Virtual I/O (VIO) and Virtualization

Briefly What is Virtualization?

The Virtual I/O Server is part of the IBM System p5 Advanced Power Virtualization hardware feature. Virtual I/O Server allows sharing of physical resources between LPARs including virtual SCSI and virtual networking. This allows more efficient utilization of physical resources through sharing between LPARs and facilitates server consolidation.

This allows a single machine to run multiple operating system (OS) images at the same time but each is isolated from the others. POWER4 based machines started this in 2001 by allowing many Logical Partitions (LPAR) to run on the same machine using but each using different CPUs, different memory sections and different PCI adapter slots. Next came with POWER4, the ability to dynamically change the CPU, memory and PCI adapters slots with the OS running. With the introduction of POWER5 in 2005, further Virtualization items have been added:

Less than a whole CPU can be allocated to a LPAR
The LPARs sharing CPUs can be setup to allow automatic load balancing (in milliseconds)
The sharing of disks, networks, optical devices (CD/DVD) using a VIO Server (see below)

If you want more, try these two links:

For the business benefits of Advanced POWER Virtualization to save time and money - take this link Business Reasons for Virtualisation
For the technical advantages of Advanced POWER Virtualization for performance and rapid deployment - take this link Technical Reasons for Virtualisation

Briefly, What is Virtual IO (VIO)?

This is a logical partition (LPAR) on a pSeries machine controlled by the HMC or IVM that owns hardware adapters like SCSI disks, Fibre-Channel disks, Ethernet or CD/DVD optical devices but allows other LPARs to access them or a part of them. This allows the device to be shared. The LPAR with the resources is called the VIO Server and the other LPARs using it are called VIO Clients. For example, instead of each LPAR having a SCSI adapter and SCSI disk to boot from they can shared one disk on the VIO Server. This reduces costs but eliminating adapters, adapter slots and disks. This Client:Server access is implemented over memory within the machine for speed.

For a more detailed explanation, please click here: VIOS Detail

Virtualization Best Practice

To aid the sharing of good practice, hints and tip the Best Practice guide is a constant work in progress and a community based self help document. If you need some guideance take a look or if you have a really good idea that can help others please add it here.

Virtualization Best Practice

Virtualization Back to Power Basics Movies

You can watch and download ten small movies of hands-on use of PowerVM and Virtualization on the AIX6 and POWER6 Movie AIX Wiki page at:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/WikiPtype/Movies

Look for the Back to Power Basics Series. Each is around 10 minutes long and is a good introduction to PowerVM and the Virtual I/O Server and many of the features it provides.

Virtualization Assessments

Use these questionaires to evaluate your company and your personal readiness for Virtualizition and APV technology to reap the beneifts of:

Reduced costs,
Higher peak performance,
Rapid response to business needs and
Flexibility.
The five stages (see below) of Virtualization have a set of questions each. Then via a simple scoring system that will award a Bronze, Silver or Gold level. The questions that you answered "no" will suggest an action list that you use to plan improvements and develop skills..

Click on this link to take you to the questionaries Virtualization Company Assessments for Technology Deployment and developing an Action Plan
Click on this link to take you to the questionaries Virtualization Personal Assessments for Skills Development

What to do if you want to develop your p5 Virtualisation skills?

The below diagram shows the suggested roadmap for developing Virtualisation Skills:

Each level involes back ground reading, Redbooks and the education available as highlighted below (see the table further below for the meaning of the reference numbers):

Level	Skills	What to read?	Documentation	Redbooks	Education
1	Pre-requsites				AIX 5.3 System Administration If only using Linux and IVM then just Linux System Admin If using Linux and HMC then AIX System Admin is recommended See IBM Learning Services at Curriculum
2	Virtualisation Concepts & pSeries p5 Implementation	0, 4, 9, 10, 11
3	Product information	1, 2, 3, 9			235
4a	Basic Hands-on for IVM based Virtualisation	13, 18, 19, 20	16,17	103
4b	Basic Hands-on for HMC based Virtualisation	18, 6 (IBMers only), 21	16, 17	101	231 (POWER5), 232 (POWER4)
5	Advanced Hands-on for HMC based Virtualisation includes dual VIO Server, SAN and VLAN	5, 7, 8, 12, 15, 21		102	233 (Performance), 234(underdevelopment)

Key Places For More Information and Building Virtualization Skills

We can recommend the following places:

