Re: Newbie LPAR question

Dr Hansen,

Moving the IOP/IOA or newer style Smart IOP combinations is quite easy but requires the tape device be varied off on the source partition and then varied back on when it becomes available on the target partition. This takes a few minutes. The process can be automated by running shell scripts using SSH that execute the proper move commands on the HMC. These moves can also be schedule on the HMC but of course that can run into problems if the source partition isn't ready to give up the tape drive for example.

Another option is to use fiber attached tape with a fiber card on each partition and a fiber switch. The beauty of this set up is that no switching is required.

I haven't worked with it yet but the virtual SCSI facility but I THINK that it's intended to work like the fiber setup and wouldn't require switching.

DrFranken



William A. Hansen wrote:

I've been researching LPAR, PowerVM, etc. and seem to have missed a basic concept.

Suppose you have a system with one tape device. What stops you from (or what is the disadvantage of) moving the IOA and tape drive from one partition to another as needed? If this is possible, what is the big deal about the newly announced virtual SCSI tape facility for blades (not to be confused with IBM i virtual tape)? It seems that both approaches require using the IVM or HMC to move a resource from one partition to another.

Thanks,

Bill

William A. Hansen
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Manta Technologies Inc.
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