Question & Answer
Question
The SAN team is not seeing the client's virtual WWPN on the Storage Subsystem to map the SAN disk needed to install the client OS. How can initiate a Login/Logout operation to create the SAN Zoning and map the storage?
Cause
New POWER system with dual Virtual I/O Servers needs to be configured for clients to boot from NPIV SAN storage.
I created new AIX partition with four virtual Fibre Channel adapters, two per Virtual I/O Server.
The SAN administrator is not seeing the client's virtual WWPN in one of the following scenarios:
- The virtual WWPNs are not visible on the SAN Switch to create the zoning or
- The virtual WWPNs are visible on the SAN switch but not on the Storage Subsystem in order to map the SAN disk needed to install the client OS
Answer
This applies to POWER8 systems with firmware level 820_xxx or later and all POWER9 systems running Virtual I/O Server 3.1.X.
Use the following procedure to activate the NPIV adapter for the SAN administrator to create the SAN zoning and map the storage.
- Boot the AIX partition to the System Management Services (SMS) Main Menu
- Select 3. I/O Device Information
- Select 1. SAN
- Choose the desired virtual FC client adapter to open the NPIV adapter
At this point, the SAN administrator can expect to see the virtual WWPN for the selected adapter logged in on the SAN switch port for zoning to be performed.
For more details, see ioinfo is deprecated in Power9 machines.
Note: The Virtual I/O Server has no control of what happens on the SAN once the NPIV adapter is active. When the AIX host is booted to SMS and the I/O Device (SAN Zoning) options above are selected, then the NPIV adapter is active at that point.
If the virtual WWPNs are not visible on the SAN Switch once the NPIV adapter is active, contact your Switch Support and provide the virtual WWPN for investigation
If the virtual WWPNs are visible on the SAN switch but not on the Storage Subsystem, contact your Storage Support. What happens after the switch is out of our control.
To simplify things, consider configuring a single path to the AIX host and manually add the respective virtual WWPN to get the AIX OS installed. This can facilitate problem determination if client OS logs any errors.
Related Information
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Document Information
Modified date:
10 June 2021
UID
ibm16462663