Datasheet
21
The hardware and virtualization components for attaching open storage to IBM i illustrated in
Figure 4 also apply to using DS5000, XIV and other subsystems supported for this solution, as
listed in the “IBM i using open storage supported configurations” section.
Three management interfaces are available for virtualizing I/O resources through VIOS to IBM i:
the Hardware Management Console (HMC), the Systems Director Management Console (SDMC)
and the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM). All provide logical partitioning and virtualization
management functions, however, their support on Power servers and Power blades is different:
The HMC is supported with all POWER6 and POWER7 servers and with the Nov 2012
firmware it supports Power blades.
The SDMC is supported with all POWER6 and POWER7 servers and is supported with
Power blades
IVM is supported with all Power blades and with POWER6 and POWER7 express
servers.
There is another significant difference between HMC and IVM when managing I/O virtualization
for IBM i: when the Power server is IVM-managed, IBM i partitions must be purely virtual. They
are not allowed to own any physical I/O adapters. Therefore, when managing Power servers, an
HMC or SDMC is used most of the time, with IVM being used occasionally only on low end
servers. SDMC is just being introduced as this paper is being updated. When managing Power
blades, IVM or SDMC can be used. With the Nov 2012 combination of HMC firmware and FSP
firmware, the HMC can manage Power blades too.
Note that using virtual I/O resources from VIOS does not preclude an IBM i client partition from
owning physical hardware when the server is managed by an HMC or and SDMC, except for a
POWER blade where it is not supported. A mix of virtual and physical hardware in the same
partition is supported for IBM i in this environment, by assigning both types of adapters to the
partition in the HMC/SDMC.
5.2 Virtual Fibre Channel adapter concepts
NPIV is an industry-standard FC protocol that allows VIOS to directly share a single FC adapter
among multiple client LPARs. NPIV can be used for disk storage and or tape attachment. Unlike
VSCSI, NPIV does not map a LUN or tape device to a virtual target device in VIOS, which the
client LPAR can then access as a generic SCSI disk or a tape device. Instead, a port on the
physical FC adapter is mapped to a virtual FC server adapter in VIOS, which in turn is connected
to a virtual FC client adapter in IBM i.
When the virtual FC client adapter is created, two unique world-wide port names (WWPNs) are
generated for it. Through the link to the server virtual FC adapter and then the physical adapter in
VIOS, those WWPNs become available on the SAN and storage and or tape drives can be
mapped to them as with any other FC host ports. Note that these WWPNs are unique not just
within the Power server, but globally on the SAN. The PowerVM Hypervisor creates two WWPNs
per virtual FC client adapter to facilitate Live Partition Mobility for LPARs using NPIV. When a
virtual FC client adapter is deleted, the WWPNs are not reused. By default, the PowerVM
Hypervisor is capable of creating 32,000 WWPNs for virtual FC client adapters. If additional
WWPNs are required, clients can acquire an enablement code from IBM.
Figure 5 illustrates using NPIV for IBM i disks: