Partition mobility process for IVM

Learn about how the Integrated Virtualization Manager (IVM) migrates an active or inactive logical partition from one server to another server.

The following table describes the steps that take place during the process of active and inactive partition mobility on the IVM.

Table 1. The steps involved in the process of active and inactive partition mobility on the IVM
Partition mobility step Active mobility step Inactive mobility step
1. You ensure that all requirements are satisfied and all preparation tasks are completed. X X
2. You shut down the mobile partition.   X
3. You initiate partition mobility by starting the migration task on the IVM. X X
4. The IVM extracts the physical device description for each physical adapter on the Virtual I/O Server management partition on the source server. The IVM uses the extracted information to determine whether the Virtual I/O Server management partition on the destination server can provide the mobile partition with the same virtual SCSI, virtual Ethernet, and virtual Fibre Channel configuration that exists on the source server. This includes verifying that the Virtual I/O Server management partition on the destination server has enough available slots to accommodate the virtual adapter configuration of the mobile partition. The IVM uses all this information to generate a list of recommended virtual adapter mappings for the mobile partition on the destination server.
Where possible, the IVM preserves the following configurations:
  • User-defined names of the virtual target devices. Partition mobility does not preserve vtscsix IDs.
  • User-defined adapter IDs for virtual server adapters.
 X X
5. The IVM prepares the source and destination environments for partition mobility. This includes using the virtual adapter mappings from step 4 for mapping the virtual adapters on the mobile partition to the virtual adapters on the Virtual I/O Server management partition on the destination server. X X
6. The IVM transfers the logical partition state from the source environment to the destination environment.
In active partition mobility, the following additional steps occur:
  • The source mover service partition (MSP) extracts the logical partition state information from the source server and sends it to the destination MSP over the network.
  • The destination MSP receives the logical partition state information and installs it on the destination server.
X
7. The IVM suspends the mobile partition on the source server. The source MSP continues to transfer the logical partition state information to the destination MSP. X  
8. The hypervisor resumes the mobile partition on the destination server. X  
9. The IVM completes the migration. All resources that were consumed by the mobile partition on the source server are reclaimed by the source server:
  • The IVM removes the virtual SCSI adapters and the virtual Fibre Channel adapters (that were connected to the mobile partition) from the source Virtual I/O Server management partition.
  • For a mobile partition that uses shared memory, the IVM deactivates the paging space device that was used by the mobile partition and removes the paging space device (if it was automatically created).
 X X
10. You activate the mobile partition on the destination server.   X
11. You perform postrequisite tasks, such as adding dedicated I/O adapters to the mobile partition or adding the mobile partition to a partition workload group. X X
Parent topic: Partition mobility overview for IVM


Last updated: Tue, March 12, 2019