RE: Power8 PCI slots

they are guested by VIOS.

Since you do hosting and guesting you're no stranger to this. Just VIOS
is a different wrinkle.
You've got a VIOS lpar.
Type..................Adapter Id...Server/Client Partition..Partner
Adapter
Server Fibre Channel..12...........MAIL3(3).................12
Server Fibre Channel..13...........GDI(4)...................13
Server Fibre Channel..14...........RACK3HOST(6).............14
Server Fibre Channel..15...........GDWEB3(5)................15

Then, let's look at the MAIL3 guest lpar profile.
Type..................Adapter Id...Server/Client Partition..Partner
Adapter
Client Fibre Channel..12...........VIOS_2(2)................12
You know that the adapter id numbers don't have to match, it's just the
way our BP does it.

Now I don't know the VIOS equivalent of CRTNWSD or whatever they do to
host the fiber card. That was done by our BP.
But I do know that when I created the lpars of IBM i, with autoconfig
turned on,
WRKMLBSTS
Device/
Resource Status Allocation
TAPKVL01 VARIED ON
TAP01 OPERATIONAL UNPROTECTED
TAP02 OPERATIONAL UNPROTECTED
TAP03 OPERATIONAL UNPROTECTED

Now, I did rename it from TAPMLB01 to TAPKVL01 to match our convention
here.

WRKHDWRSC *STG
Resource Type-model Status Text
CMB03 6B25-001 Operational Storage Controller
DC03 6B25-001 Operational Storage Controller
TAPMLB01 3576-05B Operational Tape Library
9=Work with resource
Resource Type-model Status Text
TAPMLB01 3576-05B Operational Tape Library
TAP03 3580-004 Operational Tape Unit
TAP02 3580-004 Operational Tape Unit
TAP01 3580-004 Operational Tape Unit
Option 7 here will tell me the serial number of each physical drive.

And everything is all buddy buddy.
You do a brms save to TAPMLB01 and it figures out which TAPxx isn't busy
and runs with it.
Fire up another save on a different lpar to TAPMLB01 and it will go to a
different TAPxx.
Only time you run into a problem is if you fire up four saves and your
switch and tape library only support 3 drives.
We have another 9U expansion loaded with 4 more drives due in any day.
(and this is our offsite backup location).

Our primary site does pretty much the same thing with a four fiber drive
3573. Only different is it is still running a FC per lpar. However,
WRKMLBSTS still shows all drives like the above. Only here you'll see
four. Again, all buddy buddy. We could do four lpars at once if one of
them wasn't hosting another. That will change and the hosting lpar will
be an IBM i lpar dedicated to hosting disk. May still use VIOS for
virtualizing ethernet and fiber.


Rob Berendt