01