Virtual OptiConnect for IBM i logical partitions

The virtual OptiConnect feature provides high-speed interpartition communication within a managed system. The Virtual OptiConnect feature emulates external OptiConnect hardware by providing a virtual bus between logical partitions.

The virtual OptiConnect feature can be used only for communications between IBM® i logical partitions. If you must enable communications with AIX® or Linux logical partitions, use virtual Ethernet instead of the virtual OptiConnect feature.

To use the virtual OptiConnect feature on a logical partition, you must install OptiConnect for IBM i (a priced optional feature) on each IBM i logical partition that is to use virtual OptiConnect. If you use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to create logical partitions on your managed system, you must also check the partition profile properties for each IBM i logical partition that is to use virtual OptiConnect and ensure that the Use virtual OptiConnect option is selected on the OptiConnect tab.

You can use the virtual OptiConnect feature without any additional hardware requirements.