System information

Chapter 13. Virtual Partition Manager 379
13.2 Planning for Virtual Partition Manager
Virtual Partition Manager is enabled by enhancing the partition management tasks in the
Dedicated Service Tools (DST) and System Service Tools (SST) for i5/OS V5R3. This
capability is enabled only for eServer i5 systems, allowing you to create up to a maximum of
four Linux partitions in addition to the one i5/OS partition that owns all of the I/O resources for
the Linux partitions.
Keep in mind that the intended use of Virtual Partition Manager allows deployment of a limited
number of Linux partitions on eServer i5 systems without requiring an HMC, where the entire
I/O is hosted by a single i5/OS partition.
13.2.1 Planning considerations
We strongly recommend that you fully understand the planning considerations required to
enable Virtual Partition Manager on your eServer i5 system. Following are the planning
considerations:
򐂰 You need a minimum of an eServer System i5 system with i5/OS V5R3, and PTF
MF34753 (or its supersede) applied to enable Virtual Partition Manager.
򐂰 An IPL is required to apply MF34753 (or its supersedes).
򐂰 Ensure that you have the latest firmware level (SF230_113 [PTF MH00265] or above)
downloaded for the eServer System i5 system.
򐂰 A maximum of four Linux partitions are supported.
򐂰 I/O for all Linux partitions must be managed by a single i5/OS instance.
򐂰 Linux uses virtual I/O to access disk, tape, DVD, and Ethernet resources owned by the
i5/OS partition.
򐂰 Up to a maximum of four Virtual Ethernet connections may be configured for each Linux
partition or for the i5/OS partition.
򐂰 Direct attach I/O cannot be installed in any Linux partition, including any additional
Ethernet Adapters for a Firewall gateway.
򐂰 Only a single i5/OS instance can exist on eServer i5. If you need more than one i5/OS
instance on your eServer i5, use a Hardware Management Console (HMC).
򐂰 Linux partition creation and management can only be performed through DST or SST
tasks. iSeries Navigator does not support Virtual Partition Manager.
򐂰 Automatic processor balancing between Linux and i5/OS partitions is supported through
uncapped processor pool. Dynamic movement of resources such as processor, memory,
and I/O is not supported. Restart the Linux partition for the changes to take effect.
򐂰 HMC functionality, such as Capacity Upgrade on Demand (On/Off CoD, and Reserve
CoD) is not enabled through DST or SST tasks. Only permanently activated processors
may be allocated to any of the partitions.
򐂰 Partition configuration data cannot be saved through DST or SST tasks. Ensure that
hardcopy prints are kept with configuration screens should you need to recreate the
partitions.
Important: Prerequisite PTFs MF34946 and MF34962 must be permanently applied
before doing a SAVSYS of the i5/OS partition. A D-mode IPL of the Virtual Partition
Manager activated i5/OS partition will fail with an SRC of A6005001 with media that does
not have these PTFs permanently applied.