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Configuring an IBM GX host channel adapter

An IBM® GX host channel adapter (HCA) must have certain configuration settings to work in an IBM POWER® InfiniBand cluster.

The following configuration settings are required to work with an IBM POWER InfiniBand cluster.

InfiniBand subnet IP addressing is based on subnet restrictions. For more information, see IP subnet addressing restriction. Each physical InfiniBand HCA contains a set of 16 GUIDs that can be assigned to logical partition profiles. These are used to address logical HCA (LHCA) resources on an HCA. You can assign multiple GUIDs to each profile, but you can assign only one GUID from each HCA to each partition profile. Each GUID can be used by only one logical partition at a time. You can create multiple logical partition profiles with the same GUID, but only one of those logical partition profiles can be activated at a time.

The GUID index is used to choose one of the 16 GUIDs available for an HCA. It can be any number 1-16. Often, you can assign a GUID index based on which logical partition and profile you are configuring. For example, on each server you might have four logical partitions. The first logical partition on each server might use a GUID index of 1, the second would use a GUID index of 2, and so on.

The Capability setting is used to indicate the level of sharing that can be done. The levels of sharing are as follows.
  1. Low
  2. Medium
  3. High
  4. Dedicated

Although the GID prefix for a port is not explicitly set, it is important to understand the subnet to which a port is attached. This is determined by the switch to which the HCA port is connected. The GID prefix is configured for the switch.

Record the configuration settings in the Server planning work sheet, which is used to record HCA configuration information.

Note: The 9125-F2A servers with an InfiniBand interface on the I/O planar might have an extra InfiniBand device defined. The defined device is always iba3. Delete iba3 from the configuration.

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Last updated: Tue, February 08, 2011