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with Glenn Robinson and Ash Giddings
Achieving Business Value Through VIOS
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Ash GiddingsProduct Manager
HelpSystems
Today’s Presenters
Glen RobinsonPower Systems Architect
RSI Consulting
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• What Is VIOS?• Benefits of Using VIOS• Deployment Best Practices• VIOS Is Set and Forget, Right?• Some Misconceptions• The Future of VIOS• Q&A and Recap
Agenda
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What Is VIOS?
• Virtualizes physical network and storage adapters• Similar to VMware on Intel
VIOS = Virtual I/O Server
• Part of PowerVM• A superset of AIX
Just because you know AIX doesn’t mean you know VIOS . . . but it helps
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• Physical adapters are virtualized– Storage and network adapters are “owned” by the VIOS LPARs
• VIOS provides software adapters to the IBM i, AIX, and Power Linux LPARs– Can dramatically reduce the number of physical adapters required on a Power server– Provides virtual Fibre Channel, virtual SCSI, and virtual Ethernet adapters to client LPARs
• VIOS manages Logical Partition Movement– Similar to VMware vMotion– LPARs can be “moved” from one Power server to another without downtime
• VIOS manages LPAR hibernation and remote restart– An active LPAR can be hibernated and restarted later– An LPAR can be restarted on another Power server after a failure
Benefits of Using VIOS
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• VIOS manages LPAR hibernation and remote restart
– An active LPAR can be hibernated and restarted later
– An LPAR can be restarted on another Power server after a failure
• Provides a Virtual Media Repository (VMR)
– Single storage location ISO images
• These can be any install, PTF, update media from Fix Central, or an ISV
• Presented to client LPARs as a virtual DVD drive
• Similar to Image Catalog on IBM i
Benefits of Using VIOS
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• Use dual VIOS LPARs for resilience– Client LPARs have paths to storage and
network via both VIOS instances• No downtime is detected by the client
LPARs if a VIOS fails or is restarted after an update
• Use the new HMC v8 GUI to manage the VIOS resources– Easier if you are not familiar with the
VIOS command-line interface
– IBM’s intention is to make VIOS configuration “no touch”
– Even better, use PowerVC to manage your Power environment
Deployment Best Practices
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• Separate tape and storage traffic over different FC ports
• Link to AD or LDAP for user authentication
• Use the VMR on a separate disk/volume from the VIOS OS data
• Ensure that you are backing up your VIOS instances to an off-site location– This is normally an NFS share on a remote LPAR, which can be IBM i, AIX, Linux,
Windows, or a NAS
• Update your VIOS at least once a year– The whole process normally takes less that 30 minutes, which includes 5-10
minutes restart time
Deployment Best Practices
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• Use Shared Storage Pools unless absolutely necessary– Simplifies configuration of external storage and SAN switch zoning
– Similar to datastore concept in VMware
– Some LPARs may require NPIV access to the storage• Use of external storage remote mirroring capabilities
• Extreme I/O requirements
Deployment Best Practices
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• Storage is shared between 2-16 VIOS LPARs
• Creation of virtual disks for LPARs is done in VIOS
• Virtual disks can be thin or thick provisioned
• Easy deployment of new LPARs
• LPM is simplified
• It’s fast
Deployment Best Practices
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Pretty much…– Planning your system up front is key
– Once VIOS is configured, there are no real day-to-day activities
– Monitoring and performance analysis tools are available
VIOS Is Set and Forget, Right?
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• You need to be an AIX expert to install and manage VIOS– Not true as installation, configuration, and management can be done
using the HMC GUI
• My access to storage will be slower through VIOS– Really only likely in extreme I/O cases
– The data to/from the LPAR to the external storage does not pass through VIOS, only the SCSI control commands are processed by VIOS
• I need lots of memory and CPU for VIOS– In some systems this is true, but not for most
– Often, it is networking traffic passing through VIOS that determines the CPU and memory required
• IBM i host LPARs provide the same functionality as VIOS– Some but certainly not all, e.g. virtual Fibre Channel
Some Misconceptions
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• Development continues with around 2 updates per year
• SR-IOV adapters provide a replacement for virtual Ethernet adapters using virtual NICs
• There is an important difference between vETH and vNICs, especially around network performance and throughput
• Additional SR-IOV capabilities with FC adapters
• SSPv4 brings tiered shared storage pools
• Much less need for CLI access to VIOS
– Simpler implementation and configuration
The Future of VIOS
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• What Is VIOS?• Benefits of Using VIOS• Deployment Best Practices• VIOS Is Set and Forget, Right?• Some Misconceptions• The Future of VIOS
Q&A and Recap
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Website:www.helpsystems.com/halcyon
Telephone:
Presenters: [email protected]@rsipvm.com
800-328-1000+44 (0) 1733 234995
Thank you for joining us today!
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