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Configuration validation for partition mobility

You can learn about the tasks that the Partition Migration wizard on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) performs to validate your system configuration for active and inactive partition mobility.

Before you attempt to migrate an active logical partition, you must validate your environment. You can use the validation function on the HMC to validate your system configuration. If the HMC detects a configuration or connection problem, it displays an error message with information to help you resolve the problem.

The following tables list validation tasks that the HMC performs to verify that the source and destination systems are ready for active or inactive partition mobility.

General compatibility

Table 1. Validation tasks performed by the HMC to verify general compatibility for active and inactive partition mobility
Validation task	Active mobility task	Inactive mobility task
Checks that the HMC that manages the source server can successfully communicate with the HMC that manages the destination server, if they are different HMCs .	X	X
Checks that the resource monitoring and control (RMC) connections are established.	Checks the RMC connections to the mobile partition, the source and destination Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) partitions, and the connection between the source and destination mover service partitions.	Checks the RMC connections to the source and destination VIOS partitions.
Checks mobility capability and compatibility.	Checks the source and destination servers, hypervisor, VIOS partitions, and mover service partitions.	Checks the VIOS and hypervisor.
Checks the number of current migrations against the number of supported migrations.	Checks the number of current active migrations against the number of supported active migrations.	Checks the number of current inactive migrations against the number of supported inactive migrations.

Server compatibility

Table 2. Validation tasks performed by the HMC to verify server compatibility for active and inactive partition mobility
Validation task	Active mobility task	Inactive mobility task
Checks that the necessary processing resources are available to create a shell logical partition on the destination system.	X	X
Checks that the necessary memory resources are available to create a shell logical partition on the destination system.	For a mobile partition that uses dedicated memory, checks that enough physical memory is available on the destination system. For a mobile partition that uses shared memory, checks that a shared memory pool is configured on the destination server and that it has enough physical memory to satisfy the entitled memory requirements of the mobile partition.	For a mobile partition that uses dedicated memory, checks that enough physical memory is available on the destination system.
Checks that the necessary I/O adapter resources are available to create a shell logical partition on the destination system. During validation, the HMC extracts the device description for each virtual adapter on the VIOS partitions on the source server. The HMC uses the extracted information to determine whether the VIOS partitions 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 VIOS partitions on the destination server have enough available slots to accommodate the virtual adapter configuration of the mobile partition.	X	X
Checks that the logical memory block size is the same on the source and destination servers.	X
If the mobile partition uses Active Memory™ Expansion, the HMC checks that the destination server supports Active Memory Expansion.	X	X
If the mobile partition is capable of suspension, the HMC checks that the destination server supports partitions that are capable of suspension.	X	X
If the mobile partition is capable of the Trusted Boot capability, the HMC determines whether the destination server supports mobile partitions that are capable of the Trusted Boot capability.	X	X
When the firmware is at level 7.6, or later, you can configure virtual processors to use only 0.05 processing units per virtual processor. Consider the following restrictions when you migrate a partition to a server with the firmware at level 7.4, or earlier. Minimum processing units must be set to a value that results from the following calculation: 0.1 × the minimum number of virtual processors that you select for the partition. Maximum processing units must be set to a value that results from the following calculation: 0.1 × the maximum number of virtual processors that you select for the partition. Before you migrate partitions that use 0.05 processor units per virtual processor, you must ensure that the current ratio of assigned processor units to virtual processors is at least 0.1.	X	X
If the mobile partition has single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) logical ports, that mobile partition cannot be migrated to the destination server. SR-IOV is a Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group specification to allow multiple partitions that are running simultaneously within a single computer to share a Peripheral Component Interconnect-Express (PCIe) device.	X	X
As of HMC Version 7 Release 7.7.0, you can assign the Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) switching mode to virtual Ethernet switches that are used by the virtual Ethernet adapters of the mobile partition. When the virtual Ethernet switch that is used by the virtual Ethernet adapter of the logical partition is enabled with the VEPA switching mode, then the logical partition uses virtual server network (VSN). If the mobile partition on the source server uses VSN, verify that the destination server also uses VSN.	X	X
When the HMC is at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or later, the mobile partition supports synchronization of the current configuration capability. Verify that the HMC is at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or later, on the destination server. For remote migration, if the HMC at the source server is at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or later, and the HMC at the destination server is at a version earlier than Version 7 Release 7.8.0, then the current configuration profile is not visible on the destination server. If the HMC at the source server is at a version earlier than Version 7 Release 7.7.0, and the HMC at the destination server is at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, or later, then the current configuration profile is created on the destination server. When you connect a server to a HMC that is at a version earlier than Version 7 Release 7.8.0, after the server was earlier connected to a HMC at Version 7 Release 7.8.0, the last valid configuration profile is considered as a normal profile.	X	X

