Partitioning with multi-adapter configurations
Find information about partitioning considerations with dual-slot and multi-adapter configurations.
Logical partitions can own physical I/O resources. Physical I/O resources are assigned to logical partitions at the slot level. Assigning a slot to a logical partition enables the operating system that runs in the logical partition to control the functions of the I/O resource and power for that slot. When the operating system powers a slot on or off, the physical I/O resource is powered on or off.
Adapter pairs are used to create multi-initiator and high availability configurations.
Multi-initiator and high availability
The terms multi-initiator and high availability (HA) refer to connecting multiple adapters (typically two adapters) to a common set of disk expansion drawers for increasing availability. This configuration is also referred to as Dual Storage IOA configuration. This type of connection is commonly done in either of the following configurations.
HA two-system configuration
An HA two-system configuration provides a high-availability environment for system storage by enabling two systems or partitions to have access to the same set of disks and disk arrays. This feature is typically used with the IBM® PowerHA® SystemMirror®. The IBMPowerHA SystemMirror software provides a commercial computing environment that ensures that mission-critical applications can recover quickly from hardware and software failures. The support for this configuration is operating system dependent.
HA single system configuration
An HA single system configuration provides for redundant adapters from a single system to the same set of disks and disk arrays. This feature is typically referred to as Multi-Path I/O (MPIO). MPIO support is part of the operating system support and can be used to provide a redundant IBM SAS RAID controller configuration with RAID protected disks.