Make sure you are monitoring file system space on your VIOS.   Why?   If you run out of space in the root file system, odd things can happen when you try to map virtual devices to virtual adapters with mkvdev .   For example, a colleague of mine was attempting to map a new hdisk to a vhost adapter on a pair of VIOS. The VIOS was running a recent version of code. He received the following error message (see below). It wasn’t a very helpful message. At first I thought it was due to the fact that he had not set the reserve_policy attribute... [More]

Tags:  root_filesystem_is_full this_may_or_may_not_indic... vios aix mkvdev cli_debug=33 powervm 0514-548 chris_gibson the_command's_response_wa...

Until recently, if you were configuring a new LPAR with virtual FC adapters you couldn’t force it to log into the SAN before an operating system (such as AIX) was installed. I’ve written about this before (see link below). I also offered a way to work around this issue.   https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/cgaix/entry/new_hmc_commands_chnportlogin_and_lsnportlogin_login_in_virtual_fibre_channel_adapters_for_npiv_client_lpars1?lang=en   As mentioned in my post, there are new HMC commands to force a new LPAR to connect... [More]

Tags:  npiv virtual_fibre_channel powervm chris_gibson power_systems aix vios vfc

I just had to share this entertaining presentation with everyone.   http://gibsonnet.net/AIX/ibm/Journey_in_VLAN_world.pps   Or the PDF. It's not as interesting or fun, as the animations don't work but you get the idea. I'm sharing the PDF because it appears that you can open this file on Windows fine (in read-only mode) but on a Mac it prompts for a password without an option for opening in read-only. Shame.   https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/cgaix/resource/Journey_in_VLAN_world.pdf   It was... [More]

Tags:  powervm lemal chris aix vlan vio ibm bernard gibson

The first time I ran the ’ viostat   –adapter’ command I expected to find non-zero values for kbps , tps , etc, for each vfchost adapter. However, the values were always zero, no matter how much traffic traversed the adapters.                                                                                                           $ viostat -adapter 1 10                                                   ...                                                                       vadapter:                   Kbps       tps      bkread    ... [More]

Tags:  virtual vios channel powervm aix vfchost fibre vfc viostat npiv -adapter

Interested in learning more about the next generation of Virtual I/O Server? Yes? Then take a look at this presentation. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/cgaix/resource/VM19.pdf   The following diagram gives you a high-level overview of the classic VIOS compared with the NextGen VIOS. Should be enough to spark your interest! Happy reading!      

Tags:  powervm aix chris gibson vios next gen

It’s possible to search through seastat command output on the VIOS using the –s flag. You specify the following attributes with this flag: searchtype = value . Valid search values include:   mac, priority, vlan, ip, host, greaterbytessent (gbs), greaterbytesrecv (gbr), greaterpktssent (gps), greaterpktsrecv (gpr), smallerbytessent (sbs), smallerbytesrecv (sbr), smallerpktssent (sps), smallerpktsrecv (spr)   For example, to search for a particular host:   $ seastat -d ent19 -s host=aixvioc1  ... [More]

Tags:  chris_gibson seastat vios powervm virtual_io_server vio

  In a previous post I discussed how you can identify some of the different types of a PowerVM Capacity on Demand (CoD) activation keys from IBM.   Recently I had to Activate Memory Expansion (AME) on a couple of POWER7 systems. I discovered that all of the keys contained a similar string. It appears that if a CoD key contains the string CA1F0000000800 then it is safe to assume it will activate AME for a particular system. e.g.     9741EF3AE6969F17 CA1F0000000800 419D  937A1240F00F5B05 CA1F0000000800 413D   And while I’m talking about AME,... [More]

Tags:  lshwres ca1f0000000800 active_memory_expansion powervm ame power7 chris_gibson curr_mem_expansion chhwres mem_expansion pend_mem_expansion dlpar aix

This post introduces two new features that I came across recently and found rather interesting. The first relates to PowerVP (VCPU affinity) and the second to POWER8 (Flexible SMT).   I’m particularly impressed by this new feature in PowerVP version 1.1.2 (SP1). You can view CPU and memory affinity information directly from the PowerVP GUI.   From the PowerVP Installation and User Guide:   “If you go to the View menu and select the Display CPU affinity information, the CPU utilization information will be replaced in... [More]

Tags:  powervm chris gibson aix smt 1.1.2 vcpu power8 powervp flexible affinity

Starting with AIX Version 7.2, the AIX operating system provides the Live Update function which eliminates downtime required when patching the AIX operating system kernel. Your application workloads are not stopped, yet they can take advantage of the new fixes immediately after the Live Update operation, without a reboot. Administrators can use the Live Update feature to install AIX interim fixes, service packs and technology levels.   In a nutshell, Live Update allows AIX administrators to install AIX updates in-place, but instead of... [More]

Tags:  7.2 blog openstack pvcauth powervc aix live update novalink hmc tl2 power8 chris vios cloud geninstall powervm gibson power

The latest release of the VIOS provides a way to automatically backup your virtual device configuration whenever it changes. From the IBM Knowledge Center for POWER8:   https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/POWER8/p8hcg/p8hcg_viosbr.htm   "The viosbr command automatically creates a backup, whenever there are any configuration changes. This functionality is known as the autoviosbr backup. It is triggered every hour, and checks if there are any configuration changes, or any other changes. If it detects any changes, a backup... [More]

Tags:  blog autobackup /usr/ios/sbin/autoviosbr vios chris autoviosbr aix powervm gibson viosbr