Virtual machine's directory entry contents fetching from SMAPI are out of date

A virtual machine deployed with multiple NICs is not working properly. Every NIC is using a VLAN network, thus VLAN IDs are expected to be written in the NICDEF statements in the virtual machine's directory entry. However, not all NICDEF statements are updated correctly.

Example:

USER TEST0001 LBYONLY 4096m 64G G INCLUDE DFLTLNX COMMAND DEF STOR RESERVED 61440M CPU 00 BASE IPL 0100 LOGONBY TESTADM MACHINE ESA 32 NICDEF 1000 TYPE QDIO DEVICES 3 MACID BE091A NICDEF 1003 TYPE QDIO DEVICES 3 MACID BDD74B LAN SYSTEM VSWITCH1 NICDEF 1003 VLAN 5 MDISK 0100 3390 29129 14564 IAS114 MR

In the example, the NIC 1000 is using a VLAN network, but the VLAN ID is not written into the NICDEF statement and it is not coupled to a vswitch either.

It is found that the directory entry contents are different comparing the VM itself with the use of SMAPI.

Using SMAPI:

USER TEST0001 LBYONLY 4096m 64G G INCLUDE DFLTLNX COMMAND DEF STOR RESERVED 61440M CPU 00 BASE IPL 0100 LOGONBY TESTADM MACHINE ESA 32 NICDEF 1000 TYPE QDIO DEVICES 3 MACID BE091A NICDEF 1003 TYPE QDIO DEVICES 3 MACID BDD74B NICDEF 1003 VLAN 5 MDISK 0100 3390 29129 14564 IAS114 MR

Because the IBM® Cloud Infrastructure Center is using SMAPI to get the virtual machines directory entry contents and update the NICDEF statements with the VLAN ID information. If SMAPI can not get the virtual machines directory entry contents correctly, then the updating operation can probably not complete with correct results. Thus the VLAN IDs are not added successfully.

The most common reason is because LOHCOST is enabled and its cache is out of date with DirMaint asynchronous notifications not set up properly.

1. Check if LOHCOST is enabled on the z/VM® where the compute node is located on.

   query LOHCOST
   LOHCOST  - DSC
   Ready; T=0.01/0.01 14:25:34
   

   LOHCOST - DSC means LOHCOST is enabled.

2. Check if you have other tools or automations that also update the DirMaint at the same time besides the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center.

   Using the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center, it is best to only use this tool to make changes to directory entries. It is not recommended to use another tool or to use DirMaint, at the same time.

3. It is recommend you have LOHCOST configured in DMSSICNF COPY on the MAINT 193 disk to include:

   LOHCOST_Enabled = LOHCOST_DIRECTORY + LOHCOST_METADATA

4. If the problem still exists after step 3, run the SMSTATUS and send the output to the IBM® technical support to find the possible reason. The instructions how to capture and send SMSTATUS can be found in the Appendix G. of the z/VM SMAPI book: http://www.vm.ibm.com/library/710pdfs/71632701.pdf (for z/VM 7.1) or http://www.vm.ibm.com/library/720pdfs/72632702.pdf (for z/VM® 7.2).