Datasheet

8 IBM i tape options

An IBM i client partition with a VIOS host can use a mix of virtual and physical I/O resources.

If the VIOS hosting partition supports a single physical tape device, it can be virtualized to the

client partition(s) by using a VSCSI adapter pair between the VIOS and the client IBM i. This is

facilitated by the management console being used. See the following sections for details.

For the current list of supported tape devices and associated operating system levels please refer

to the DevelopWorks web page for IBM Removable Media on IBM i:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home?lang=en#/wiki/IBM%20Rem

ovable%20Media%20on%20IBM%20i

VIOS also supports virtualization of a tape media library through the NPIV configuration described

in section “NPIV Configuration for IBM i LUNs or tape media libraries”.

For the current list of supported tape libraries and associated operating system levels please refer

to the DevelopWorks web page for IBM Removable Media on IBM i:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home?lang=en#/wiki/IBM%20Rem

ovable%20Media%20on%20IBM%20i

Another approach is to assign a physical tape adapter directly to the IBM i partition. The tape

adapter can be any adapter supported by IBM i on IBM Power servers and can be configured to

be shared with other partitions.

To assign a physical tape adapter to the IBM i client partition, refer to the topic Managing

physical I/O devices and slots dynamically using the HMC in the Logical Partitioning Guide

at: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/systems/scope/hw/topic/iphat/iphat.pdf.

8.1 Virtual tape configuration using the HMC

There is not a graphical interface for the configuration of virtual tape at this time. Perform the

following steps to configure virtual tape using the VIOS CLI:

 Use telnet or PuTTy to connect to the VIOS partition. Sign in using padmin as the user

ID.

 Enter cfgdev to check for new devices.

 Enter lsdev | grep rmt to view the tape devices and ensure that they are in Available

state.

 Enter lsdev | grep vhost and note the last vhost listed there.

 You need to associate this device with a VSCSI adapter pair. You need to use the HMC

interface to create those. Refer to the “Error! Reference source not found.” section for

details. Then return to this step.

 On the VIOS CLI enter lsdev | grep vhost. There should be a new vhostY listed. This

vhostY is the VSCSI adapter in VIOS that you just created.

 To map the tape drive to the vhostY, enter mkvdev –vdev <rmtX> -vadapter vhostY.

 Enter lsmap –all | more and press the Spacebar key to advance through the mappings.

Look for the vhostY and make sure the vttapeZ device is associated with it.

 On the IBM i virtual server with auto configuration turned on, a TAPxx device appears.

Vary it on to use it.

8.2 Virtual tape configuration using the SDMC

There is not a graphical interface for the configuration of virtual tape at this time. Perform the

following steps to configure virtual tape using the VIOS CLI: