When I log on to my home machine being AIX,of course, and type hostname I get: nag@blue:/home/nag$ hostname blue.aixncc.uk.ibm.com nag@blue:/home/nag$ hostname -s blue nag@blue:/home/nag$ domainname aixncc.uk.ibm.com nag@blue:/home/nag$ I get this because when I set the hostname in smitty it looks like this: * HOSTNAME [ blue.aixncc.uk.ibm.com ] * Internet ADDRESS (dotted decimal) [9.137.62.2] Network MASK (dotted decimal) [255.255.255.0] * Network... [More]

This is a follow on to a previous blog on " PowerVM Virtual Ethernet Speed is often confused with VIOS, SEA IVE/HEA speed "- here is a Direct Link   I regularly get asked : "I have just heard about this [PowerVM virtual switch | vSwitch | Hypervisor Ethernet Switch] is available but I can't find out any information at all, help!"   They are wanting to run two (or more) virtual switches within the one Power machine to completely separate the network packets of groups of virtual machines (LPARs) so they know for sure there can... [More]

Tags:  vswitch switch hypervisor power6 power aix ethernet powervm power7 virtual

So you know about Power7 Local, Near and Far memory for your actual machine but what is your Virtual Machine (LPAR) actually using? There are three key commands to show you (lssrad, mpstat and topas) and we will look at some example output.   First, we need to define an SRAD or a Scheduler Resource Affinity Domain .  If you have used Resource Sets with AIX WLM or WPAR then you have a good idea what these are like. An SRAD is a group of resources but in our case CPU/cores and the associated memory that is directly attached to it. As an... [More]

Tags:  lssrad topas affinity mpstat srad powervm aix6 power7 resource aix7 domain scheduler

Probably the default method of accessing the console of an LPAR managed by an HMC is to use the HMC from WebSM, and then open a console window. What's wrong with this? 1. Cut and paste don't work well. 2. It is inherently insecure even when WebSM uses ssl The vterm is still passed over the network in clear text. Next option: Use the 'mkvterm' command after doing an ssh login to the hmc. 1. You get an ssl protected session. 2. It can be tough getting the parameters right. Undocumented command makes this easy: Use 'vtmenu' which prompts you... [More]

Tags:  hmc

UPDATED: 30 JANUARY 2015 The IBM Official Technote can be found here http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas8N1020533 It clarifies the mean of the ASMI settings i.e. it is the number of adapter slots AND the specific slots AND a further bug only some settings work until the next firmware release. Even with the newer firmware my recommendation stands: Completely Switch OFF the I/O Adapter Enhanced Capacity feature as you install the machine as it needs a power off - Unless you are running Linux on POWER8 with dedicated physical... [More]

 In the past with the POWER7 and POWER7+ based machines at the lower end like the Power710 to Power740 Models, users had to shut down the whole machine to add, remove or replace an adapter safely. In fact, some machines would power off as you removed the lid.   This is no longer the case with the whole POWER8 range including the Scale-Out Models like the S822 and S824.  These machines do not have the blind swap cassettes which allow the adapters to be removed from the rear of the machine.  So you must have the cable... [More]

It was my birthday on Saturday and by pure luck my Raspberry Pi was delivered the day before - what a great day "hacking" (in the old sense of the word). I have been waiting for a few months for this delivery - What a treat!!  If you have not heard of this credit size computer before here is the back ground.   The Problem In the UK, school information technology education has been pitifully reduced to Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. My own kids came home badly depressed as they started the classes as they knew far more than the... [More]

Tags:  nweb ams aix power7 ame power amd wpar nmon aixpert itm isd rbac raspberry ssd dlpar ganglia charm pi ssp

Shared Storage Pools is the next big thing to owed systems admin time and boost flexibility  for Power Systems, PowerVM and controlling SAN disks from the VIOS and HMC.  I will not go on about SSP here but I particular like the fact Live Partition Mobility even with SAN disks is ready to go with SSP and there is no need to reZone the SAN disks.   To start using the new and improved SSP, you need the latest Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) - the version name is a nightmare! Who ever thought VIOS 2.2.1.3 FP25 SP01 with iFix was a sensible name for a... [More]

Tags:  power6 power7 aix powervm vios

Below is from your Power Systems, Advanced Technical Support team in Europe (EMEA) with lots of input from many people.   We find many people are over optimistic and making assumptions - which can catch them out - we learnt the hard way too.   Don't Assume 1 - The same boost as last time It may be that you migrated from 2Mit to 10Mbit and saw approximately a 5 fold increase in performance. Similarly when you went from 10Mbit to 100Mbit, and from 100Mbit to 1Gbit; you saw approximately a 10 fold improvement. Don't assume that... [More]

Tags:  cables sea ive control ethernet mtu flow largesend 10gbit hea