Specifications

136 IBM Flex System p260 and p460 Planning and Implementation Guide
5.5.1 Dual VIOS on Power Systems compute nodes
One of the capabilities that is available with Power Systems compute nodes
managed by an IBM Flex System Manager is the ability to implement dual Virtual
I/O Servers in the same way as SDMC- or HMC-managed systems are able to.
Previously, with IVM-managed systems, the VIOS/IVM installed itself on virtual
server number one, then additional virtual servers can be created by using IVM.
No additional VIOS virtual servers are allowed to be created under this
management method.
With IBM Flex System Manager, the creation of virtual servers and the type of
operating system environment that they support can occur before any operating
system installation. The only limitation from a dual VIOS perspective is the
availability of disk and network physical resources. Physical resource
assignment to a virtual server is made at the level of the expansion card slot or
controller slot (physical location code). Individual ports and internal disks cannot
be individually assigned. This type of assignment is not unique to Power
Systems compute nodes and is a common practice for all Power platforms.
A dual VIOS environment setup requires the creation of the two virtual servers,
both of which are set for a VIOS environment. After the virtual servers are
created with the appropriate environment setting and physical resources
assigned to support independent disk and network I/O, then the VIOS operating
systems can be installed.
When planning a dual VIOS environment on a computer node, your hardware
configuration requires two virtual servers, both of which must have a physical
Ethernet connection and disk resources available. The following examples
describe several of the possible hardware configurations to support a dual VIOS
environment. These examples are not intended to be all-inclusive.
IBM Flex System p460 Compute Node
A typical basic configuration is 16 GB of memory, and a single internal disk. To
support a dual VIOS environment, the following additional options are required:
򐂰 One Ethernet adapter (an EN4054 4-port 10Gb Ethernet Adapter or an
EN2024 4-port 1Gb Ethernet Adapter), with two ports assigned to each VIOS.
Two Ethernet adapters can be used to reduce single points of failure.
Dual VIOS: The dual VIOS environment is not currently supported in the p260
or in the p24L. This feature might be added in future versions based on certain
adapter configurations.