Virtual ent

[khalidaaa]

Hi Guros,

I heard of the possibilty of communicating between two LPARs without having an ethernet adapter. The only condition is that they should be on the same machine (I have them on a P5 570 machine) and they should be 5.3.

I managed to do this on a VIO but i don't know if that has to do with this! I want to do it without using the VIO.

Can this be done? and how?

Regards,
Khalid

 

[p5wizard]

Here's what I'd do:

First create a virtual ethernet adapter (on HMC, using the same VLAN number) for both LPARs.
Then cfgmgr on (or reboot) both LPARs to find the new entX adapters.
Then put a (private) IP address on both LPAR's virtual ethernet interfaces enX (different IP for both servers).
Then the LPARs should be communicating with each other...


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Thanks p5wizard for your comment.

Can i do that on an AIX 5.2 or its only on 5.3?

 

[p5wizard]

virtual IO is only supported as of AIX5.3 on p5/p5+ hardware


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Thanks again p5

I couldn't find a test 5.3 environment yet to do this!!! i will have to wait for the developers to finish their work first unfortunatly!

i will let you know the result of that

Thanks once more

Regards,
Khalid

 

[p5wizard]

to be completely accurate (from VIOS FAQ

http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/vios/documentation/faq.html):

What client OS's support attachment to the VIOS?

1. AIX 5.3
2. SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 for POWER
3. Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS for POWER Version 3(update 2 or newer)
4. Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS for POWER Version 4


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Thanks again P5

I thought of doing it without VIO!

Coz the thing is that i will be connecting my two p5 570s servers to a UPS and then when the power goes off, and because the switches are not connected to a UPS, then i will be able to communicate (virtually) from one LPAR, the one that is connected serially to the UPS, to the rest of the LPARs to shut them down. But still i will be having a problem with the HMC which i was thinking to connect it to a small UPS just for its own. But the problem is that i can't install the UPS's Software over the HMC?

Would it harm if the HMC shutdown without an alert? or is there any other way of doing it!?! Can i have that HMC connected to a small UPS and then initiate a power down command using the Hub that connects my two p5 570s servers (thru the Service Focal Point)?

Regards,
Khalid

 

[DukeSSD]

You don't need VIO for virtual ethernet on P5. You can create virtual ethernet adapters on LPARS, just as you suggested khalidaaa.
Go for it, it sounds like a good idea to me.
HMCs seem to handle power outages OK and there doesn't seem to be any way of installing UPS software on them anyway.

 

[p5wizard]

I was just trying to clarify which OS versions support Virtual SCSI/Ethernet adapters. AIX 52 doesn't but AIX 53, among others, does.

Though this particular info comes from VIO FAQ, it is not really related to VIO servers, but to the virtual adapter framework that VIO servers/clients ar built on.

For virtual SCSI, you DO need a VIO server because a virtual SCSI host (vhost) adapter can only be created in a VIO server partition. A virtual SCSI client (vscsi) adapter on a VIO client partition connects to a vhost of a VIO server and "sees" hdisks (or cd/dvd devices) for every virtual target SCSI device defined on the VIO server's vhost side.

For virtual ethernet, as soon as a virtual ethernet adapter is defined for a certain VLAN number on one LPAR (AIX53, Linux, VIOS), the power5 hypervisor "builds" a virtual network switch inside its memory and other LPARs (AIX53, Linux, VIOS) can also connect to that virtual switch by having a virtual ethernet adapter defined for them for the same VLAN number.


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[khalidaaa]

Oh thank you very much DukeSSD and P5wizard for the nice info and the support.

I'm sure it will work with your guidness

I can't wait for Monday to try that! i will let you know the result by that time

Thanks again

Khalid