VIO Server (CD Drive) 2

[Germo]

Hi Guru's,

I have created a VIO Server and four VIO Clients, I have booted up the VIO Server OK and trying now to install AIX 5.3 from CD onto one of the four VIO Clients... the problem I am having that the VIO Client that I am trying to install from CD on can't see the CD drive that is on the VIO Server. The Server and Clients are on the same Managed System on our HMC. Do I need to do anything to create a virtual CD drive or such like?

Thanks

 

[p5wizard]

Yes,

First assign the CD/DVD device to the VIOSERVER from the HMC. (That is already done apparently)

Then on the HMC you have to create a VIOSERVER-vhost VIOCLIENT-vscsi adapterpair. You can also create the vhost to be able to connect to any VIOCLIENT, any vscsi, that is easier to use the CD/DVD from all your VIOCLIENTS

Then you have to serve the CD/DVD drive from the VIOSERVER as a vtopt device on the specific vhost adapter
see man mkvdev on VIOSERVER


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Well first you have to check that the profiles set correctly to view the vscsi from the clients as p5 mentioned

(I like this site so i always recommend going thru it)

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-aix-vioserver-v2/index.html

But if i'm to do this i would have thought of assigning the CD/DVD device to the client machine directing and then booting from it

I've never done what p5 mentioned! Seems tempting! and i guess his way will make your life eaiser by assigning the cd/dvd to one client at a time

But i would suggest you try first to assign the CD/DVD directly (as a desired slot) and see how it goes!

By the way when you access the SMS do you see the disks on the client that were setup from the VIOServer? That's an important sign to indicate that your setup was correct!

Regards,
Khalid

 

[p5wizard]

Assigning the CD/DVD drive as desired to all LPARs is one way, but you need a HMC operation in addition to rmdev/mkdev operations on the LPARs to swap the CD/DVD device around.

By creating a dedicated vhost on the VIOS, which can connect to any LPAR, any slot plus then you serve the CD/DVD drive as a vtopt device, and creating on each LPAR a vscsi adapter (preferably the first one: Vslot number 2, so it has the same name vscsi0 on all LPARs) which tries to connect to the dedicated vhost on the VIOS, any LPAR can use the VTopt device as a virtual SCSI CD/DVD drive.

The LPAR that was first, is connected to the vhost and has the virtual CD/DVD drive and locks out any other LPAR that tries to connect to the vhost on the VIOS. But a simple rmdev on the drive and the vscsi adapter unlocks the vhost and allows another LPAR to connect to the vhost and the vtopt device (cfgmgr does that automatically).

LPAR1:
# lsdev -C|grep cd
cd0 Available Virtual SCSI Optical Served by VIO Server
# lsdev -C|grep vscsi0
vscsi0 Available Virtual SCSI Client Adapter
==> unmount any cd/dvd
# rmdev -l cd0
cd0 defined
# rmdev -l vscsi0 # (use lscfg to find out which vscsi adapter it is in your case)
vscsi0 Defined
# lsdev -C|grep cd
cd0 Defined Virtual SCSI Optical Served by VIO Server
# lsdev -C|grep vscsi0
vscsi0 Defined Virtual SCSI Client Adapter


LPAR2:
# cfgmgr
# lsdev -C|grep cd
cd0 Available Virtual SCSI Optical Served by VIO Server
# lsdev -C|grep vscsi0
vscsi0 Available Virtual SCSI Client Adapter



HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Germo]

Thanks all.... I managed to get the CD drive over onto the VIO Client now. It was mainly down to a name error.

Thanks

 

[khalidaaa]

Nice info p5wizard! Do you have any document that talks about this? I will try this at work next week!

Regards,
Khalid

 

[p5wizard]

I'm pretty much self-educated on this topic...

But if it exists, find it here:

http://www-941.ibm.com/collaboratio...on/VIO?showChildren=false&decorator=printable

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Would it be possible that you be my instructor one day?



Thanks p5 i will go thru this next week and see what i can find.

Regards,
Khalid

 

[p5wizard]

I found out about it on the release notes for VIOS 1.2:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infoc....aix.resources/RELNOTES/VIO_1121_relnotes.htm

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

That's nice! But where did it mention the steps in creating the VTopt?

 

[p5wizard]

man mkvdev

mkvdev Command

Purpose

Adds a virtual device to the system.

Syntax

To create a virtual target device:

mkvdev [ -f ] {-vdev TargetDevice | -dplc TDPhysicalLocatonCode } {
-vadapter VirtualServerAdapter | -aplc VSAPhysicalLocationCode} [ -dev
DeviceName ]
...
The mkvdev command also configures virtual optical devices, where the
-vdev or -dplc flags specify the physical optical device and the
-vadapter or -aplc flags specify the virtual SCSI adapter. If the
specified optical device is already assigned to a virtual SCSI adapter
an error is returned unless the -f flag is also specified. If the -f
flag is specified, the optical device will be removed from the virtual
SCSI adapter it is currently assigned to before reassigning it to the
new virtual SCSI adapter. Attention: To protect the Configuration
Database, the mkvdev command is not interruptible. Stopping this
command before execution is complete could result in a corrupted
database.
...


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Thanks p5wizard for you valuable posts

Regards,
Khalid