Virtual storage linking for integrated servers

Integrated servers do not use physical disk drives. IBM® i creates virtual storage (network server storage spaces) within its own file system and integrated servers use them as if they were normal physical disk drives.

To add virtual storage to an integrated server, you create the storage, link it to the server and then format it for the integrated server operating system.

iSCSI-attached integrated servers use only dynamic virtual storage links. The virtual storage link sequence position is assigned dynamically at the time that the virtual storage is linked to an active server. The virtual storage link sequence position can be specified, but it is not used until the server is restarted. The integrated server can either be shut down or active when adding a dynamic virtual storage link.

When dynamically linking virtual storage to an active server, the new virtual storage appears following all other linked virtual storage.

The following table shows the IBM i virtual storage features supported for network server descriptions (NWSDs) with NWSD type *ISCSI and various operating system (OS) types1.

Table 1. Virtual storage features supported
Feature NWSD OS Types
*WIN32 and *WIN64 *ESX *ESXE
Maximum number of storage spaces that can be linked to the server 64 64 64
Maximum capacity per storage space 1000 GB 1000 GB 1000 GB
Maximum total virtual storage capacity, assuming 1000 GB per storage space 61.5 TB 62.5 TB 62.5 TB
Can link virtual storage while the server is active? Yes. Exceptions: storage linked at sequence 1-2 Yes. Exception: storage linked at sequence 1 Yes
Can unlink virtual storage while the server is active? Yes. Exceptions:
  • Storage linked at sequence 1-2
  • Storage cannot be part of a volume set
  • Storage cannot be a volume mounted in a directory
 No No
Virtual storage format types allowed when linking *NTFS, *FAT, *FAT32, *OPEN, Start of change*REFSEnd of change *NTFS, *FAT, *FAT32, *OPEN,Start of change *REFSEnd of change *NTFS, *FAT, *FAT32, *OPEN, Start of change*REFSEnd of change
Virtual storage access types allowed when linking Exclusive update, shared update2 Exclusive update, shared update2 Exclusive update, shared update2
Virtual storage requiring exclusive update access type Storage linked at sequence 1-2 Storage linked at sequence 1 None
Number of shared access type links 622 632 642
Note:
  1. See the Create Network Server Desc (CRTNWSD) command documentation for a description of the NWSD types and the associated operating system (OS) types.
  2. Shared storage spaces can be linked to multiple (up to 50) VMware ESX servers (OS types *ESX or *ESXE), but just one Windows server (OS types *WIN32 or *WIN64). Storage spaces cannot be linked to more than one Windows server at a time.

Network server storage spaces can reside in either the IBM i system storage pool (ASP 1) or a user storage pool. You can copy one storage space to another to move it to a different storage pool.

Network server storage spaces are one of the two types of IBM i storage that integrated servers use. Integrated servers can also access resources on IBM i that an administrator has shared with the network by using IBM i NetServer.

After you create virtual storage and link it to an integrated server, you must partition and format the storage using the standard utilities provided by the integrated server operating system.