Question & Answer
Question
Where can one find the procedures needed to locate I/O slots that can be moved dynamically between logical partitions (LPAR) on a HMC managed system p server?
Cause
One of the most common devices that administrations want to move is a tape controller or a DVD drive controller so they can install or backup software.
Answer
The procedures one would need to follow for removing and adding an I/O slot dynamically can be found in the references listed below, but the basic steps are as follows:
- Identify the owner of the I/O slot for the device you need to managed.
- Logically remove the PCI device from the owning operating system.
-- ID the PCI device associated with the physical slot
--- In AIX
lsslot -c slot
or
--- lsdev -Cl <device name> -F parent
(start with target child device and repeat for all parents till the pci device parent ifs found)
--- In IOS (virtual I/O server)
lsdev -slots
or
--- lsdev -dev <device name> -parent
(start with target child device and repeat for all parents till the pci device parent ifs found)
-- Remove the PCI device and all child devices
--- In AIX
rmdev -Rdl pci#
--- In IOS
rmdev -dev pci# -recursive
- Perform the dynamic logical partition operation from the HMC
- Configure the new device on the gaining partition
-- In AIX
cfgmgr
-- In IOS
cfgdev
More detail about the typical dynamic logical partition procedures are available in the following references:
Partitioning Implementations
for IBM Eserver p5 Servers
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg247039.pdf
Extract follows:
5.3.2 Internal activity for I/O slots in a DLPAR event
Dynamic removal and addition of I/O adapters has been provided by AIX
prior to DLPAR support, utilizing the PCI adapter Hot Plug capability on the IBM RS/6000 and IBM pSeries server models. To allow for the dynamic addition and removal of PCI I/O slots, AIX 5L Version 5.2 provided enhancements to the lsslot command have been made.
PCI slots and integrated I/O devices can be listed using the new
connector type slot in the lsslot command, as shown in the following
example:
# lsslot -c slot
The output of this command looks similar to the following:
#Slot Description Device(s)
U1.5-P1-I1 DLPAR slot pci13 ent0
U1.5-P1-I2 DLPAR slot pci14 ent1
U1.5-P1-I3 DLPAR slot pci15
U1.5-P1-I4 DLPAR slot pci16
U1.5-P1-I5 DLPAR slot pci17 ent2
U1.5-P1/Z1 DLPAR slot pci18 scsi0
Before the I/O slot removal, you must delete the PCI adapter device and all its child devices from AIX. Given that ent2 in the slot U1.5-P1-I5 in the previous example is not used, the devices could be removed using the following command as the root user on the partition.
# rmdev -l pci17 -d -R
After the devices have been removed from AIX, the I/O slot can be
removed from the partition using the graphical user interface or command line interface on the HMC.
Note: Any PCI slots defined as required are not eligible for the DLPAR operation.
Procedures to use the HMC GUI to dynamically manage I/O slots can be found at following URL:
Dynamically managing physical I/O devices and slots
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/powersys/v3r1m5/index.jsp?topic=/iphat/iphbldlpariopp6.htm
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 June 2018
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