Validating the configuration for partition mobility

You can use the Partition Migration wizard on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to validate the configuration of the source and destination systems for partition mobility. If the HMC detects a configuration or connection problem, it displays an error message with information to help you resolve the problem.

If the source and destination servers are managed by different Hardware Management Consoles, verify that the Secure Shell (SSH) authentication keys are set up correctly between the HMCs. For instructions, see Verifying SSH authentication between the source and destination HMC.

You must be a super administrator to validate the partition mobility environment.

To validate the source and destination systems for partition mobility using the HMC, complete the following steps:

In the navigation pane, open Systems Management.
Select Servers.
In the navigation pane, select the source server.
Select the mobile partition and expand Operations > Mobility > Validate.
The HMC Classic interface is not supported in Hardware Management Console (HMC) Version 8.7.0, or later. The functions that were previously available in the HMC Classic interface are now available in the HMC Enhanced+ interface.
When the HMC is at version 8.7.0, or later, complete the following steps to validate the source and destination systems for partition mobility:
1. In the navigation pane, click the Resources icon .
2. Click All Partitions. Alternatively, click All Systems. In the work pane, click the server name that has the logical partition. Click View System Partitions. The All Partitions page is displayed.
3. In the work pane, select the logical partition and click Actions > Mobility > Validate.
Specify information about the partition mobility environment, and then click Validate. The Virtual Storage assignments table populates with suggested virtual adapter settings.
Remember: With HMC version 7 release 3.5.0, or later, you can select Override virtual storage errors when possible. Select this option to validate moving the mobile partition to a destination system with less redundancy.
Review the available virtual adapter settings on the destination system.
If the mobile partition has virtual Network Interface Controller (vNIC) adapters, the HMC performs the validations that are required for partition mobility. This includes verifying whether any vNIC on the partition is disabled, whether the destination server supports vNIC adapters, and whether the destination server has an SR-IOV adapter. The HMC tries to auto-map a destination SR-IOV physical port by matched physical port label and port switch mode, and a destination hosting Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) for every vNIC adapter on the mobile partition. If the auto-mapping is successful, the suggested vNIC adapter mappings are listed in the Virtual NIC assignments table.
To change the SR-IOV physical port of the destination backing device, destination hosting VIOS, or destination capacity of the vNIC backing device, click Modify.

When the mobile partition has vNICs with multiple backing devices, the Override vNIC backing device redundancy if necessary option is displayed in the Partition Migration Validation window. This option is not displayed when all the vNICs have only one backing device. When you click Validate, the HMC performs the auto-mapping operation and the Virtual NIC assignments table is populated. If the auto-mapping operation is successful and if the Override vNIC backing device redundancy if necessary check box is cleared, the Virtual NIC assignments table displays the mapping information for each backing device. If the Override vNIC backing device redundancy if necessary check box is selected, some of the backing devices might not show the mapping information, but for each vNIC, at least one backing device displays a mapping. The table displays the vNIC slot ID, active backing device, and the priority of the backing device (lower value indicates a higher priority).

If the auto-mapping operation was not successful, irrespective of whether the Override vNIC backing device redundancy if necessary check box is selected or cleared, the Virtual NIC assignments table displays only the source backing device information. The Destination Backing Device Port and Destination VIOS fields display N/A. Irrespective of the mapping operation results, you can manually select the mapping value for each backing device by clicking Modify.
Click Validate again to confirm that the changed settings are still acceptable for partition mobility.

Where possible, the HMC Version 7 Release 3.5.0, or later, preserves the virtual slot assignments of the virtual server adapters on the destination system. However, in some situations the HMC might not be able to preserve a virtual slot ID. For example, when the slot ID is already occupied on the destination VIOS logical partition. When the HMC cannot preserve a virtual slot ID, you receive an error message, and the HMC assigns an available slot ID. You can override the assignments by completing the following steps from the HMC command-line interface:

Run the lslparmigr command to show a list of available slot IDs for a VIOS partition.
Run the migrlpar command to accomplish the following tasks:
- Specify virtual slot IDs for one or more virtual adapter mappings.
- Validate the specified slot IDs.
  Note: You can specify the port name of the Fibre Channel to be used for creating Fibre Channel mapping on the destination server when you are performing partition migration.
  You can use the HMC command-line interface to specify the port name.
  1. List all the valid port names of the Fibre Channel by running the lsnports command.
  2. From the list of valid port names, specify the port name you want to use in the vios_fc_port_name attribute, by running the following command:
```
migrlpar -o v -m <srcCecName> -t <dstCecName> -p <lparName> -i "virtual_fc_mappings=
<Client_slot_num>/<target_vios_name>/<target_vios_id>/<target_slot_num>/<vios_fc_port_name>"
```
    For example:
```
migrlpar -o v -m vrml13-fsp -t vrml11-fsp -p vrml11lp03 -i "virtual_fc_mappings=
3/vrml11-vios1/1/8/fcs0" 
```
  3. To validate the override concurrency level to be used for the partition mobility operation, run the following command:
```
migrlpar -o v -m <srcCecName> -t <dstCecName> -p <lparName> -f 
"concurr_migration_perf_level=<overrideValue>"
```
    For example:
```
migrlpar -o v -m vrml13-fsp -t vrml11-fsp -p vrml11lp03 -i "concurr_migration_perf_level=3" 
```
  4. When the mobile partition is configured with the Physical Page Table (PPT) ratio, you can use the migrlpar command to validate the partition mobility operation. When the hypervisor on the destination server does not support PPT ratio, a warning message is displayed. However, the validation operation succeeds. During Live Partition Mobility, the Physical Page Table (PPT) ratio is used to translate effective addresses to physical real addresses. The PPT ratio is the ratio of the PPT size to the maximum memory value for the logical partition. The PPT ratio is used by the hypervisor for paging during Live Partition Mobility. For more information about PPT ratio and migration, see Migration and PPT ratio.

Last updated: Tue, March 12, 2019