Reference Number	Type	Name	URL	Size	Comments
1	Website	VIO Server home	Link	1 page	the Home for VIO Server
2	Website	White papers, FAQ & Data sheet	Link	3 pages	from here
3	Website	Download of the updates	Link	1 page	the most important website
4	Whitepaper	Overview of Virtualization &setting up the VIO Server	Link	21 pages	Excellent start pack example with all the details and background
5	Whitepaper	Virtualization working with VLANS	Link	18 pages	Details VLAN paper from the developer
6	Powerpoint	Power5 Virtual I/O (VIO) Options (internal to IBM only)	Link	94 pages	diagrams of the correct setups and procs+cons for each.
7	Whitepaper	POWER5 Virtual SCSI Performance Study (internal to IBM only)	Link	21 pages	A case study with vSCSI and DS4500 SAN disks
8	Whitepaper	POWER5 Processors Virtual SCSI Throughput Analysis	Link	23 pages	A case study of vSCSI and how small the overhead is.
9	Website	Advanced POWER Virtualization on eServer p5	Link	1 pages	Lots of links to other articles and websiates
10	Whitepaper	IBM p5 570 Server Consolidation Using POWER5 Virtualization	Link	8 pages	Good whitepaper on appraoching consolidation with APV
11	Whitepaper	IBM p5 570 Workload Balancing Using POWER5 Virtualization	Link	18 pages	Good worked example of what to expect
12	Whitepaper	Virtual I/O Server-Performance/Sizing/QOS considerations	Link	3 pages	Tiny font be a good review
13	Whitepaper	Use the Integrated Virtualization Manager with Linux on POWER	Link	22 pages	Blow by blow HowTo
14	Whitepaper	How to work with VLANs using the IBM Virtual I/O Server	Link	9 pages	What you really need to know to get started with VLAN and APV
15	Certification	Certified p5 Virtualization Technical Support AIX 5L V5.3	Link	1	Book you exam here.
16	Documentation	Using the Virtual I/O Server	Link	154 pages	Impossibly to find as its URL changes so often !!!! (Last link URL contained "v1r2s" instead of current "v1r3s".)
17	Documentation	VIO Server and PLM Commands Reference	Link	174 pages	trouble is the URL keeps changing - good luck finding it !!
18	Wiki	Virtualization Best Practice	Virtualization Best Practice	6 pages	User wiki additions to the Best Practice Redbook
19	Wiki	Integrated Virtualization Manager Wiki	IVM whitpaper	16 pages	Overview and excellent summary of the features
20	Wiki	Advanced IVM Topics	Link	21 pages	Good further reading after the IVM Redbook
21	Website	The definative list of what is supported	Link	4 pages	Check here for features supported

101	Redbook	Advanced POWER Virtualization on IBM p5 Servers Introduction and Basic Configuration, SG24-7940, public includes configurations and setup examples	Link	446 pages	Excellent reference work and must read if you serious on APV
102	Redbook	Advanced Power Virtualization on IBM p5 Servers Architecture and Performance Considerations, SG24-5768, follow on Redbook with advanced topics and details	Link	436 pages	Excellent reference work
103	Redbook	Integrated Virtualization Manager with VIO Server the IVM starter pack and Handbook	Link	90 pages	Excellent start for IVM
104	Redbook	Advanced Power Virtualization Best Practice	Link	150 pages	Excellent up to date extra ideas

230	Education	AIX pSeries System Administration Curriculum	Curriculum
231	Education	System p LPAR and Virtualization I: Planning and Configuration	Go to http://www.ibm.com/training and search for AU73	5 days
232	Education	System p Virtualization and LPAR for pSeries Power4 Administrators	Go to http://www.ibm.com/training and search for AU74	3 days
233	Education	System p LPAR & Virtualization III: Virtualization Performance Mgnt including VIO Server	Go to http://www.ibm.com/training and search for AU75	5 days
234	Education	System p LPAR and Virtualization II: Implementing Adv Configurations	Go to http://www.ibm.com/training and search for AU78	4 days
235	Education	eServer, pSeries and AIX Product Overview	Go to http://www.ibm.com/training and search for AM21	2 days

For more technical details a good place to start learning is the IBM Redbooks which are freely available for download in .PDF format:

Alternative solutions:

The Linux SUSE SLES 9 operating system can also be used as a VIO Server (but with different features and not supported in the same way as the IBM VIO Server)

VIOS using SUSE SLES9

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