VIOS compatibility

Table 3. Validation tasks performed by the HMC to verify the source and destination VIOS partitions for active and inactive partition mobility
Validation task	Active mobility task	Inactive mobility task
Checks that all required I/O devices are connected to the mobile partition through a VIOS partition. That is, no physical adapters are assigned to the mobile partition and no virtual serial adapters are in virtual slots higher than 1.	X	X
Checks that no virtual SCSI disks are backed by logical volumes and that no virtual SCSI disks are attached to internal disks (not on the SAN).	X	X
Checks that the virtual SCSI disks assigned to the logical partition are accessible by the VIOS partitions on the destination server.		X
Checks that the reservation policies of the physical volumes are the same for the source and destination VIOS partitions.	X	X
Checks that the required virtual LAN IDs are available on the destination VIOS partitions can be preserved on the destination VIOS partitions.	X	X
Checks that the slot IDs of the virtual server adapters on the source VIOS partitions can be maintained on the destination VIOS partitions.	X	X
Checks that the user-defined names of the virtual target devices on the source VIOS partition can be maintained on the destination VIOS partition.	X	X
Checks that the user-defined adapter IDs of the virtual server adapters on the source VIOS partition can be maintained on the destination VIOS partition.	X	X
Checks that the redundancy configuration of the VIOS partitions on the source system can be maintained on the destination system. In some situations, you can move a logical partition to a destination system with less redundancy.	X	X
For a mobile partition that uses shared memory, checks the following configuration: The number of active VIOS partitions (subsequently referred to as paging VIOS partitions) that are assigned to the shared memory pool on the destination server. That an available paging space device exists on the destination server and that the device satisfies the following requirements: It satisfies the redundancy preferences that you specify. It meets the size requirements of the mobile partition (it is at least the size of the maximum logical memory of the mobile partition). For example, you specify that the mobile partition uses redundant paging VIOS partitions on the destination server. You can move the mobile partition if the destination server provides the following configuration: Two paging VIOS partitions are assigned to the shared memory pool. An available paging space device exists. The paging space device meets the size requirements of the mobile partition. Both paging VIOS partitions on the destination server have access to the paging space device.	X

Mobile partition compatibility

Table 4. Validation tasks performed by the HMC to verify that the mobile partition can successfully move to the destination server by using active or inactive partition mobility
Validation task	Active mobility task	Inactive mobility task
Checks that the operating system on the mobile partition is the AIX®, IBM® i, or Linux operating system.	X	X
Checks that the mobile partition has an active partition profile on the HMC.		X
Checks the mobile partition, its operating system, and its applications for migration capability. The AIX operating system passes the check migration request to those applications and kernel extensions that have registered to be notified of dynamic reconfiguration events. The operating system either accepts or rejects the migration.	X
Checks that the mobile partition is not the redundant error path reporting logical partition.	X	X
Checks that the mobile partition is not in a partition workload group.	X	X
Checks the uniqueness of the virtual MAC addresses or the mobile partition.	X	X
Checks the state of the mobile partition.	Checks that the mobile partition state is Active or Running.	Checks that the mobile partition state is Not Activated.
Checks that the name of the mobile partition is not already in use on the destination server.	X	X
Checks that the mobile partition is not configured with barrier synchronization register (BSR) arrays.	X
Checks that the mobile partition is not configured with huge pages.	X
Checks that the mobile partition does not have a Host Ethernet Adapter (or Integrated Virtual Ethernet). Note: If an AIX mobile partition has a Host Ethernet Adapter, you can validate partition mobility through the System Management Interface Tool (SMIT). SMIT validates the Host Ethernet Adapter configuration of the AIX mobile partition in addition to using the HMC validation process to validate the overall partition mobility configuration. For more information, see LPM Overview.	X
Checks that the mobile partition is not performing a Dynamic Partition Optimizer (DPO) operation. DPO is a hypervisor function initiated by the HMC.	X
Checks whether the mobile partition has any connected tape or optical devices as migration fails if any of these devices are connected.	X	X

Note: If persistent Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) reservations are used on N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) disks that are part of either an inactive partition mobility or remote restart operation, after the partition mobility operation, the disks are most likely to fail I/O operations with reservation conflicts. Generally, only the reserve_policy variable of the PR_shared or PR_exclusive attribute is treated as persistent by the storage subsystem. Some storage subsystems, such as the DS8K, treat the reservation that is used with the single_path reserve_policy attribute similar to a Persistent Reservation (PR). You must use a value of no_reserve for the reserve_policy parameter, for all NPIV disks that are associated with the inactive partition mobility or remote restart operation. If the storage subsystem marks the reservation as persistent, you must clear the reservation from the storage subsystem, or restart the server in the maintenance mode and break the reservation by using the following command from the HMC command line: devrsrv -f -l hdiskX. The minimum AIX level required by the devrsrv command is AIX 6.1 Technology Level 8 or AIX 7.1 Technology Level 1.

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Last updated: Sat, March 17, 2018