Managing virtual storage

You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to manage and monitor storage devices in a PowerVM® virtual storage environment.

You can change the configuration of the virtual storage devices that are allocated to each Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) on the managed system. You can also add a VIOS to a shared storage pool cluster and manage all the shared storage pool clusters.

The virtual storage page has the adapter view and the storage view. You can toggle between these views by clicking the button in the upper-right corner of the work pane. The default view is the Storage View. You can use the storage view to view and manage the storage capability of the managed system.

You can view the adapter configuration of the virtual storage devices that are allocated to the Virtual I/O Servers. The Adapter View provides a mapping of the adapters to the physical storage device. By selecting a VIOS, you can manage the virtual storage devices that are configured to a particular partition. You can also select and view all the partitions with storage that is provisioned by the VIOS.

Moving an optical device to another partition

With the support of the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), you can share a CD or DVD that is assigned to the VIOS among multiple AIX®, IBM® i, and Linux® client partitions.

A shared optical device can be accessed only by one client partition at a time. If another client partition wants to use the shared optical device, you must first deallocate the shared optical device from the client partition that is accessing it.

For more information, see Loading and unloading media files.

Moving a virtual tape device to another partition

With the support of the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) for the virtual tape devices, you can share the physical tape drive that is assigned to the VIOS partition among multiple AIX, IBM i, and Linux client partitions.

A shared tape device can be accessed only by one VIOS client partition at a time. If another VIOS client partition wants to use the shared tape device, you must first deallocate the shared tape device from the client partition that is accessing it.

For more information, see Loading and unloading media files.

Tracing the virtual storage configuration

You can track which virtual objects correspond to which physical objects. A single virtual server can have multiple virtual disks.

The virtual disks are mapped to physical disks as physical volumes or as logical volumes. The logical volumes are mapped from volume groups or storage pools.

Depending on the type of storage provisioning method you choose, you can track the following information:
  • VIOS
    • Server host name
    • Physical disk location
    • Physical adapter device name
    • Physical hdisk device name
    • Cluster name (for shared storage pool backed devices only)
    • Volume group or storage pool name (for logical volume or storage pool backed devices only)
    • Logical volume or storage pool backing device name (for logical volume or storage pool backed devices only)
    • Virtual Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter slot
    • Virtual SCSI adapter device name
    • Virtual target device
  • VIOS client partition
    • Client host name
    • Virtual SCSI adapter slot
    • Virtual SCSI adapter device name
    • Virtual disk device name